The value of Oregon's total wine grape crop was getting close to a quarter of a billion dollars annually before the pandemic, and could well be bigger today.
Wine has become a very big business in the region, with add-on effects and dollars that go way beyond the value of the grapes.
Wines and winemakers are celebrated at the annual Oregon Wine Experience, a fundraiser in August that will be held partly in-person again this year.
The event and all it represents are the focus of this month's edition of Stories of Southern Oregon, produced by Maureen Flanagan Battistella.
She returns with Desirae MacGillivray Myers, Communications Manager for the Asante Foundation, the beneficiary of the fundraiser.