A winemaking cooperative is an agricultural cooperative which is involved in winemaking, and which in a similar way to other cooperatives is owned by its members.[1] The members in a winemaking cooperative are usually vineyard owners, who deliver grapes to the cooperative, which is involved in production of wine from the grapes and the subsequent marketing activities.
Winemaking cooperatives are responsible for a significant proportion of the total wine production in many major wine-producing countries, including most of the classical European wine countries, but their importance varies much between different wine regions within these countries. Cooperatives tend to be more important in regions where the wine’s selling price is relatively low and average size of vineyard holdings is small.[1]
While some winemaking cooperatives were established in the 19th century, the majority were established in the early 1930s following the Great Depression.
- ^ a b Jancis Robinson, ed. (2006). "Co-operatives". Oxford Companion to Wine (Third ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 197–198. ISBN 0-19-860990-6.