What is an Estate Wine?

What is an estate wine? While you may have seen these bottles on store shelves, the actual process behind this type of bottle may surprise you.

If you have ever had the opportunity to go to a vineyard before, you may have noticed lots of grape vines growing all over the property. While this is the way that most people imagine a typical vineyard, it is not always the case. You see, many popular labels actually buy grapes from other growers, and some rent land that is used to grow their grapes upon. This brings us to the original question -- what is an estate wine?

Wines that are bottled on the vineyard property can be considered estate wines. This is an important mark given the fact that most bottles no longer come from vineyards. If you are drinking a French wine, the term “Mis En Bouteille au Domaine, Mis au Domaine, Mis en Bouteille a la Propriete, and Mis en Bouteille du Chateu” translated into roughly the same thing. Italian wines will proclaim “Imbottigliato All’origine,” and Germany wines will state “Erzeugerabfullung.” Some Californian (and other American) wines may state: “Grown, Produced and Bottle By” as a means to denote that they grew the gapes (and made the wine) on their own property.

Those bottles that say “Produced and Bottle By” refer to the fact that the winery crush, fermented, and bottle up to 75% of the wine, though they did not grow the grapes or harvest them.  If you see the term “Made and Bottle By” this simply means that the winery simply purchased the bottle. Does any of this matter? Well, that depends upon how much of a traditionalist you really are. If you believe that a vineyard only has the right to sell wines that have been produced from grapes on their property, you will not drink a wine that was made elsewhere. If you don’t care about such things, go ahead and drink what you like. So, now that you know the answer to the original question (what is an estate wine?), you can either become a traditionalist, or allow those that have no part in the actual process to prosper.

Should you have the opportunity to visit a vineyard, make sure that you take the time to go through a proper tour.  Soon enough, you will see just how much love and time goes into harvest and producing find bottles.

What is an estate wine? Well, now you know. The next time you are about to buy a bottle, take a peek at that label… you’d be surprised at how many bottles are merely purchased, not produced.