Photo by: Savannah Smith Photography
For a 5,000 case winery (producing about 60,000 bottles per year or about 12,000 gallons per year), hiring a wine consultant to make the wines you want could cost you as little as 8₵ per bottle.* Getting professional assistance doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. With a small annual investment, you have the power to turn your wine’s quality around quickly!
*Author’s Note: Obviously, if you produce more wine, that cost decreases. If you produce less wine, the cost per bottle increases a bit. Additionally, larger DGW Wine Consulting Service Packages will slightly increase the per bottle rate.
What Can Wine Consulting Do For You?
DG Winemaking uses unique, simple, and effective methods to help you produce the wines you desire. Here are a few common tasks that fall upon me as a winemaking consultant:
- Aid in wine process decision making, planning out next steps and detailing proper methods for producing a wine.
- Answering routine questions pertaining to the winemaking process.
- Interpreting analytical results. Additionally, I may help point to which analysis is recommended or required for various steps in production.
- Interpreting regulatory allowances for the winemaking process, including details pertaining to formula wine production.
- Connecting winemakers to reputable, reliable vendors.
- Providing sensory feedback for wines and making production decisions based on the sensory assessment.
- Detailing tried-and-true methods for remediating problematic wines. Every winemaker will experience wines that fall subpar in quality for him/her. Wouldn’t you like to know how to actually fix those wines prior to bottling?
- Determining formulations for formula-based wines that will provide the ultimate quality by the time the wine is packaged.
- Teach you how to improve the winemaking process at your operation. There’s no recipe or “must-have” situation with DG Winemaking. I optimize the winemaking process based on your operation and allowances.
- Improve the wine’s quality to meet your expectations, your consumers’ expectations, or prestige amongst colleagues.
- Get more organized using my pre-written tools and notes to optimize the winemaking process.
- Learn as you go! Fill in the gaps to your own winemaking knowledge without picking up “bad habits” from well-meaning colleagues who also learned on-the-fly. (Trust me, every wine region has their own series of “bad habits.”)
Everyone has different goals. Thus, I work with your goals and create regular plans to help you obtain those goals is the most straightforward way possible.
How Does DG Winemaking Work?
Once you decide to incorporate my consulting services, getting started is easy.
Photo by: Savannah Smith Photography
I will send you a Service Agreement laying out your start date, guaranteed services, and monthly pricing. You know the monthly price up front prior to signing on.
When I receive a signed Service Agreement, we pick a day and time slot to reserve for your Check-In Calls. Check-Ins are usually scheduled on Zoom and occur on the same day/time about every-other-week for most of the calendar year.
All you have to do is sign into the Check-In during your allotted time!
We discuss your wines, your goals, and move forward with each Check-In.
Following each Check-In, I provide you with a list of notes, which includes a summary of “Priorities” for you to focus on until the next time we talk. Some priorities are short-term and others may require a little bit extra work or follow-up. But the trick is here: I’m optimizing your time to make sure that whatever you are doing is in the ideal order to prioritize wine quality within your operation.
How Do I Find Out More?
Contact Denise today at info@dgwinemaking.com to get started!
For 2024, I’m offering some additional service packages:
- 4 DEMI Consulting Service Packages (this package is the one that costs about 8₵ per bottle for a 5,000 case winery, and is one of our most popular service packages!)
- 1 STANDARD Consulting Service Packages
Don’t wait until harvest! Spots are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis. Plus, signing up at the beginning of the calendar year guarantees that I can help you get the wines packaged so that you can more easily cruise through harvest season!
The views and opinions expressed through dgwinemaking.com are intended for general informational purposes only. Denise Gardner Winemaking does not assume any responsibility or liability for those winery, cidery, or alcohol-producing operations that choose to use any of the information seen here or within dgwinemaking.com.
