A few of my friends in Marin and Sonoma County have sizable yards with actual acreage. Rather than just let their dogs run free to compost the land, they’ve chosen another way to enjoy their spacious property… planting wine grapes.
Some do it for fun. Some do it for profit. All do it so they have bragging rights with their friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances that they have a winery in their backyard. It’s called “Vineyard Living.”
You don’t need much land and you can make some money to offset the upkeep costs. According to an article in the New York Times, one person with a 20-acre lot in Livermore near the Wente Winery –– California’s oldest, continuously operated winery — earns “an annual fee of $1,000 an acre for the fruit, along with 20 cases of Merlot” from the local winery that harvests and tends his Cabernet grapes.