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Brehm Vineyards now produces finished wine for your drinking pleasure. These wines, crafted by Peter Brehm, are fermented from the same premium and ultra-premium grapes we offer to our home winemakers as fresh or frozen grapes. Fine Wine From Fine Grapes.

For more on the story of these wines, please continue reading below.

Sales Note: Currently, we are only able to sell finished wine to residents of California, Washington and Oregon. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.

Home Wine Grapes turned into Commercial Wine

Wine grapes harvested for the home wine market were diverted into a limited production of commercial wines. A selection of grapes from California's North Coast were fermented, aged, and bottled by novice winemakers. The resulting wine is now starting to be offered for sale. The wine is an experiment to assess the value of shipping grapes to remote locations for winemaking classes and home production.

Grapes from Sonoma, Mendocino, Solano, and Contra Costa Counties were harvested in the fall of 2004. They were processed by Brehm Vineyards in the San Francisco Bay area. To allow harvesting for optimum maturity, ease of handling and storage for later fermentation, the destemmed grapes were frozen in 6 gallon plastic buckets. This process has been successfully utilized by Brehm Vineyards to serve remote clients since 1986.

Thirty-six buckets of different grape varietals were combined on pallets for economical shipping. The pails were shipped to a small vineyard / winery in Washington State. In the spring of 2005 buckets were defrosted, opened, and placed in 4' x 4' harvest bins for fermentation. The production of wine, its fermentation, cellaring, and bottling were in the hands of amateurs. Peter Brehm did oversee and guide the winemaking.

Each 36-bucket pallet provided a little over 100 gallons of wine. This volume allowed the wines to be aged in 60 gallon oak barrels, with the remainder available to compensate for over oaking and keeping the barrels full (topping up).

The wines produced represented grapes selected for value as opposed to the famous wine estates Brehm usually markets. Wines produced were mostly based on the dominant grape variety. Complimentary grapes were used to balance acid, mouth feel and appearance. The assumption being that wine made in very small quantity is usually better balanced than those harvested from a very small number of vines next to one other.

Federal labeling requirements do not allow grapes shipped from one state to a non-contiguous state to carry vintage or appellation on their labels in interstate commerce. While a common practice in Australia and other countries, it is prohibited by TTB regulations-no fault of theirs. Most states allow factual labeling within their state borders. All of these grapes were from the 2004 vintage and fermented in the spring of 2005.