Julie Tarara of the WA State Wine Commission
Photos courtesy of Julie Tarara and Melissa Hansen
Julie Tarara grew up in New England never imagining she would have a job related to wine. Her interest was in specialty crops, and she went to France as an undergraduate student to explore these crops. She also had her first exposure to wine by sipping on some French Muscadet. Julie eventually received a PhD degree in Agronomy from Kansas State University. Fresh out of graduate school, a USDA job brought her to Prosser, WA where she worked for 16 years with juice and wine grapes. When she arrived in WA state, she did not know that Chardonnay was a white wine grape. She learned quickly about wine as well as grapevines, and eventually became a viticulturalist for Ste Michelle Wine Estates and a vineyard consulting company. In November 2025, she became the Research Program Manager for the WA State Wine Commission.
In that capacity, Julie oversees the state’s wine research initiatives, helping to set research priorities and to disseminate results and action items to all industry members. As we discuss in this interview, WA’s wine research is unique in terms of how it’s funded and organized, with the bottom line being it is very much industry driven. Areas of research focus have been such things as irrigation, fungal and viral diseases, mechanization, crop load sensors, wildfire smoke, tannin management, improving aroma and flavor, and more. After discussing these areas and some research results, Julie and I talk about her view that the wine industry often makes wine overly complicated, thus inhibiting wine sales. She believes winemakers are out of touch with young people who might want to drink wine, but don’t know where to start as they stare at a sea of bottles on the shelf.
Listen to the Interview: