Drawn from an other thread, there would seem to be disparity of opinion of what constitutes a winery. Is it necessary to grow one’s own fruit? Or do you have to have your own brick and mortar facility? Does case production matter? If so, what is the minimum production to be considered a winery? And probably most importantly, if the wine being made is of excellent quality, does it really add to one’s bona fides if they are considered a winery? Thanks.
I believe that the only real answer for this in the United States is that you have to have a license. Without a license one can’t sell wine.
What Makes A Wine Producing Operation A Winery?
Per the CA ABC- An 02.
This and you have to crush and produce (finished fermentation) under your license at least 201 gallons of finished wine. You don’t have to own the winery but may produce under an Alternating Proprietorship at a custom crush facility.
However, these are TTB legal qualifications. To be a “winery” in the consumers mind, you probably need to own/lease and control the facility you are working in but you don’t need to own the fruit sources . If you are an AP client in a facility you are not a “winery” in the traditional sense but a custom crush client.
IMO, need a physical presence with all the equipment to be a winery. And that’s what Webster and Oxford say.
A winery is defined by the winery owner and the winemaker (sometimes the same person, obviously). The winery owner needs a great palate and head for business & growing/sourcing fruit. The winemaker needs a great palate and head for making wine. If you have those then you’re a real winery. That’s it. Imo, anything else is a foolish distinction.
Sure you need a physical space to make the wine, and equipment and licenses/etc…but having those isn’t the essential key to being a winery…and having a particular configuration (e.g. needing your own space) might be great for some, but great wine is made lots of different ways.
Which are the qualifications.
When someone simply asks what my favorite “winery” is I do not draw a distinction between the wine making facility and the label. Whether they make the wine on their own equipment vs. a custom crush facility or with their own grapes vs. purchased grapes does not matter to me.
Myriad is my favorite winery. Unless Mike and Leah have purchased their own facility lately, they are still making it at Envy and are renting space and equipment (or whatever deal they have). I do not think this takes away from the label at all and I will continue to consider them a winery.
My favorite winery facility is Denner because it is a beautiful site. I have only visited ~40 facilities spread across three states so I am there may very well be others that are nicer.
Ray Walker knows.
I’ll have to break the bad news to Mike Smith when I see him today. He’ll be devastated. :-/
Please do it gently, thanks.
Ok, so how do I refer to my venture, and does anyone really care?
Grower (as in owns vineyard sourced from) YES
Makes call to pick - yes, alone.
Custom Crushes - take a step down the WINERY ladder - I don’t own the winery.
In control of actual fermentation in tank - no, thank god! But trust me, I am there and I know what I want.
Barreling- yes, total control. Hmmm…maybe I am a winery.
Puts together the “blends?” YES. I do seek non-winery help for that. Thanks Jim, Emily, Chris, Nolan! On deck: Joey and Michael.
Decides on filtering, bottling date…yes. Do I use help from the cellar staff? Of course! Everyone does!
Sells the stuff? Yes. Just me.
I think I am a winery. 
By my definition, you are a winery Merril. EMH is actually the reference i used in the post Michael referred to in his OP.
Thank you, Paul. But it really does not matter. Owning a vineyard is a pain in the butt, but it gives one control over a very, very important aspect of this whole thing. Unless I sell it, my source does not go away. And that is where it starts, in the vineyard.
Merrill, seeing what vineyards sell for nowadays you could easily retire by selling yours.
A lovely rift on the always reliable 6th grade English essay opening sentence! Made me all nostalgic.
In purely semantic terms a winery is a physical place where wine is made. A person or an entity can’t be a winery.
Beyond that the lexicology of the wine business is so varied, imprecise and overlapping it can mean whatever people think it means. A particular bugbear of mine is calling a winemaking business a vineyard when a vineyard is clearly a place where vines grow. But then what to call the business? Winemaker is fine, but a winemaker can also be the person who makes the wine. And so on.
Gee, I wonder why I didn’t think of that ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
!
I believe under Oregon law there are 2 different concepts. Those ITB can likely provide additional context.
A Federal TTB bonded winery, and an OLCC licensed winery. There are many more OLCC licenses given the # of cooperative arrangements.
In 2013 (the sample report I pulled up) there were 370 wineries crushing grapes and 605 with OLCC licenses.
Although those people that own vineyards and sell all their grapes I don’t think anyone would call a winery. So the farming part of the definition seems irrelevant.