Vines, trellis and netting
Vineyard structures and standing crop against defined events including fire and hail.
Vineyard And Winery Insurance
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Vineyard And Winery Insurance
Cover for wine production from vineyard through to cellar door.
A winery is two businesses under one policy. The vineyard carries frost, hail, fire and smoke exposure through the growing season, and the winery carries tank, refrigeration, stock and public liability risk once fruit is in. Wine in tank, barrel and bottle can be worth more than the buildings holding it, and cellar door adds visitors and food service to the same site.
What is it?
Australian wine operations range from a grower selling fruit in the Riverland or Riverina through to an estate crushing, maturing, bottling and selling from a cellar door in the Barossa, Coonawarra, Margaret River, the Yarra Valley, the Hunter or Tasmania. Sites combine vines, trellis and netting with crushers, presses, stainless tanks, glycol refrigeration, barrel halls and packaged stock.
What does vineyard and winery insurance cover?
Winery plant and refrigeration
Tanks, presses, glycol systems and bottling plant, including breakdown during vintage.
Wine stock and cellar door
Wine in tank, barrel and bottle plus liability for cellar door visitors and food service.
What affects the cost?
- Planted hectares and region
- Crush tonnage and tank capacity
- Value of maturing and packaged stock
- Cellar door, events and food service
- Frost, hail and bushfire exposure
Worth raising on the call
- Smoke taint is treated very differently to fire damage and is commonly excluded or tightly limited.
- Stock values swing enormously between pre-vintage and post-bottling, so declare the peak rather than the average.
- A refrigeration failure during ferment can affect a whole vintage in a day, which is why breakdown terms matter.
Claims we are commonly asked about
Glycol chiller fails during ferment
A chiller drops out on a hot night at the peak of vintage and a ferment runs away before anyone reaches it. The wine in that tank can be downgraded or lost entirely, and recovery generally depends on the breakdown and stock sections working together.
Tank drains overnight
A valve is left open during a transfer and a tank of finished wine runs to the drain before morning. Whether that is recoverable depends heavily on how the wording treats accidental loss of stock as distinct from damage caused by a defined event.
Cellar door visitor injured
A visitor slips on a wet crushpad apron during vintage and is injured while being shown through the winery. The public liability section generally responds to visitors, but tastings, food service and events are often rated and worded separately.
Worth confirming in the wording
- Worth confirming whether wine stock is valued at cost of production, wholesale or retail value, and whether that basis changes between bulk wine and packaged stock.
- Worth confirming whether excise already paid on packaged stock can be recovered when that stock is destroyed, since the excise component can be a large part of the value.
- Worth confirming whether contract crushing, storage or bottling done for other producers brings their goods into your care under the wording, and at what limit.
Common questions
Does vineyard insurance cover smoke taint?
Smoke taint is treated very differently to direct fire damage across the Australian market and is commonly excluded or tightly limited. It is worth confirming the exact position in your wording well before a fire season rather than after an event, because the answer is rarely the same as it is for fire.
How is wine stock valued when it is destroyed?
The basis of settlement is the critical detail, and it varies between cost of production, wholesale value and, occasionally, a declared value agreed at placement. Because bulk, maturing and packaged stock can be valued differently, it is worth setting the basis deliberately rather than accepting the default.
Do I need public liability for cellar door and events?
Cellar door brings the public onto a working production site, and food service, tastings and functions each add their own exposure. Public liability is generally the baseline, and venue hire agreements or event permits will often specify a minimum limit, so those requirements are worth checking before the season.
What does vineyard and winery insurance cost?
It depends on the operation and cannot be quoted sight unseen. The main drivers are planted hectares and region, crush tonnage and tank capacity, the value of maturing and packaged stock, whether there is a cellar door with events and food service, and frost, hail and bushfire exposure.
General information only. Cover, limits and exclusions depend on the PDS, TMD, eligibility, underwriting and the policy terms. See farm insurance for the wider picture.
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