The Next Big Thing: Virtual Wineries

The future of wine is connection — between winemakers and the land, winemakers and consumers. The future of wine is freedom — freedom from brand restrictions and expensive facilities; the freedom to experience new grapes and wine styles. The future of wine depends on the return of the artisanal craft of winemaking and the unique experience of sharing your wine experiences with friends. The future of wine is all this and more...

Virtual wineries have been around for nearly two decades, so declaring them “the next big thing” may at first seem like a bit of a stretch. The real innovation is not the fact that producers are moving to virtual wineries (that is, producing wine at off-site, shared facilities), but, rather, the role these wineries are playing in the continued greening of the wine business. Individual growers are exploring every nook and cranny of their properties in search of a better, more earth-friendly way of making wine. For many, the inevitable realization is that the most earth-friendly winery really has no winery at all.

Co-operatives have long been popular in European winemaking, but a facility that pumps out a region’s juice for hundreds, if not thousands, of growers is not the model of the future. The modern version is a much smaller facility, designed to accommodate a handful of growers producing serious labels where sharing, and ultimately conserving, precious resources is all part of the measure of the wine.

The virtual winery is the perfect answer for so many who see the folly of paving another hectare, erecting another structure, importing another press and bottling line and otherwise expending significant resources to make cases of wine when it is not necessary.

Kim Crawford established one of New Zealand’s first virtual wineries nearly 15 years ago. The office of Kim Crawford Wines was located in Auckland; the grapes were sourced from growers across the islands; and the wine itself was made at a handful of other wineries who had excess space available. With no name, estate or tangible vineyard site, the wines were simply called Kim Crawford.

More recently, in the heart of Napa Valley, California, The Napa Wine Company is cruising along, with some 60 odd virtuosos that turn out a little more than a million bottles each year, or roughly 1,400 cases each. The shared resources and facilities allow dedicated winemakers to cut costs while sparing no expense in terms of the quality of the wine. As famed consulting winemaker Heidi Barrett explains, “Napa Wine Company’s staff and equipment gives me maximum flexibility over the entire winemaking, aging and bottling process. They allow me to showcase my client’s fruit without the risk of owning and running a winery.”

Further south, in Lompoc, California, some 20 wineries hang out in a non-descript industrial park nicknamed the Lompoc Wine Ghetto. The units are easy to customize and sharing is the watchword. If you need a pump or barrel, a forklift or just a pair of extra hands to get the bottling done, the fellow ghetto denizens are there to help out. Several wines sourced from vineyards in Sonoma’s Santa Rita Hills appellation are produced on-site, including labels Palmina, Fiddlehead, Flying Goat, La Vie, Sea Smoke and Brewer Clifton.

While the trend of virtual wineries has developed real roots in other countries, it remains on the brink as the next big thing in Canada. Canada would be fertile ground for virtual wineries, with limited sites and resources, and a relatively small base of vineyards and skilled winemakers.

Perhaps the best local example of the quality and craftsmanship that can be produced in a virtual set-up is Sandhill Winery, winner of the Wine Access 2009 Canadian Wine Awards Winery of the Year. Sandhill produces a collection of single vineyard wines sourced from several different sites — some owned, some leased. The fruit is crushed and the final wines produced in Kelowna, at the historic downtown Peller property. The Winery of the Year has no physical winery, and yet, within this structure winemaker Howard Soon has been able to produce several of the country’s best wines.

From crushing to fermenting, winemaking, tank storage, barrel storage, lab work, packaging and compliance, it is difficult to argue the efficiency of a virtual winery cooperative. The additional environmental benefits only serve to further establish virtual wineries as the green trend of the future.