Source for buying grapes in SF Bay area

[donshizzles]

I was wondering if anyone knew if there are any vineyards/wineries in the SF area (Napa, Sonoma, Paso Robles, etc.) that sell surplus grapes or frozen must to the public?

Looking to get back in to wine making now that I moved here and would love a few good sources for grapes.

 

[mvcrews]

For frozen grapes the only current Bay Area option is Brehm Vineyards. I ran his harvest operations for two years so I'm a little bias, but the vineyards he sources from and his personal White Salmon Vineyard are high quality. For buying fresh grapes when the time comes, you have quite a few options. Craigs List is a good place to look for surplus(on the cheap) grapes, Winebusiness.com has a lot of postings if you'll buy a 1000 pounds or more, check out each growing area's commissions website, or finally, Brehm Vineyards and my recently founded company, Vintage Reserve also sell fresh grapes locally (and we'll sell frozen grapes as soon as we have them in the fall).

Apologies for promoting myself in my first post

 

[donshizzles]

Thanks MV! No worries on the self promotion. I've usually only bought frozen must but have acquired a press and would like to begin crushing my own fresh juice. I'm wondering how many LBS of grapes one needs for a 5 gallon press?

 

[mvcrews]

I usually loosely assume that 1000 pounds of red grapes will create around 100 gallons of must. So to fill your five gallon press you'll need about 50 pounds of grapes which will result in 3-4 gallons of wine. If you're willing to pick yourself CraigsList is probably the best source for small quantities, though the market is a lot tighter this year than the past 4 years so I can't guarantee anything.

 

[Smartdog]

There are several other sources in the Bay Area. If you desire to go whole hog: http://www.calwinebroker.com/ where you even pick them yourself. Also check out some of the local wine groups such as: http://www.ccwinegroup.com/

Also check with the winerys themselves, many will sell graps or must if they have any spare (last year they didnot).

 

[mvcrews]

Have you got grapes from CalWineBroker before? I've seen his ads on craigslist and it looks like he's got access to some pretty cool old vineyards in Contra Costa...

 

[Smartdog]

The Petite Sirah (http://www.smartdogwinery.com/making_wine/episode_5.html) I did this year came through him.