Notes from the Vineyard_Part 1

With the 2008 Napa Valley grape harvest and 2008 Sonoma County grape harvest winding down, I thought I'd share some fun vineyard-grape-wine facts and figures, courtesy of my friends at Nord Vineyards.

* A typical acre of vines produces about 4 tons per acre.

* A ton of grapes produces 160 gallons of wine.

* A barrel holds 59 gallons of wine, or, at 2.5 gallons per case, about 25 cases of wine.

* Thus, 4 tons makes 640 gallons of wine, which is about 250 cases per acre.

Now let's take this one step further. Say a wine has a retail price of $20 per bottle. That's $240 per case. So each acre of grapes produces a total of $60,000 worth of wine -- $240 times 250 cases. Wow!