It seems I'm reading about an old family winery going under every few weeks. How bad is it really?
Here are some facts found at jordanwiwnery.com, a Sonoma County family-run winery.
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| Amber & Rick Moshin, Moshin Winery Rick started a side project of growing grapes while teaching at San Jose State in 1989 |
In Sonoma and Napa Counties, there were 180 family-owned wineries in 1978.
- 36% of those are now owned by corporations, usually these are wine companies.
- 34% are still with the founding family.
- 15% are with another family.
- 14% have closed.
Notes:
- Not all corporations that buy wineries are run the same. Some allow any successful winery to operate mostly as they did before. Others take complete control, fire the existing staff, and create their own winery under the old name.
- A family-owned winery does not imply a ma-and-pa operation. There are large companies in the wine biz that are family owned like Gallo, Foley, and Jackson. There are smaller companies that maybe own a few wineries, but often the management and wine making are centralized. One Sonoma County example is Wilson Wines, a family-run group of eleven wineries with three winemakers, all making wines of similar style.
- I'm not implying that corporate wines are necessarily bad, though many are made on an industrial scale without the same care as an owner/winemaker would give. I am saying that you might consider supporting the little guy with your purchases, whether it's wine or something else.
- The number of those wineries in existence 45 years ago that have closed isn't really that high compared to many other family businesses.
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| Jerry Seps, Storybook Mountain's founder and now octogenarian recently bought himself a new tractor His daughter now does most of the winemaking |
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