In the late 1970s, an informal industry group called the Washington Wine Society (made up of Wade Wolfe, Bob Betz, Walt Clore, Max Benitz, Mike Wallace and others) approached the Washington State legislature for research funding. In 1981, Senator Max Benitz sponsored legislation that provided research funding through half cent per liter tax on all Washington wine sales, collected by Washington State Liquor Control Board and disbursed to Washington State University and the University of Washington. The legislation also identified an industry oversight committee made up of representatives of the Washington Wine Society. The Society was later renamed the Washington Wine Grape Advisory Board (WWGAB), and between 1982 and 1998 the WWGAB was made up of ten to twelve internally selected industry volunteer members. In response to concerns about governance and structure, the WWGAB was formalized in 1998 as a subcommittee of the Washington Wine Commission, and its name was changed to the Wine Advisory Committee (WAC). The Wine Advisory Committee provides recommendations to WSU for the expenditure of state wine and grape related research funding. (From the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers website Research page, "History" section, Accessed June 28, 2010)
Beginning in the 2000s, these reports and proposals were reviewed at an annual Wine Research Review meeting, held at the Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser, Washington.
This collection consists of proposals and progress reports for research related to the state of Washington's wine industry. Also included among these volumes is one publication from the Washington State Concord Grape Research Council, which is not part of the WAC but oversees related research on grape juice.
The collection is arranged in a single chronological sequence.
This collection is open and available for research use.
This collection is open and available for research use. Copyright restrictions apply. It should be noted that many of these publications contain front matter indicating that "proposals in this booklet contain confidential and proprietary information which is the property of Washington State University." The confidentiality requirement was intended to apply only up to the actual date of the review, and these proposals and reports are now considered public records.
[Item Description] Wine Advisory Committee Reports and Proposals, 1994-2008
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The research reports of the Washington Wine Grape Advisory Board and its successor, the Wine Advisory Committee, were transferred to Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections at the Washington State University Libraries by Sheila Brooks of WSU's Agricultural Research Center in 2010 as part of a publications file (UA 2010-05).
This collection was processed in 2010 by University Archivist Mark O'English.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.