Carhartt Family Wines

What is a “Lot” of Wine?


What’s a lot of wine?

Well, for us dedicated wine-drinkers, the obvious answer is “more than I can drink at one time!” Yet, there is another definition commonly used in the wine business that simply refers to a particular group, set, or selection – in this case, of both grapes coming in for processing, or later in the finished wine; for example, “let’s taste our ‘lot’ of 11 Oaks Sangiovese from blocks 2 and 3.” Make sense? Here’s to tasting a LOT of wine from our many “lots” of wine at Carhartt. 

Anyways, at harvest time, our vineyard “lots” are usually measured in terms of tons to the acre depending on the vineyard’s yield, load, and a multitude of other factors, an average number would be, say, 3-6 tons to the acre. Because one of my favorite parts of harvest is a “numbers” game, we’ll begin with a Ton:

The Wine Numbers Game

1 Ton (2000 lbs.) of grapes = 150 gallons of juice (soon-to-be wine)
150 gallons = 756 bottles = 63 cases of wine
1 Ton = 2.5 barrels
1 Barrel (225 L) = 60 gallons of wine
1 Gallon = 2.3775 cases
1 Barrel = 25 cases of wine = 300 bottles

(I know that many people ask about how many grapes go into one bottle of wine – and this statistic is truly an average since cluster weights, clusters to each vine, and weight of individual grapes all make a difference. But for argument’s sake, we can estimate that about 10 clusters of grapes or approximately 600-800 grapes go into any 1 bottle.)

Again, keep in mind, these are only averages – and several variables play into the numbers game, AND, numbers can make your head spin. So when in doubt, just pour yourself a glass, kick back, and let someone else worry about the numbers!