What is a Virtual Winery?

It sounds like something high-tech, right? A winery that only exists in cyberspace… or in those Occulus VR goggles? Not exactly.

Here’s the dry definition: A virtual winery is a liquor licensee (aka allowed to make booze professionally) that has a “Custom Crush” agreement with a federally bonded winery to have wine produced for them. For those of you who like seeing the receipts, here’s the official OLCC document.

Being a ‘virtual winery’ is more about paperwork than what goes into making great wine.

This ‘virtual winery’ set-up allows new wineries to get going while under the support and watchful eye of a seasoned winery owner. It also means there’s no physical winery with Burton Bittman blazoned on the side. So, we hold space in the virtual world. Maybe someday we’ll have our own space but for now, we occupy a corner of the cellars at R.Stuart & Co Winery, making wine with our community.