Why do people in Napa still do Sauv Blanc

SB sells at 20-40% of CS typically

Why would any winery keep SB grapes when planting CS would significantly increase profits, after all i cant believe that SB is that much cheaper to make than CS, why not rip out all the SB and replace with CS

TL/DR: slow dimes/fast nickles.
sb is a lot cheaper to make,usually done in stainless.other reasons include less physical space, and quicker profit- wineries can sell a vintage’s sb like 4 months after the fact. other $ reason is relative cost. sure you can sell a cab for $175, but you paid 25k for the ton of fruit, with barrels at $800 per.
if the sb sells for $40, and you paid 4k per ton. no cost for reusable SS tanks.
or, with cab you paid per acre with yields under 2 tons/acre, and your sb got you 5 tons/acre.
cab has significantly more labor costs, in the vineyard and in the winery.
im just tossing out numbers as I am now relegated to being a lowly consumer. and this is me mostly playing devil’s advocate. but yea obviously most vines are being ripped out for cab replanting.

To have a white to pour in the tasting room? I wonder the same thing. So many wineries: Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet. I’m not sure I get why some many grow Chardonnay except for my first sentence.

Napa is not one big, homogeneous place, where all locations are ideally suited to a single grape variety.

and if you’ve already planted it and don’t want to rip it out and replant and wait several years while the new vines begin producing then you don’t have to miss the cash flow for those years because you’re already making wine and selling it and people like it too but there’s Zin and Syrah here and there in Napa and I even had some Nero d’Avola, Grenache, Pinot Meunier. Heitz grows Grignolino and Carole Meredith grows Mondeuse I suspect partly because the world really doesn’t need a lot more Cab.

plus what David said

If I find it again, I try to remember to post a link here to the article that points out how planting Sauvignon Blanc at these rates can be (perhaps counterintuitively) the most profitable option.

As mentioned above, although SB is one of the least profitable varieties by the ton, it was the most profitable by the acreage, because you can produce Sauvignon Blanc of acceptable quality at much higher yields than any of the other varieties that were more profitable by the ton. IIRC, the difference to Cabernet Sauvignon was quite small, but still for the benefit of SB.

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Cash flow, diverse tasting options, higher margin, suitable sites, all mentioned above. From a tasting room/ hospitality stand point, it does help to have a lineup of different wines, and just not a bunch of Cab or Cabs.

In Piedmont there is still some Dolcetto growing in the middle of high end Barolo/Nebbiolo vineyards. Why do they do that? For the reasons above, plus as a friend of mine says “because that’s how grandpa wanted it”.

I thought it was all Fume Blanc , not SB!

Different folks, different strokes.

I was thinking of Piedmont when Alan asked this question too. Why grow friesa, arneis, dolcetto, barbera, and pelaverga when you can get the big bucks for nebbiolo? Sometimes it helps to diversify. Another thing is that different grapes ripen at different times, so you can employ pickers more efficiently if they have something to pick instead of waiting around for a crop to ripen. Many reasons.

Note that wineries located in Napa can process at most 25% of their grapes from outside Napa (I’m going by memory here, it’s 25% or so). What else they want to make, and how much, Pinot for example, might make Napa sourced Sav Blanc more viable.

Just like some people post annoying threads-because they feel like it and it makes sense to them.

Annoying to some, interesting topic to others

Just sayin?

Next question, why does SE SB fetch more than cab sauv on wine searcher ?

There are growers in Napa and Sonoma counties who are replanting to more profitable or more sought after varieties. What I’ve seen the most of is Syrah being replaced in both counties. Russian River/Sonoma Coast are being replanted in Chardonnay. Depending on location, Napa is replacing some Syrah and Zin with Cab. New plantings in Carneros are pretty much Chard and Pinot.

300 bottles produced and China.

So a Sauv Blanc is the most expensive wine made in USA !!

Why do people in Burgundy (Leroy, Coche-Dury, Roulot, Ramonet, Lafarge, d’Angerville, de Villaine, Ponsot, PYCM, and many others) still ‘do’ Aligoté?