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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The report shows a 3% overall decrease in homelessness between 2022 and 2023.
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.
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“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.
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“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.”
Former Oregon defensive tackle Jericho Johnson is reuniting with Tosh Lupoi.
Johnson, who has three years of eligibility remaining, committed to Cal on Saturday.
He is the third former UO player to follow Lupoi to Berkeley, joining safety Kingston Lopa and receiver Cooper Perry.
The 6-foot-4, 342-pound Johnson had five tackles and one pass breakup in nine games this season. He did not record a statistic while playing six snaps in two games while redshirting in 2024.
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He is the 21st of 26 UO scholarship players to transfer this offseason to commit elsewhere, joining running backs Makhi Hughes (Houston), Jay Harris (Kansas State) and Jayden Limar (Washington), cornerbacks Jahlil Florence (Missouri), Sione Laulea (Missouri) and Dakoda Fields (Oklahoma) and safeties Kingston Lopa (Cal), Solomon Davis (San Diego State) and Daylen Austin (Arizona), offensive lineman Lipe Moala (Hawaii), receivers Justius Lowe (San Diego State) and Cooper Perry (Cal), defensive linemen Tionne Gray (Notre Dame), Ashton Porter (Houston), Xadavien Sims (Arkansas) and Terrance Green (Alabama), outside linebackers Blake Purchase (Ole Miss) and Tobi Haastrup (West Virginia), quarterbacks Austin Novosad (Bowling Green) and Bryson Beaver (Georgia) and tight end Roger Saleapage (BYU).
On Saturday at 12:28 p.m. the National Weather Service issued an air stagnation advisory in effect until Thursday at 10 a.m. for Oregon Lower Treasure Valley as well as Harney, Baker and Malheur counties.
The weather service states to prepare for, “An extended period of stagnant air, with light winds and little vertical mixing. This is due to an inversion near the surface that will continue to trap pollutants.”
“Poor air quality may cause issues for people with respiratory problems,” states the weather service. “Persons with respiratory illness should follow their physicians advice for dealing with high levels of air pollution during periods of stagnant air.”
The quarterback position is one that the Oregon Ducks are constantly trying to stay ahead of. Five of their last seven starters have gone on to start at the next level, and they are expected to make it six of their last eight next year when Dante Moore enters the draft.
The Ducks were thought to have his replacement locked down in 2026 recruit Bryson Beaver, but he decided to enter the transfer portal after Moore announced his return. Time will tell if he made the right decision, because the guy who would have been his mentor used the 2024 season to learn behind Dillon Gabriel, and we see how well that worked out for him.
However, patience is a lost art in college football today, and Beaver wants to go to a school where he has a chance to play. It was revealed earlier today that he has committed to the Georgia Bulldogs for next season.
Georgia has been one of the premier college programs for what seems like forever, but they haven’t always developed great quarterbacks. The last NFL starter they produced was Matthew Stafford 18 years ago, so this is a bit of a puzzling decision for Beaver. It will be a difficult replacement for the Ducks to make, but luckily they have more than a year to secure the future of the position.
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