Archives for March 2012

The only way to talk about pricing vineyard land and not go crazy is to make some broad assumptions about the price per acre for established vineyard and plantable raw land. However, it is a very rare parcel that has only vineyard. Most parcels have houses or house sites or other improvements that complicate the

Evaluating a country or a vineyard property – planted or unplanted – is a little complicated – because the properties involved are usually complicated. The goal is to understand exactly what you are buying so that we can value the property correctly and so that there are no surprises after the close of escrow. We

Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love Round Up Help is available to wine grape growers from a wide variety of professions. It is important, especially early in vineyard ownership, that you have advice you can trust and which is consistent with the way you want to farm. Because in the end, all

The skinny on wine grape prices in Sonoma County I went to an interesting seminar the other day where they laid out the “mechanics” of wine and grape pricing. Here goes. The retailer marks up a bottle of wine about 1.5 times. The distributor marks up the bottle of wine about 1.33 times. And the

The infrastructure of a working vineyard If you enjoy the mechanics of a vineyard, then here are the gory details about some of the major elements of a vineyard Grape Vines Since the only family of grapes (vitus) capable of making fine wine (vinifera) – is susceptible to a variety of diseases native to North

Financial considerations of vineyard ownership What are the basic financial implications of vineyard ownership? I’ve tried to outline the basics here, but the information here is no substitute for the advice of a good lawyer and accountant. Before actually purchasing any vineyard property, we urge you to consult a professional. If you need the name

The rest of this section was written before the subprime market collapse and although still technically true, the ‘mixed use’ lenders mentioned below were all technically subprime lenders – loans not resellable to FannyMae or FreddyMac – and they have all run for cover. As far as we can tell, first deeds of trust on

View an interactive satellite map of Sonoma County vineyards on WineMap.org.  

What do you mean when you say “winery?” We get a lot of people coming to us saying the want a winery, and the first thing we have to do is find out what they are really interested in. The term winery can mean a lot of things. A “label” This is a legal brand