West Coast Grapes

I bought 288 pounds of Petite Sirah grapes, and two 6-​gallon buckets of Chardonnay juice in September. The grapes were of excellent quality, and crushing them and making wine at Curds & Wine was fun and easy. The Chardonnay wasn’t ready in time for the Curds & Wine delivery day, but West Coast delivered the buckets of juice to Curds & Wine a few weeks later and they, too, were of excellent quality.

It was a great way to continue a tradition! I made wine with my father and grandfather growing up and was familiars with all of the hard work involved and the upfront expenses, needless to say I was very hesitant to start this on my own. Just bottles last night with my family and friends and happy to say that it’s been all worth it and can’t wait to do it again!
The biggest help was the support I received form the guys at West Coast right from the start, helped with selection and some of the trade offs between doing a bit of several different varieties vs. more of a few. The quality of the grapes was great, no issues. Their Cabernet sauvignon were the best, if you are a beginner to a master — you can’t go wrong. I stayed around the day that they delivered and got to try all of the grapes. Everything looked great producing a lot of juice. The West Coat owners stayed around making sure that everything was good, clear that they take pride in their grapes.
Only thing that i would have liked would have been to know where the grapes actually came from. They had northern and central listed, I figured I would go with northern, and when they arrived they all had the same label. At the end I didn’t know if everyone who ordered the less expensive grapes got a deal or if I got the short end of the deal.
One thing that I will tell you upfront, do it for the love not because you think it will be inexpensive and your own. Each 36lb case produced around 10 .750 ml of wine. Figure that you need to rent the crusher, press, pump and corker if you have the carboys. I buying from these guys again this year and doing it all at Curds and Wine in San Diego.
I didn’t talk much about Curds and Wine in San Diego, if you live in San Diego — it’s the place to get your grapes and everything else you need. Their pricing is great Nd they will help you every step of the way. You go get your grapes at the storage facility, you miss out on their service. No mater if you are a beginner or a master, Curds and Wine is the place to deal with no mater how far you live from there!

West Coast Grapes makes it very easy for a home wine maker to have fresh access to a number of varieties. You can order fresh grapes by the crate in 36lb. increments which can make for easy mix and match. There are a handful of regional delivery locations and I was fortunate to have one local in San Diego. They charge $ 30 for handling fee and it seems to be the same no matter how much you order. Last year, I bought 216lbs. of Cabernet Sauvignon and was very happy with the condition they arrived; cold, clean, and full. There was not any suspect material in the clusters so in they went to the crusher/​destemmer at Curds and Wine, San Diego. It would be nice to know specifically where the grapes come from instead of just «Northern» or «Southern». Also, the wooden plywood crates are difficult to deal with, I suppose you could re-​purpose them.

I bought 200 lbs of grapes from West Coast grapes during the 2012 harvest. The grapes were good quality, and the delivery at Curds and Wine in San Diego was easy. The grapes I received had minimal raisins and no bugs/​bees (yay! no bee stings!). This is a great option for a home winemaker who wants to make several varieties at once and get reliable quality grapes for a fair price. As a bonus, if you pick up at Curds and Wine, you can crush onsite and buy all your supplies as well. I’ll definitely be ordering again this year.