Homemade vs. Commercial Wine
updated 06/16/2025
A while back an online acquaintance lamented that he could find dozens of lower priced wines that are better than his best.
I made a (hopefully) polite reply, which boils down to essentially, “Very true, you need to accept it.” This may sound rude at first, and while it is certainly blunt, it’s realistic.
Consider the resources of larger commercial wineries: they have access to very good fruit, state of the art facilities, and well educated and trained staff.
Contrast that against the typical home winemaker: we have access to whatever fruit we can get, our “facilities” are a on a shoe-string budget, and we are self-taught. It’s not possible for a home winemaker to reasonably compete against a dozen or two commercial wineries, much less the thousands that actually exist.
My point is that we will always be able to find relatively inexpensive wines that are better than what we can make. So why put in the effort? Off the top-of-my-head, my thoughts are:
- Cost. Especially with home-grown or foraged fruit, homemade wine is far cheaper. All but the top end kits produce cheaper wine. For folks on a limited budget, this is an important point.
- Control. We can make wine from any fruit (or vegetable) we want and have full control over blending, techniques, etc. We make what we want.
- DIY. Some folks have that do-it-yourself gene (yeah, I know it’s not a gene) and this fits in.
- Pride. People should do things they are proud of, for their own sake, and serving a wine we made certainly fulfills that.
- Fun. We love doing it! No further explanation of this bullet point is necessary. It’s a hobby thing that defies rational explanation.
There are other reasons, but the above cover the main points.
Winemakers (or folks who want to be winemakers) who think they’re going to compete with Chateau Petrus? Quit now. Save yourself money and angst.
Folks who see themselves in my list, or have other reasons beyond what I listed? Plow forward while keeping your expectations realistic. And keep it fun.