How far do wineries routinely ship grapes to make wine???

What is “interesting” about Washington winemaking is that many wineries are located in and around Seattle, even located on islands in the Puget Sound (Andrew Will)

Non-estate Washington wine is par for the course and shipping the grapes hundreds of miles is a big part of the equation as are many other factors in the beautiful PNW.

What is the norm industry wide for grape trucking etc…

What’s the furthest grapes are shipped??

What’s optimum in this regard for grapes or more difficult to quantify (the juice)??

Cheers

The furthest is probably half-way across the country.
Sometimes it’s as actual grapes themselves, sometimes it’s as juice.
Gruet sources most of their grapes/juice from WashState. Don’t know if it’s as grapes (unlikely), as juice (more likely), or as frmted wine (most likely),
to put the bubbles in it in Albq.
I know of some CO and KS wineries who source grapes from Calif.
And, of course, during prohibition, grapes were shipped all the way by rail to the EastCoast for home winemakers.
Tom

I know that at least two wineries in Indiana that have in the past shipped juice and/or must from California and Washington. I not aware of either of them having shipped grapes.

Amigoni, a winery in Kansas City, sources their grapes from Paso Robles.

Farthest- Mendocino to Arizona. We put a small amount of SO2 in each macro bin and then shipped the fruit in a refrigerator truck.

Most common within California I’d say many folks try not to ship more than two hours truck time. Both for cost and fruit freshness.

Aren’t there at least 2 labels making wine in Brooklyn from CA grapes?

https://bkwinery.com/vineyard-urban-winery

I recall a Napa winemaker moving to Brooklyn a a while back, just can’t recall the name, but I think he used to make wine from CA grapes?

There are certainly NJ wineries using CA grapes and/or juice.

Millbrook in the Hudson Valley used to use CA fruit for some of its wines. I don’t know if that was grapes or juice, though.

Quite a few Virginia wines use CA grapes. The winemakers have told me that is to meet demand since they don’t have enough estate or other local grapes to meet the demand. In some cases, the wine are branded differently than the regular winery wines.

lots of interesting info, fun stuff

thank you

Gray, I think that fact is simply driven by population proximity. If these wineries could get the tourist traffic at the same levels over in Central and Eastern Washington, they’d do it in a heartbeat. Hell, rent would sure be lower! Many less-enthusiastic wine fans (compared to we Berserkers) simply aren’t willing to drive for 3 hours+ from Seattle to taste and buy wine, but they’re certainly willing to drive 30 minutes NE to Woodinville.

I believe many of them crush and “make” the raw wine near the areas where the grapes are grown and then truck the juice to age it in barrels (or the like) or bottle here around Seattle at their tasting rooms and wineries.

There are growers here who ship grapes to Japan.

We have shipped grapes from lake county to Paso area. No straight way there. We were willing to so2 them but they did not require it

I am going to take a stab at a micro-picture of premium Napa Valley fruit. tops 45 minutes to a winery that makes premium wine from premium fruit.

Definitely done. I’m not impressed with the results. They almost always get prunish and over-ripe tasting. Certainly, the grapes have passed the time of best practices by the time they get across the country.

yes, so that may be the best “most time” in transit, possibly

interesting stuff business wise at how far you go for fruit

obviously shipping the juice is different but once the juice is made well who knows??

cheers

Chateau Musar ships from the Bekaa Valley one hour over mountainous roads to Ghazir, about ten miles north of Beirut. Maybe not the longest trip, but certainly not the safest.

Well, we didn’t discuss quality, just the source :slight_smile:

I can’t imagine any serious vineyard wanting to ship its fruit that far, and then wine making talent is not really in Brooklyn, is it, save for Bob Foley who uses Long Island fruit AFAIK. There is a winery in Las Vegas I visited a few years ago on the day some of the fruit arrived from CA “vineyards”, seedless grapes (I tasted some out of curiosity).

crazy stuff

yes QUALITY is the question for this shipping of grapes (maybe juice) thing that I really first was impressed with in Washington, and in a good way

where is the truth in this gig?

cheers