Farmers seek ways to nurture wine industry
By Mike Rutledge Enquirer staff writer
CAMP SPRINGS - As thousands of newly planted grape vines slowly grow in Northern Kentucky soil, the area's young wine industry is raising the idea of putting a tax on every bottle of wine sold in the state to help promote Kentucky wines.
"Some of the other wine-producing states actually have a surcharge that's on every bottle of wine sold" regardless of where the wine was produced, said Larry Leap of the Northern Kentucky Vintners & Grape Growers Association.
"That goes into the grape council's budget, that's used to promote and market that state's wines," he said.
"That is certainly being considered as a proposal from the Kentucky Grape & Wine Council," said Dewayne Ingram, chairman of the University of Kentucky's horticulture department. "That is exactly the way neighboring states have funded technical education research and support for their wine and grape industries.
"That's true in Indiana, I know; it's true in Ohio," Ingram said. "Various states do it different ways."
Gov. Ernie Fletcher's office has no position on the tax proposal, said spokesman Mike Goins.
"That's not something that anyone has discussed with us," Goins said. "And our thought is certainly if the legislature wants to take a look at it, we'd be willing to track it and obviously take a look at it.
"But we just believe that's more of a legislative issue for them," Goins said.
State Rep. Tom McKee, D-Cynthiana, who chaired the Interim Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources recently and heard Leap's pitch, declined to comment on that issue.
"A new tax would probably have to go before Appropriations and Revenue," McKee said.
But he said he sees promise in grape-growing: "Vineyards offer some possibility of a farmer diversifying his operation."
Northern Kentuckians this spring planted more than 12,000 grape vines, which Campbell County agriculture extension agent David Koester said will make grapes the area's top fruit crop when they start producing in three years.
This week, established vines were benefiting from cool evenings, and so far grapes the size of peas are hanging from them on area hillsides
Leap offered other recommendations to lawmakers:
"We believe the state should be broken down into grape-growing regions, and each of these regions should be given representation" on the governor-appointed Grape & Wine Council, Leap said.
"There's nobody from western Kentucky, there's nobody from Northern Kentucky ... it's all based out of the Lexington/Louisville region," Leap said.
Leap argues that Kentucky would benefit from legislation allowing creation of cooperative wineries, like the ones in Oregon and California, which let multiple companies share facilities and equipment to make wine. "This is done in California and Oregon all the time," Leap said.
His group proposes a statewide quality seal program, like the one recently started in Northern Kentucky, that judges wines for quality and taste, to help consumers.
"Part of the problem we're going to have is a lot of guys are starting out wineries, and they don't have a lot of money," he said. "They don't have the right equipment, and minimal knowledge. They get a wine out there, and it's not that good, and basically it makes the Kentucky wine industry look bad."
He also requested incentives for wholesalers and retailers to distribute and carry Kentucky wines.
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