PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – It is peak harvest season for vineyards in the Willamette Valley but the wine industry is facing many challenges this year, including wine sales being down across the board. Now, some wineries are making adjustments.

According to the Oregon Wine Board, vineyards planted more than 2,000 more acres of grapes than they did in the previous year. But they also pointed out wine sales have consistently gone down since 2019. Now wineries have had to get creative on how they make money.

“It’s hard,” Kim Kolb the director of operations at Oak Knoll Winery said, “it’s really hard to try and get people to come out, I mean there were only two people who have been in here today.”

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While some days have been slower than others at the Oak Knoll Winery in Hillsboro, Kolb says they have started taking different approaches in attracting folks to their tasting room.

“We do a lot of things here at the winery, we do events, we are doing anything we can to bring people in the door and do wine sales,” Kolb said.

Oak Knoll is one of Oregon’s oldest wineries, opening back in 1970. Kolb said over the years the way people enjoy wine has changed and they are trying to keep up.

“When we do events we sell out, when we do concerts we sell out, we do bingo and wine, we sell out, so people are coming to the events. It’s more the wine tastings they are not doing anymore. They are just looking for something fun to do,” Kolb said.

Even by adding concerts and bingo nights to bring in more customers, they have had to make some major cuts in production.

“This year we cut our pinot gris, we’ve cut our Niagara production, we are looking to  continue to cut that we have cut production way back,” Kolb explained, “That Niagara production is going to have to go down because we are not selling 34,000 cases a year now we are down to like 10,000.”

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Kolb says their whole sale is what has gone down the most and that could be due to the market being over-saturated.

“It’s hard to get the wine in the market because there are so many wineries out there, so everyone is feeling it. So wine sales are not as good anymore so we try to get people out here and even that is a little bit down as well so we would like to see more.” Kolb said.

Just 20 years ago there were only 215 wineries in the state, now there are more than 1,200. So now with lower sales and tasting rooms not being as busy, Kolb has also had to cut back on staff.

“During summer we usually have 2 or 3 people working the tasting room. But, we have been doing one person and a half shift this summer.” Kolb said. “I think all tasting rooms are feeling it, they are just not busy like they used to be which is hurting.”

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The Oregon State football team had one of their toughest nights of the 2024 season yet this past Saturday, dropping a 42-37 result at Nevada. Quarterback Gevani McCoy struggled throughout, throwing four interceptions and one touchdown.

Now, the 4-2 Beavers will look to rebound with a home date against UNLV this Saturday. Head coach Trent Bray spoke with the media on Monday about what his team needs to do make the most of that opportunity. Watch the full presser below.

NOTES

-On the defensive performance against Nevada: “We got to be more disciplined and detailed in run fits.”
-New UNLV quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams presents a strong challenge because of his mobility (325 rushing yards on 48 carries).

-McCoy is “absolutely” still the starting quarterback.”
-No official update on running back Jam Griffin’s injury

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The Oregon Ducks beat the Ohio State Buckeyes 32-31 in the first top-three matchup in Autzen Stadium’s history. In such a tight game with such high stakes, every single penalty and decision by the officials is being heavily scrutinized now that the game has ended.

On third down in the third quarter, Ohio State’s defense was flagged for a pass interference penalty that should have given the Ducks offense an automatic first down and pushed them into Buckeyes territory.

However, the officials also penalized the Oregon offense for having an ineligible player downfield, causing the penalties to offset. Upon further review, it appears that the referees misread the Ducks formation.

In fact, the officials announced that the penalty on Oregon wide receiver Tez Johnson, yet Johnson was not even on the field for that play. The incorrect call wiped out an obvious pass interference on Ohio State.

On the Buckeyes’ final drive of the game, wide receiver Jeremiah Smith was flagged for offensive pass interference after pushing off of his defender to create separation. Ohio State coach Ryan Day spoke to reporters about that specific penalty.

“We did a great job of getting down the field and continuing to fight, but the one play there…(defensive back) is grabbing on Jeremiah Smith; Jeremiah is fighting there. They called that flag there and that cost us, but it shouldn’t come down to one play,” Day said. “I’ve said that before. We want to leave no doubt. I felt like we should have done that tonight and we did not. So, then we put it in the hands of a call, and you don’t get it. That’s on us. We should never have let it come down to that.”

The flag on Smith pushed Ohio State out of field goal range, and the clock did not stop after the offensive penalty. With less than 30 seconds left in the game, the Oregon defense only needed a few more stops.

On the final play of the game, Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard scrambled for 12 yards back into field goal range, but he did not slide with enough time to call a timeout.

Online, Buckeyes fans have argued that there was one second remaining when Howard began to slide, and the officials should have granted Ohio State its final timeout of the game. However, Howard failed to pick up a first down which kept the clock running and did not allow enough time for the officials to notice Day signaling for a timeout.

On Ohio State’s first play of the drive, Oregon linebacker Jeffrey Bassa might have intercepted Howard’s pass intended for tight end Will Kacmarek, but the referees did not review the play. The Ohio State tight end never seemed to have control of the ball while going to the ground, and Bassa eventually came up with the ball.

While no officiating crew is ever perfect, Saturday night’s referees seemed to make a few questionable calls that affected both sides. Should Oregon and Ohio State meet for a rematch in the Big Ten Championship Game, a lot of eyes will be on the officiating crew as well as both teams.

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