An Important Word About Grapes

As we all know, grapes, and their juices, are natural products grown in vineyards throughout the world. They all exhibit unique qualities reflecting the immediate environment they grew in. This is referred to as ‘terrior’ in the language of grape growers. We at M&M Wine Grape Co. strive to offer to our valued customers the finest quality grapes and juices we can obtain from various grape growing regions of the globe. Our prices to you reflect the growing region’s rates to us as well as shipping to our facilities. Select (premium) regions/growers can and do demand higher prices than value priced vineyards due to the demand for their produce. Often the grape load per acre is significantly less than lower priced fruit, the grapes may be hand harvested, and packaging is meticulous with little or no material other grapes (MOG). Prices of all grapes are often established long before the grapes are mature and ready for harvest. In all cases the grapes are the product of the land. As such there are good vintages and better vintages. As a simple example compare the price disparity of a box of Napa cabernet sauvignon to a similar box from the Central Valley. They will both produce a quality wine in the hands of a skilled winemaker, but one will most likely offer more depth of character than the other.

The quality of the wine produced is to a very large extent dependent upon the skill of the wine maker and how well he/she can work with a vintage-driven natural product and draw out all the positive qualities inherent in the grape. Each vintage presents a different combination of factors thus challenging the wine maker to work with what Mother Nature has offered. It depends upon what the wine maker is trying to create and his/hers skill in extracting the desired sensory characteristic of the grape. As the old wine maker’s adage states, ‘you can make good wine from good grapes, you can make poor wine from good grapes, but you can never make good wine from poor grapes’. Appropriate adjustments to musts, i.e. sugar and acidity, is expected in almost all cases. We at M&M Wine Grape encourage our wine making customers to strive for the very best wine they can make by taking advantage of modern wine making techniques available. We offer whatever assistance you may deem helpful to bring forth a wine you will be proud to serve at your dinner table and entertaining functions.

Robert Herold
Winemaking Consultant for M&M Wine Grape