Oregon's commercial wine industry, adapting to a recessionary economy with changes to sales and distribution efforts, has nearly doubled its contribution to the state's economy over the past five years, according to a new report due out today.

The total economic impact in Oregon related directly or indirectly to wine topped $2.7 billion last year, according to the report conducted by Berkeley, Calif.-based Full Glass Research.

A similar study, released in 2006, set the same figure at $1.4 billion.

"I'd expected to see growth, even fairly significant growth," said Christian Miller, who conducted the study. "But I was surprised at how strong that growth really was. Given the economy we've been through, it's pretty remarkable."

The study establishes Oregon's wine-grape crop as the state's leading value-added agricultural segment, he said. Given recent plunges in sales and production of commodities such as grass seed and nursery products, wine grapes also are emerging as one of the state's more stable crops.

Wine-industry leaders, noting that land-use issues related to wineries were a hot topic at the legislative session that just wrapped up, say they don't plan to let the study languish on a shelf.

"This certainly demonstrates the importance of the wine industry to our economy," said Sam Tannahill, chairman of the

"Hopefully, it will help the government take notice of the impact we have."

The study's key findings traced the improvements Oregon's 418 commercial wineries have made in bolstering out-of-state sales and sales made directly to consumers through wine clubs, the Internet and on-premise tasting rooms.

The 2006 study cited weaknesses in those channels as reasons why Oregon was managing to sell only about 40 percent of its production to out-of-state buyers.

National sales have increased 94 percent since 2006, according to the study, while sales made directly to consumers rose by 133 percent over the same period.

Byron Dooley's Seven of Hearts and Luminous Hills labels in Carlton are examples of newer brands that have made marketing inroads by focusing on direct-to-consumer sales. Dooley, who saw consolidation among distributors squeezing out start-up wineries, said 70 percent of his sales are now direct through his wine club, tasting room, website and futures.

"I still view a certain percentage of distributed sales as being critical for brand awareness," Dooley said. "But most of my sales are driven by a strategy of keeping a good direct relationship with customers."

Wine-related tourism, while still lagging behind viticultural hot spots such as California and Washington, has also made important gains, the study found.

"Wine is a significant destination driver," said Todd Davidson, CEO of the

He said research shows that 43 percent of Oregon visitors said they are more, or much more, likely to buy Oregon products than before their trip to the state.

The study, commissioned by the Oregon Wine Board and based on information from more than 20 public and private agencies, found that wine-related jobs in Oregon totaled at least 13,518 in 2010, with corresponding wages topping $382 million.

It also found that, while the Willamette Valley still remains the epicenter of winemaking in the state, areas such as the Columbia River Gorge and Southern Oregon are continuing to grow by double digits annually in terms of sales and total production.

The study also took into account the fact that Oregonians buy a significant amount of wine produced elsewhere in the country and internationally. Yet despite having only a 14 percent share of all retail wine sales, Oregon's home industry in 2010 generated 38 percent of the in-state revenue, 46 percent of the wages and 48 percent of the jobs that are related to wine's total economic impact in the state.

Kurt Wittman, an executive with

, a major wine-industry lender, said the study's findings correlate with what he is seeing in the quarterly financial reports flowing to his desk from industry clients.

"A lot of Oregon producers responded to the recession by saying, we're going to do what we can to control our situation," he said. "They've beefed up tasting rooms, created wine clubs and are doing all they can to grab more of that retail dollar."

--