{"id":7030217,"date":"2026-08-06T13:17:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T13:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/the-little-family-winery-oenogreek\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T13:17:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T13:17:27","slug":"the-little-family-winery-oenogreek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7030217","title":{"rendered":"The little family winery \u2013 OenoGreek"},"content":{"rendered":"


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There is something magical about wine. The excitement any oenophile gets when trying a new wine is indescribable. You can tell from the first sniff, that this wine has been made with love, persistence and lots of hard work. The truth is, no sane person would ever choose to cultivate vines. But whoever said a person in love is not crazy, has clearly never fallen in love.<\/p>\n

Wine is a very diversified industry. It consists of thousands of businesses all around the world, from the high altitudes of Mendoza, to the smallest Greek islands. Of course, there are giant companies, who treat wine like a commodity, and big family wineries that have been making wine for many centuries, but for the most part, wine is a small family business. <\/p>\n

In family businesses, everyone chips in to get the job done. There is no 9-5 timeline, after which you leave work and forget everything about it. In a family business, work is your life. The producers may have to work in the vineyards in the morning, bottle wine in the afternoon and then having to look relaxed at a wine-tasting in the evening.<\/p>\n

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This family has purchased a semi-abandoned property in Northern Rhone. They are slowly restoring themselves the old roman terraces and planting new vineyards! Photo taken on 28 October 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Wine is romance. This is why having to sell it in order to survive is a secondary concern to many producers, with quality being of the upmost importance. However, many of those adventurous winemakers, blinded by their love of wine, rarely take into consideration the business aspect of running a winery.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, many generations may be involved, giving rise to conflicts about the right way to run the business. But in reality, there is no business to run. There is no proper cost logging. Bottles are priced mainly on the fixed costs, those that are easy to spot: bottle and labeling costs, grape costs especially when buying grapes, electricity, tax, extra workers. \u201cLet\u2019s just add a little bit more for our work\u201d, the family says. But there isn\u2019t really a payslip for the ones who do all the work. They get what\u2019s left over. But margins are small. Sometimes they even have to endure losses.<\/p>\n

Lost in all the wine magic,\u00a0 it is easy to forget that wineries are businesses too. It is not right for someone to be a slave of his own product. To work day and night and struggle to bring food on the table.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s all about the grapes. From Champagne, 4 September 2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Someone may say the issue lies with the consumers, who are unwilling to pay higher prices for wine. I disagree. The core of the problem lies with the producer. A lower level of education of most producers of the older generations in the traditional vitivinicultural areas doesn\u2019t help with understanding the functioning of a business. In my opinion though, the producers love what they\u2019re doing so much, that they feel bad charging for it.<\/p>\n

The dynamics of the wine industry are built on the producers\u2019 forgetfulness to get paid. On one hand this makes unique wines affordable, but on the other hand it discourages the younger generation to follow this path, seeing first-hand the hard work with no returns their family is going through. Producers should demand for themselves what they deserve. A salary.<\/p>\n

Until next time,<\/p>\n

Evmorfia<\/p>\n

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