Factory Wineries!

Factory Wineries!

What in the world is a Factory Winery? With this Blog, we’ll tell you what they are and how to avoid them!

Factory wineries are popping up everywhere in America. Cities and towns that never had a winery before are, overnight, the recipients of one or two or more. Many of these new Factory wineries are getting fabulous subsidies from the local taxpayers and governments. So, just what is the wine consumer getting for their hard earned money? Answer…very little or nothing!

A Factory winery has an Achilles Heel.  There’s a Federal Law on the books that requires every winery in America to tell us how their wines are created. A Factory winery will usually print it in tiny script on their back label. If you see the words…”Bottled, Produced & Bottled or Vinted & Bottled” it’s a Factory winery. Just one or two words is the trademark of a Factory winery. What’s missing is the word…”GROWN”!!

                       

Factory wineries “Source” most of their inventory in the form of juices and concentrates from ‘off-site’ suppliers. Some of their inventory may come from America, but much does not. They bring it into their Factory winery, mix & blend it, match a color chart, filter it, add made up flavors of ‘hints & notes’, bottle it and offer it to the wine consumer. Most will never tell us from where they “Sourced” their inventory or that their wines are “Filtered”. Filtered wines have a heritage of about 85 years and a shelf life of between 2 to 4 years (for comparison, see UNFILTERED , below).

Even though our landfills are filling up with used and empty wine bottles (4 Billion a Year), these Factory wineries refuse to recycle/repurpose their empty wine bottles. Each time they bottle they are using brand new wine bottles from China, Mexico, or Italy.

So, Green Winer, what’s our alternative, we love wines!

Fortunately, we do have an alternative. Look for wines and wineries that produce wines that state the following on their labels:

1  1.)    GROWN, PRODUCED, VINTED & BOTTLED (Produced, Vinted & Bottled can be OK if they are using whole Fresh fruits & Vegetables from a local farm. Ask questions.)

    2.)    UNFILTERED (these are the ONLY wines that continue to get better with age. They have NO end-time! Their heritage extends back into time over 8,000 years!)

    3.)    The word ‘NATURAL’ on any fruit or vegetable wine (this tells us that that winery is making their fruit wines from whole fresh fruits. Absent the word Natural and the wines are made from juices & concentrates.

If you have one of these wineries in your neighborhood that is producing their wine to these highest standards, please buy their wines and tell them that the “Green Winer” says Thank you!!

So, until we meet, again…..”Salute & Happy Days”!