The Low-Yield Philosophy

It’s no secret in winemaking that there is a simple formula for producing high quality wine -

High Quality Grapes = High Quality Wine

There are a few ways to accomplish growing High-Quality Grapes, but the one constant across the winegrowing world is -

Low Yielding Grape Vines = High Quality Fruit

Simply put, the less fruit a grapevine carries during its growing season produces grapes with higher levels of phenolic ripeness and richer, denser flavor profiles.

This has been our philosophy since we began grape growing and winemaking in 1981 and it has without a doubt, produced wines that were unheard of in the Texas wine industry before.

Grape Growing to Bottle Conversion

As you can see in the chart, the clusters per vine (or Tons/Acre) have an inverse relationship to wine quality and wine cost. The fewer clusters per vine, the higher quality the fruit, the better the wine.

At Inwood Estates, we start around 30 clusters per vine and work our way down. That means that our baseline quality level, produces about a $50 per bottle wine. Comparatively speaking, this is true no matter what region a wine comes from. Napa, Sonoma, France, Spain, etc. all have similar outputs resulting in similar qualities of wine. This is essential to our identity and crucial to our winemaking philosophy.

See more info below:
Science and Nature Part 3
Science and Nature Part 4