Clearly, most of those studying wine currently, as well as many other wine lovers don’t believe that large wineries can be made to function as a small outfit. This is especially true when its owned by a huge corporation: for many, the fact that big entities can be made to work as small wineries, or even have an interest in doing so, is just a marketing fairy tale. However, after several years working for wineries in different countries, all of which were of different size and had different quality targets, I have developed different thoughts on the matter.
Yes, a big winery has to think in terms of huge production volumes, and hence may not have the manpower, time, energy or even strategic interest in looking after all the wines they make with the same degree of attention to detail or fastidiousness. Often, in big wine companies, winemaking and grape growing function like separate departments; in such cases, it may happen that sometimes viticulturists and winemakers cannot fully execute what they’d like to do. They then act more like a managers, concerned more with QSE (quality, safety and environment) and meeting a bottom line rather than grape growing. But many big wineries do function in such a way so as to have smaller brands that are run like small boutique wineries. Church Road in new Zealand is a case in point. Looking at all the many wines Church Road makes, these are divided into six different collections (tiers), where the range runs from the most common Church Road line of wines, to the McDonald series, the Gwen, and up to more high-end Grand Reserve; the single vineyard and single variety ONE series (Church Road 1); and the TOM series, which represents the very top tier of wines at Church Road (but are not made every year). Each collection or line of wines boasts bottlings made with several different varieties, including Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah to Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Malbec. Admittedly, not all of the wines are made to be outstanding, some may just be intended for local and foreign grocery markets, but all are made to reflect the grape variety and offer a good, well-made wine often at a very affordable cost.
While it is common for many to believe that “small is always better”, that’s just not the case. Big wineries have large extensions of vineyards from which to source grapes; and they have the technological equipment necessary to make clean, precise, highly enjoyable wines. For example, the vineyard team might even be able to call in helicopters to combat frost or diseases, something that most small wineries can only dream of. Larger wineries also have the financial backbone to hire the right amount or just enough vineyard workers to harvest vineyards exactly when it is needed, for example when poor weather is forecast and so the picking needs to be done over a very short window. Furthermore, those with only a small extension of vines really can’t afford to throw away too many of their grapes, and may be tempted to keep some that might otherwise be discarded. At bigger companies, the winemaker may have dozens of small tanks, bigger barrels, or vessels such as amphoras with which to experiment and perform micro-vinifications with grapes from different regions, subregions and vineyards, with different varieties, clones, yeasts, barrels and so on. They don’t have to worry that one year they all of a sudden have to ferment with wild yeasts not because they want to but because a machine broke down earlier that year, and replacing it ate up the small winery’s budget for cultured yeasts that the winery normally uses.
And so it is that in a big group, especially one that already has other bigger market brands, a smaller brand with which to make site-specific fine wines is looked at as a positive thing. The staff at such smaller wineries of bigger brands are allowed the freedom and, more importantly, given the resources to make the specific fine wines that the technical staff envisions making. For example, when a winery owns a large expanse of vineyards, it invariably becomes obvious to all that certain plots always perform especially well in most vintages, or that give highly distinct, wines. And so, in due course, that plot or those plots gradually become the source of individual viticultural and winemaking attention, much as it is with the many small parcels of vines that make up a Burgundy cru. And so, individual single vineyard or reserve wines are/may be born.
On the one hand, wine markets need romantic and genius-gifted stories. But on the other hand, a good research plan, experiments, verifications, and then further planning, experimentation, and analysis makes the wines better and better overall. It follows that nowadays, consumers have the luxury of being able to choose between wines from even very large producers; wines that are much higher in quality these days than in the old days, and the equivalent of many small-batch wines that are all the rage sometimes. I trust you realize this is not happening by chance.
