Wine Making Economics

In addition to being an enjoyable hobby and a great mechanism to bring people together, home wine making can be extremely economical. Numerous studies over the last few years have shown the beneficial health aspects associated with drinking 1-2 glasses of wine per day. (Drinking greater than 3 glasses of wine per day can be harmful to the health.)

To analyze the economics of making wine, lets perform a cost comparison between store- bought and homemade wine.

Cost calculations for store bought wine for one year

• A 750 ml bottle of wine contains about 4 glasses (or servings) of wine.
• Assuming you drink two glasses of wine per day, this translates into 365 / 2 = 182.5 bottles of wine a year!
• A typical bottle of wine costs about $8-$10. This translates into cost of about $1,800 per year (per person) to consume 1-2 glasses of wine per day. Obviously, drinking more expensive wines can increase the cost even further!

Cost calculations for homemade wine:

• Labor costs are free. (You provide the labor).
• The cost of making wine is highly dependent on the cost of the juice. Typically, juice costs about $5-$10 per gallon. A gallon of juice yields about five 750 ml bottles of wine. This yields a unit cost of $1-$2 per bottle (from the juice).
• Additionally costs include:
  • Corks $0.20 each (per bottle)
  • Yeast ($1.00 for five gallons, or $0.20 per bottle)
  • Other chemicals (acids, meta, tannins, campden etc..) conservatively averages a total of about $0.25 per bottle
  • Bottles (assume that you are resourceful, and collect or re-use bottles -- Free)
  • Carboy ~$15 for Five gallons. Assume that a carboy will last for 15 years, this equates to $1 per year per 5 gallons, or $.20 a gallon, or 0.04 cents a bottle)
• Adding this all up, the unit cost of is about $2-$3 per bottle.

The cost savings associated with home wine making are considerable!