The Wine FAQ section answers your burning wine questions. Have a question? Let me know via email or Instagram. This time it's about yields .
How many kilos of grapes do you need for one bottle of wine? And what about yields? Is 55 hectoliters per hectare a lot or a little? How many grapes does one vine produce? Questions, so many questions. Le Club des Vins went in search of the answers.
On average, one bottle of wine requires 1 to 1.2 kilograms of grapes. That's about 800 grapes. Jancis Robinson calculates 1.42 kilograms of grapes per liter of wine.
What influences this number?
Obviously, several factors influence this figure. We could say it's 800 grapes, but if it rained just before harvest, those grapes are full of water, and so technically, you have a (much) higher yield.
The pressing is also an important factor. The harder you press, the more juice you get. The downside, of course, is that heavy pressing also removes the tannins and bitter flavors. Some wineries use only the "runoff," the juice that comes from the grapes without pressing, for certain wines. Logically, this requires more grapes.
Last year I visited Billecart-Salmon , and they use an average of 1.4 kilograms of grapes for a bottle. I learned then that you can lie down in a press without tearing your skin. The pressing is very gentle.
How many vines do we need for one bottle?
A difficult question, because it involves a thousand factors. It depends on the grape variety, the planting density, the age of the vine, the soil composition (and fertility), what the winegrower does to make the grapes grow well, and so on. Sunlight, heat, and rainfall also play a role.
The extremes according to Decanter
Château d'Yquem ranks at the bottom with a yield of—don't be alarmed—one glass per vine. This equates to about 9 hl/ha. This is, of course, exceptionally low, but then again, that wine is also exceptionally good. Moreover, the botrytis mold dries out the grapes completely, so it's understandable that more grapes are needed. The maximum yield according to the AOC is 25 hl/ha in Sauternes, but most chateaux have between 10 and 20.
Jancis Robinson verifies this statement with a quick calculation. Yquem's planting density is unknown, but their immediate neighbors have 7,000 vines per hectare. The yield is therefore 9 hl/ha, which is equivalent to 1.2 tons of grapes per hectare. Divide that by the planting density and you arrive at 171 grams of fruit, roughly equivalent to 0.12 liters of wine, or almost one glass (a standard glass of 125 ml).
At the other end of the spectrum, with a maximum yield per vine, is commercial bulk wine, made from grapes grown in a fertile, irrigated vineyard. The factory farming of vines: 250 hl/ha. Or even worse: Decanter even reports a yield of 24 bottles per vine. Say what?! That's 150 times more than Yquem, and I think 150 times less delicious!
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