Room for small winery w/ Microbrewery attitude?

[TheGreatHambino]

Hello all,

I hope I've posted this in the right place. It didn't seem to fit any one forum perfectly. Looking for feedback from beer and wine people alike.

My family owns and operates a small vineyard in Colorado. Traditionally, we've sold grapes at the end of the season as part of a custom crush and de-stem business.

We've now gone through the necessary permitting to start a small winery. Our issue (if you can call it that), is that we're primarily beer people. We love and appreciate making and drinking wine, but are also avid home brewers. What we love about craft beer and home brewing is the willingness to experiment and push boundaries. We also love that there is a customer base willing to support craft beer experimentation, myself included. Whiskey barrel aged sour? Yes please. Cinnamon-almond winter warmer? Mmmm, that sounds good-I'll have that.


My question to the masses at homebrewtalk is whether you think the wine industry and customer base would tolerate a small "craft winery" that embraces the experimental spirit of a microbrewery?

We respect the tradition of a perfect merlot, just as a beer drinker respects the balance and tradition of a trappist trippel. That didn't stop brewers in America from creating Belgian IPA's. In that same spirit, do you believe there is room/demand for a whiskey barrel aged cab sauv? A subtle red chile cab franc? A lightly dry hopped syrah?

We don't want to be a novelty. We want to create quality wine with a spin. What do you think? Can that business model survive?

 

[Jorb]

I don't drink a lot of wine so for me it would be a novelty to get something different. I'd like to try a hopped syrah though.

 

[b-boy]

Why not. I think alcohol is an open market now.

There are flavored spirits (marshmallow-flavored vodka??), super-premium spirits, beers that are more wine-like than beer like (Yes - I'm talking to you Dogfish Head), and there's a huge market for wine coolers and flavored malt beverages. I think creating a niche like this is a great idea. I don't know if you'd be marketing to the traditional wine crowd though. I think younger people would be into it (I'm not a younger person, so take that with a grain of salt). I think they are the ones drivng the beer market in the direction it's been going, so why not try to jump on the bandwagon.

 

[helibrewer]

The further away you get from the folks out here in Napa and Sonoma, I think the more successful this could become. Why not also get yourselves going with a small brewhouse and encourage your wine crowd to experiment with beer flavors also....right there side-by-side. I would love to move to Colorado so let me know if you would like some help

 

[Rhumbline]

I think it could certainly work. It sounds like you've already got some of the big hurdles cleared.

I would think that your chances of success would be improved by a web presence. You'd be reaching a wider audience and since you're offering a niche product it seems like a smart move. I'd also recommend a strong social media presence.

Free tastings are great advertising. If there are some decent hotels in your area offer a few cases for them to use during the evening wine and cheese parties. Even better, go there and do the serving yourself.

Good luck.

 

[b-boy]

Wow - the more I think about lightly-hopped wine, the better it sounds. I'd love to try something like that.

Not sure how the bourbon would work. I only mixed bourbon and wine once, and I've regretted it for the last 30 years. I still get a twinge everytime I take a sip of red wine.

 

[ktblunden]

"Traditional" wine drinkers will scoff at the idea, but I think there's definitely a market for offbeat wines. I would definitely give it a try and I think a lot of craft brew enthusiasts would. It all depends on your local market.

 

[Calichusetts]

Don't know how well hops will hold up with aged beers...and clarity might be an issue but I'm sure you know what your doing over there.

I'd also get into a small-scale brewery co-op if you could. A lot of breweries are aging beer in different wine barrels now too. Not saying they are the greatest but that would give your beers a distinction just like your wine.

 

[Xpertskir]

Most of the people who drink wine buy **** so as long as you market it well you can probably sell it.

Personally the only room I have for experimentation in my wine drinking is interesting blends.


Blending aside, Wine is all about grape/juice quality and the winemaker not screwing them up. As a homebrewer I 100% believe I am capable of making beer as good or better than the pro's(I have the same exact ingredients), as a winemaker I have 0 chance of making wine as good as what I buy because I don't have access to the good grapes.

 

[TheGreatHambino]

Why not also get yourselves going with a small brewhouse and encourage your wine crowd to experiment with beer flavors also....right there side-by-side. I would love to move to Colorado so let me know if you would like some help

Funny that you mention that. We're looking at options for a nano system. We'd most likely be looking for a 3 BBL system or less. We own a small warehouse/big garage that could house the winery and brewery and a tasting room. Our only issue might be the legality. We're looking into all possibilities but the state may not allow the two to share facilities. Fingers crossed!

 

[TheGreatHambino]

Wow - the more I think about lightly-hopped wine, the better it sounds. I'd love to try something like that.

Not sure how the bourbon would work. I only mixed bourbon and wine once, and I've regretted it for the last 30 years. I still get a twinge everytime I take a sip of red wine.

Haha. I hear what you're saying about mixing wine and liquor.

We've got some test white wines going with various dry hopping varieties and amounts. So far the results are encouraging. Buy a cheap bottle and dump a few pellets in, wait a week and see what you think.

 

[Mongrel]

I've had some really good dry hopped ciders, but haven't seen any of the local wineries try it.

 

[jrgtr42]

I would think at the least it would be fascinating to experiment. Whether or not it would be a commercial success would be a different situation.
In my experience, most wine people are too... traditional to drink that. They are too interested in Parker or Wine Spectator ratings and what they mean to go outside the box. As are most winemakers. And for that matter, Parker and Wine Spectator will only give high ratings to those wines that come closest to some imaginary perfect wine from hundreds of years ago. They won't give those high ratings to experiments.
That said, 30 - 35 years ago, beer was in the same place. Beer drinkers were not interested in flavors and nuance, they just wanted a most unoffensive alcohol delivery system.
Then a couple guys named Ken Grossman, Jim Koch and Fritz Maytag decided that beer that actually tasted like something was interesting and mght sell.
My whole point is that what we now take for granted now in the beer world was once as out to lunch sounding as hopped chardonnay or cab aged in bourbon barrels.
I would say, to at least make the experiments, see what comes out of it. You may find that there is no interested in such things, and the experiments are an utter failure anyway. That said, you may turn wine on it's ear. Go for it!!!!