In 1989, when the Journal of Business first published a comprehensive story on the Spokane-area wine industry, two local businessmen talked about opening what would become a fifth winery here.

That winery, the Livingstone Winery, later became Caterina Winery, which survives today, but one of the other wineries in business then, Worden's Washington Winery, is gone now. Still, 16 wineries here are planning to participate in the annual Mother's Day Spring Barrel Tasting next weekend.

The wine industry here was eight years old in 1989, and white wines dominated production. Red wines made up just 25 percent of the wine bottled at Arbor Crest Wine Cellars Inc., but Arbor Crest has shifted production to 60 percent red, winemaker Jim van Loben Sells says. Less than 10 percent of Latah Creek Wine Cellars' 1988 production was in red wines, but the winery said it would make more red wine if there was a market for it. Later, along came the news that the wine- and butter-loving French had less heart disease than Americans. Latah Creek has increased its production of red wines and is about to introduce four more.

Something in red wine—resveratrol, or flavonoids, or nonflavonoids—is good for your heart, and research has indicated red wine reduced heart disease and diabetes in laboratory mice, although you'd have to drink 100 to 1,000 bottles of red wine a day to get as much of it as the mice did, the Mayo Clinic says. Another study said some researchers believe resveratrol in red wine is of more benefit than resveratrol in pills. Sometimes you've got to pick your study. I like that one.

I think the wine industry is a good one for our local economy. The industry uses an agricultural crop—wine grapes—and Washington state is good at growing wine grapes. The industry relies on brain power, in the expertise of its grape growers and winemakers. The product generates high value: Wine magazines often say the hard costs in a bottle of wine are far lower than the prices at which wines usually sell.

The market is growing. In a recent Wine/Vineyard Market Snapshot, Northwest Farm Credit Services says the U.S. is fast becoming the No. 1 wine market in the world, even though consumption was off a bit last year. The report included some worrisome regional statistics, namely that the 2009 wine grape harvest in Washington state was up 7.6 percent, but the average price for grapes was down 4 percent. The oversupply in Oregon was even worse, but most industries take a few steps back during a recession.

In a recent interview, Mike Conway, co-owner of Latah Creek, told our reporter that it would be hard to start a winery today and accomplish the kind of broad distribution that Latah Creek after launching 28 years ago. Overbluff Cellars, of Spokane, will release its first wines during the Barrel Tasting, but is trying to do something else—namely, succeed with limited distribution of a tightly controlled small production. Winemaker and co-owner John Caudill says he has studied winemaking with great dedication.

Overbluff is a bootstrap operation, and with the high ratings some other small Spokane wineries have gotten for their reds, maybe one of our local wine industry's strengths is in putting out really good vintages. Economic development leaders here often are looking for industries to support and promote, and maybe the wine industry would be a good one. It seems like everybody is making wine—like former Journal reporter Marlene Feist and partners, commercially, and our news assistant, Kim Frlan and her husband, as a hobby.

Maybe the French have less heart disease because they walk more than we do, but I like the theory in my preferred study—that the resveratrol works best when you get it in the wine.