[grapeman]

Wade created the subforum, but no posts here yet so I made this one for the topic to show up. Now all we need is to fill in a bunch of stuff.

I will comment here some as I get time as I took the route over the last few years.

[grapeman]

So you have some place to begin, here is a link to a packet you can get from the Federal Government at the TTB. It will give you a small idea of what to begin with.
http://www.ttb.gov/applications/index.shtml

The whole process involves working with the TTB, your local jurisdiction and your state. Therefore the process will be different from one winery to another. If you want to apply, don't wait until the last minute. In NY the whole process can take from 6 moths to a couple years.

[UBB]

Do you employ enough people to harvest your grapes or do you solicit volunteers. I know some wineries in our area count mostly on volunteers to bring the grapes in?

[Julie]

So Rich, if I want to open an winery to sell the wines that I am making and bottling, I need to fill out the Winery/Taxpaid Wine Bottling House?

[grapeman]

Hey Julie, I'm by no means an expert on any of this, but you will need some sort of permit to do that. You can call them and hope they can tell you the proper route. It took me months of digging to figure out the route I needed to take. Every state and municipality is different and it all depends on your business plan and structure. Here in NY we need to get the TTB permits first before we can submit to the state, but that varies.

[grapeman]

UBB I do almost all the work myself. I get my boys to help pick sometimes. Eventually I will need a few pickers and at that time I may see if I can get some of the Jamaican apple pickers that are employed around here. They are employed and housed by growers that harvest hundreds or thousands of acres a year.

[Julie]

Thanks, my husband, Mike, thinks we should seriously look into this for when we retire as. I guess I should contact the state and see what they say. I'm glad this thread was started. I will post what I find out what PA wants from us.

[Wade E]

Julie, I looked somewhat into here in Ct. and to sell any wine I made I had to have a certain amount of the fruit grown on my property. I never git any further then that but maybe someday!

[grapeman]

Most states don't care about how much or little you grow, unless you call it a farm winery. Then you need to at least run a "farm" which means you need to generate a certain amount of income from the business. Here in NY we can only use grapes or juice grown in NY for us to use the farm winery classification which has lower bond and tax rates than a regular commercial license. With it we are allowed to make up to 150,000 gallons of wine a year- no danger of that here!

[Wade E]

I know there are a few places around lik e Brew on premise places that can sell the wine they make from kits. That would be a damn good deal. I think High Gravity Brewing just did this a month ago.