Do You Care If Your Winemaker Grows Their Own Fruit?

It seems to me that as a consumer, a strong case could be made that the only thing that really matters is what is in the bottle. Do you place any importance on wines made by grower-vintners as opposed to wines made with purchased fruit?

nope.

Don’t care.

I don’t think painters need to grind their own colors or weave their own canvases, either.

(Then there’s Jeff Koons… …)

no.

Definitely.

Quality control from beginning to end.


George

Since 95% my favorite wines come from vineyards that the producers do not own, this is not an issue to me. I enjoy multiple producers made from many of the “top” vineyards and what matters is that the vineyard is properly farmed - in some cases farmed to the specification of the winemaker but not always.

I assume Beckstoffer prunes To Kalon and Dr. Crane somewhat similar for whomever buys the fruit; it will be curious if Gaps Crown does things differently now that it is controlled by KB with respect to its offerings to third-party producers.

After the grapes are picked, what the winemakers do with the fruit is far more important to me. A taste-boggling event I once attended was Fiddlefest. We tried about 15 different producers, one after the other, who all had the same vintage and same vineyard (Fiddlestix), but different winemaking approaches. I understand there is a similar tasting for To Kalon producers - I’d love an invitation to that one!

No, it doesn’t matter for me. Tell me that Kutch, Copain and Carlisle are all suffering in some way with quality because none of these guys own their own fruit, that McDougall, Kiser and Atoosa’s (Papa’s Block) vineyards could taste better if these wineries above owned these key plots.

I want a winemaker to be a winemaker not necessarily a farmer as well. Extra stress involved IYAM.

(channeling Ken Vastola)

Note that perhaps the best wine that Bruno Giacosa ever made – and one of the all time great wines – the 1989 Barolo Riserva Collina Rionda was made from purchased grapes (as were the other great vintages of Collina Rionda).

-Ben

Do I care? I suppose.

Does it matter? Not that much since the winemakers I follow who purchase fruit, buy it from growers who do a good job growing good fruit.

Of course: quality in, quality out.
Wouldn’t you rather know who is involved in the process from the beginning? Just like people like to buy meat/fish/vegetables/etc. from the folks who raise or harvest them.

As a “consumer” the only thing you care about is cost, so purchase the cheapest product you can find…2-buck Chuck will do the trick.

The consumer path is the road to hell.

Many consumers care about the quality of a product, as well as the cost. Fantastic quality at a price people cannot afford does not help anyone.

Do I care if my chef has a ranch/garden/dairy?
No. Results, value. That’s all I’m interested in.
It is a thought-provoking question, however. Now that I think about it, almost all of my favorite producers own no, or very few, vineyards.

With the ready availability of premium foodstuff from around the world, the farm to table crapola is largely marketing.

This may be one of the most myopic responses posted here, as David pointed out.

In Louisiana, many bottles of local wine (anything vinifera-based, essentially) is sourced from California. I would rather drink a locally grown Blanc du Bois than a Lodi Cab.

As far as California wineries, it does seem to be a good thing if the winemaker has some input on how the grapevines are handled by their source vineyards. I don’t expect them to be involved in all day to day operations in the vineyard, however.

Nope. If I like the wine-maker’s work, I trust him/her to source good fruit.

I certainly won’t say no to Fourrier or Leroy’s negociant bourgognes. I’m just as happy with Ted Lemon’s wine from sourced fruit such as Mays Canyon as I am with his estate grown Haven wine. Kelley Fox’s wines sourced from the Maresh vineyard might be even better for my palate than Jim Arterberry’s estate wine from that vineyard. Makes no difference at all that she hasn’t grown that fruit.

Nope. Most of the wineries I really like and buy from usually purchase fruit. And I am more than happy with the quality of their wines. They wouldn’t buy the grapes if they weren’t satisfied with the quality they were getting.

Kelley does a good portion of the farming in her blocks. Probably everything but pruning I would guess and she may do that.