Things to Know and Questions to Ask When Visiting Wineries!

(Provided as a Customer Service by BHV)

Things to Know and Questions to Ask when Visiting Wineries!

Congratulations on your decision to visit wineries. We understand your enthusiasm and excitement! After all, we are blessed to be at one every day!

Before embarking on your winery trip, it’s important that you have an idea of what to expect and what questions to ask of the wineries. To begin, we’ll start with what you can expect.

Most wineries, today, are factories. Some are small factories and some are very large factories. Rather than grow all the grapes and/or fruits for their labeled wines, most factory wineries “source” their inventory in the form of juices and concentrates. In America, today, there are only about 30% of our wineries that are growing anything. As you drive up to the winery, you should expect to see some grapes and/or fruits growing near the tasting building. Just like you, wineries understand psychology and fulfill your expectations with “show vines”. 

Today, most wineries charge you a fee for the privilege of tasting their wines. Some wineries credit this fee to the cost of your wine purchase, while others do not. It’s best to check with them before showing up at their door. You should expect all wineries to follow all the applicable laws that are related to alcohol consumption. In Florida, the legal drinking age is 21 years.

After entering the wine tasting building and before tasting any of their wines, you should ask to see a labeled bottle of each of the wines that you will be tasting. By Federal Law, every winery in America must tell you HOW their wines are made.  This information is usually listed on the back label in tiny print. The “Holy Grail” of wine making will list four words…”GROWN, PRODUCED, VINTED & BOTTLED”! When you see these four words on any wineries wine bottle label, you should become very excited! That winery is upholding the tradition of wine making at the highest standard. 

Remember, however, most wineries in America are simply factories. They aren’t growing anything. They are ‘sourcing’ the juices and concentrates for their wines. The hallmark of a factory winery will only be one or two words. Usually they will read… “Bottled”, “Produced & Bottled” or “Vinted & Bottled”. Notice that the word “GROWN” is missing??

If you have determined that this is a factory winery the next question that you should ask is…”Where are you ‘sourcing’ the juices and concentrates for your wines”? You have a right to an answer to this question. If the winery answers your question, then you can make an informed decision on whether to taste their wines, or not. If the winery cannot or refuses to answer this question, you should leave immediately!

We are throwing 4 Billion used/empty wine bottles into America’s landfills every year, because most American factory wineries refuse to recycle/repurpose their own wine bottles. You should expect every winery that you visit to accept the return of their own empty wine bottles, including those that are shipped. Please ask this question up front. (NOTE: BHV is the Greenest Winery in America and uses 100% recycled/repurposed wine bottles. We’ve repurposed over 100,000 wine bottles in the last 18 months).

Lastly, but not least, you should look for the words “UNFILTERED WINE” on the label. This is telling you that you are getting a wine that is made to be the best that it can be. Only wines that are labeled ‘Unfiltered’ insure you that your wine is made to age properly. Unfiltered wines have NO end time and will get better year after year! You may have to recork in about 20 years. ‘Filtered’ wines have No longevity build into their wines and are only good for about 2 to 4 years! One easy way for you to tell the difference is to look at the neck of the wine bottle. If that wine bottle was sealed with ‘Wax” then it’s most certainly an “Unfiltered” wine. If it has plastic or aluminum foil on the neck it’s a ‘Filtered’ wine.

We hope that the above customer service information helps level the playing field between you and the wineries.

Thank you…BHV

The Green Winer!