anyone know about starting a winery?

Question

iam into making homemade wine and want to get a license so i can make it and sell it to make some money rather than personal consumtion. does anyone know how to go about this??

Answer 1

if anyone on YA claims to know how to do something so very very complicated (even just legally), run as far away from them as you can

you should visit a winery in your state and try to chat up the proprietor, if they are available, all the bureaucracy varies from state to state, but you are definitely going to have to start doing some research online, there is no short easy way to do it (and thus no simple quick answer in this format)

you may even try the forum at winepress.us, but that is primarily hobbyists

please know though that a winery is a good way to LOSE money rather than MAKE money. whatever you do, don't grow anything in your area that doesn't belong there, like anything that doesn't have to be sprayed to death with fungicides in the arid california climate will have to be sprayed on the east coast (for example) and thus you have no value to offer over a (most likely less expensive) california wine. please grow something native to your area, even if it's muscadines. it will require the less pollution of the enviroment (and the wine itself).

don't rely on tourist novelty if you can't actually create genuine value, and more often than not, wineries outside the west coast have to rely on novelty

Answer 2

I don't know personally but here is a helpful link:

http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/pbfiles/PB1688.pdf