Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/62409
GRAPE GRO WING QSEE US AT UNIFIED, BOOTH #1002 For How Many Years Has Your Family or Company Grown Winegrapes Commercially? More than 40 years 11.8% Up to 10 Years 34.1% Between 21 and 40 years 21.2% ElectroSteam_June08 4/8/08 2:40 PM Page 1 Between 11 and 20 years 32.6% Source: Wines & Vines that 23% of the total vineyard acres are farmed by the 88% of the growers in the database that farm less than 100 acres. That means that the 12% of "big" growers manage 77% of the total vine- yard acres. These results have some important ramifications. First, since the small growers farm only about a quarter of the acreage, the practices they are implementing affect a relatively small area. On the other hand, on a landscape level, what those big farmers are doing is very important because they are responsible for three- quarters of the vineyard acres. So if big means unsustainable, we have a problem. What is sustainable? At this point in the discussion it is worth getting more specific about what "sustainable viticulture" means—both on big and small farms. I have already mentioned that one of the challenges 100 120 20 40 60 80 0 QSEE US AT UNIFIED, BOOTH #539 146 Wines & Vines JAnUARY 2012 Up to 25% 26%-50% Percentage of Income from Winegrapes 51%-75% 75%-100% Source: Wines & Vines What Percentage of Your Family's (or Company's) Income Comes From Grapegrowing? Number of Growers Responding 0 20 40 60 80 100