Hunter Valley Wineries

A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, bottling lines, laboratories, and large expanses of tanks known as tank farms.

Purpose

Wineries typically employ winemakers to produce various wines from grapes by following the winemaking process. This process involves the fermentation of fruit, as well as blending and aging of the juice. The grapes may be from vineyards owned by the winery or may be bought in from other locations. Many wineries also give tours and have cellar doors or tasting rooms where customers can taste wines before they make a purchase.


Types and locations

While most people associate wineries with large winemaking regions such as Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley in California or the legendary wine regions of Italy, wineries can be found nearly everywhere. Wineries do not have to be located adjacent to vineyards; grapes can be shipped anywhere. In addition, people make wine out of other fruits and plants (dandelion wine, apple wine, strawberry wine), so these specialty wineries tend to pop up where the other substances are grown. For example, in Maui, there is a pineapple winery.


Farm wineries

In recent years many states in the United States have created a new class of winery license, the farm winery, to allow farms to produce and sell wines on site. Farm wineries differ from commercial wineries in that the fruit which is the source of the wine is usually produced on the farm, and the final product is also sold on the farm. States such as New York have given a special permit to open a satellite store in a tourist area. With New York's passing of the Farm Winery Law of 1976 an example was set for many other states to pass similar laws.

Farm wineries are usually at a much smaller scale than commercial ones. Farm wineries may produce distinctive and very high quality wines. There are highly competitive contests by which wineries can establish prestige by winning in their categories. Farm wineries are a form of value added marketing, also known as agritourism, for farmers who may otherwise be struggling to show a profit.