September harvest- securing grapes

[bellmtbbq]

I was going to post this in the wine from grapes section, but there's much more activity here.


I see several online vendors who sell premium, vineyard designated grape juice and must. Of course, more and more premium wine kits are showing up with attached regions (Red Mountain, WA, Marlborough, NZ, Lodi, CA, etc)

I was interested in securing several lugs of grapes this year, but not particularly interested in the "mystery-meat" California grapes.. In the past, I've found that they seem like watery, commodity grapes than anything of quality.


Have any of you secured fruit from specific AVAs or vineyards in the past? I guess the biggest question is how do you ship 100-200# of grapes? Freight? And how do you convince small producers to go to the trouble of selling to small buyers?


In the past, I've loved some Cabs from sub-AVAs like Howell Mountain and Spring Mountain... Also I'd consider making a Pinot Noir from the North Coast/Mendocino/Russian River Valley.


Any ideas appreciated, sans a 5000 mile road trip.


-TF

 

[Boatboy24]

Where are you located?

Harford Vineyard, north of Baltimore, offers grapes from a few different AVAs in California.

 

[novalou]

I was going to post this in the wine from grapes section, but there's much more activity here.

I see several online vendors who sell premium, vineyard designated grape juice and must. Of course, more and more premium wine kits are showing up with attached regions (Red Mountain, WA, Marlborough, NZ, Lodi, CA, etc)

I was interested in securing several lugs of grapes this year, but not particularly interested in the "mystery-meat" California grapes.. In the past, I've found that they seem like watery, commodity grapes than anything of quality.

Have any of you secured fruit from specific AVAs or vineyards in the past? I guess the biggest question is how do you ship 100-200# of grapes? Freight? And how do you convince small producers to go to the trouble of selling to small buyers?

In the past, I've loved some Cabs from sub-AVAs like Howell Mountain and Spring Mountain... Also I'd consider making a Pinot Noir from the North Coast/Mendocino/Russian River Valley.

Any ideas appreciated, sans a 5000 mile road trip.

-TF

You need to find a good local distributor. A group of us buy 1000lbs and that is considered a "small" shipment. We actually piggyback with others to fill a truck.

 

[bellmtbbq]

Hmm.. Harford Vineyard is interesting, not specific vineyards but they give you the AVAs. I love working with Old Vine Zin but I'm concerned of what their definition of "Old Vine" is considered


I'm still a little surprised with the pricing per a lug but I need to get it out of my mind that I used to pay 80-90 cents per pound per ton for North Coast grapes.