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That’s destemming and sorting.
All of the pumps, the climate-
controlled, stainless-steel tanks
for fermentation, and then space
for barrel storage for the aging
process,” said Baker. “Different
clients have different stylistic
visions, but we really provide
everything necessary to prepare a
wine for bottling, and then we also
are able to facilitate the bottling
and packaging for clients.”
By sharing the expenses associated
with winemaking, Baker says the process
becomes more affordable for everyone. “We
essentially piggyback on each other’s orders,”
he explained. “For example, if I wanted to
buy bottles, capsules, corks, labels, and I
went to these companies to source this sort
of stuff, and I’m buying 500 of this and 1,000
of that, you can imagine that that’s pretty low
economies of scale, and it’s really expensive.”
But by combining orders, the price per
winery goes down. “We kind of achieve some
economies of scale together,” he said.
Seven licensed wineries currently produce
wine at Maryland Wine Cellars. Baker
says that someone who wanted to try out
winemaking could do so for an investment of
a few thousand dollars rather than millions.
“We already have the facility. We already
have the equipment. There’s already a half
dozen wineries that are sharing in making use
of this equipment, so effectively
a prospective new wine business
would just be using a little slice of
excess of existing infrastructure,”
he said.
Baker says that some wine
companies have started out using
his custom crush services as a
less-risky testing ground and then
moved on to purchase their own
equipment. Others choose to stay
with the cooperative model.
Whether a new wine turns out
to be a success or a failure, Baker
believes that utilizing alternating
proprietorships is a sound
approach for anyone just getting
started in the business.
“Rather than spend a million
dollars out of the gate to figure it
out,” he said, “why wouldn’t you,
at a very set fee, create a product,
focus on your brand, develop
a market, and then spend the
money once you know you have
worked out all of the details?”
MWP
P H O T O S C O U R T E S Y O F M A R Y L A N D W I N E C E L L A R S
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