
The Mathematics of Grapes
Have you ever wondered how many bottles of wine are produced by a grapevine? Well, each vineyard and each varietal is different. For example, some vineyards produce up to 8 tons to the acres, and some varietals produce more gallons per ton of grapes (Syrah produces more, and Cabernet produces less). At Montemaggiore, we focus on quality, so our yields are much smaller in order to produce more intense flavors in the wine. So here's the math for Montemaggiore:
Our 10-acre vineyard produces 2 tons/acre
⇒Thus 20 tons of grapes on average
We extract ~150 gallons of wine per ton of grapes
⇒Or 3000 gallons of wine
1 750ml wine bottle = 0.2 gallons
⇒So Montemaggiore produces 15,000 bottles of wine
Since we have about 12,000 vines
⇒The answer is: 1¼ bottles of wine per vine
We expect 2005 to be a reasonably average year, thus we expect to harvest abut 20 tons of grapes, and produce about 1,250 cases of wine from that. In two years, when we bottle the wine, you can check our math!