What Makes Estate Wines Worth Splurging On?

If you’ve ever looked through a winery’s portfolio, you’ve likely noticed that some bottles have a label indicating they are “estate” wines. It’s an important piece of information that can mean different things based on where the wine is from and can help you make better choices about the bottles that ultimately end up on your dinner table. Here’s what you need to know about the labeling distinction and how it can help you sip a better glass of wine tonight. 

What is an estate wine?

Put simply, a label that bears the term “estate wine” indicates that the wine in your bottle was produced using grapes grown on-site. This means that the winery whose name is on the label owns the vineyard.

“Having the term ‘estate’ on a label usually conveys to the buyer that the wine is treated with a certain special level of care, beginning with the farming of the grapes all the way up to the finished and packaged wine. If someone owns both the grapes and the processing facility on their property, one would assume that they would have taken extra special care to provide a premium product,” explains Seth Dunagen, wine director at Helen restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama. 

What’s the difference between estate wines and estate bottled wines?

Estate-bottled is a term regulated by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), which states that “100% of the wine came from grapes grown on land owned or controlled by the winery, and both the winery and the vineyard must be located within the boundaries of the labeled viticultural area. The winery must crush and ferment the grapes, and finish, age, process, and bottle the wine in a continuous process on its premises (the wine at no time having left the premises of the bottling winery). Wine labeled as estate bottled must meet the requirements for using a viticultural area as the appellation of origin and be labeled with that viticultural area."

Why are estate wines usually more expensive?

Estate wines tend to be more expensive because growing grapes, maintaining land, and farming are labor- and cost-intensive processes.

“It takes so much money to be a completely on-site winery, and we, the consumer, pay for that estate label in every way,” notes Leonara Varvoutis, general manager and sommelier at Coltivare. “However, we are also paying for beauty, passion, and excellence. These bottles are an intimate piece of someone’s life that they are putting on display where the winemaker’s worth is literally calculated to a price. The estate label is supposed to be the best of the best of what a winery produces — its truest wine from place and person.”  

Need a little more help understanding wine labels? Read our handy guide on what to look for the next time you’re perusing the aisles for your next bottle.