Wine Insurance: Protection For Your Favorite Vintner

Nov 13, 2019, 1:22 PM

Insurance isn’t something most people spend much time thinking about (except us here at Hastings Mutual, of course). When you do think about it, it’s to get your house and car protected from damage or injury. We’ve also talked about business coverage for contractors, metalworkers, and more.

There’s another kind of business that needs the special protection only an insurance policy can offer: wine. Coverage for farmers includes their equipment and crops — but wine calls for something other than tractors and combines.

There’s a need for specialized wine insurance in our six-state coverage area. According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, there are more than 350 wineries in Ohio, and more than 450 in Michigan, placing them in the top 10 wine-producing states.

Though you may not make wine yourself, you might have a favorite winery that you visit every summer, or know someone who is a vintner. Let them know about our policies and our related Vintner Plus coverage, custom-designed for the winemaking industry. Here’s a look at the highlights of Vintner Plus:

Cellar Funk

Type “cellar funk” into Google, and you’ll find a jazz album with a great name. Our coverage isn’t for music, though; it’s for wine, while it’s being made. The same nasty material that can affect your basement — fungus, rot — can contaminate a stock of wine during the manufacturing process. Our coverage applies to damage from biological or chemical contamination of wine during winemaking.

Contamination or Spoilage

Cellar funk and its unpleasant cousins aren’t the only threats to a vintner’s stock of wine. Anyone who brews beer or even bakes cookies knows that almost everything plays a role in getting the food just right: the air temperature, the quality of mixing tools and storage containers, and so much more. Our coverage applies to damage caused by a change in temperature or humidity because of equipment breakdown or power outage, or contamination by a refrigerant.

Collapse of Tanks/Cooperage

If you’re a wine connoisseur (or a botanist), you may already know this: there are many different kinds of oak trees, and their wood gives different flavors and characteristics to a barrel of wine. Wisconsin American oak apparently tastes a little like banana or coconut. And, perhaps not surprisingly, there’s a half-dozen forests in northern France that contribute wood to wine barrels, each with a different effect on the wine.

Of course, wine is also made in metal tanks and other kinds of containers. If any of your containers collapse, our coverage can help recover your costs, so you can get back to winemaking as soon as possible. Leakage from pipes or hoses is covered, too.

Unless you’re an oenologist (someone who supervises the wine production process) or sommelier (wine expert — use one of those words in your next Scrabble game!), your wine knowledge may be limited to a favorite type of wine and your preferred time to enjoy a drink. But if you’re looking for more, talk to your local independent insurance agent about Vintner Plus coverage, and Businessowners coverage for any kind of industry.

The Mutual Understanding blog and Hastings Mutual videos are made available for educational purposes only. The information referred to is not an official company statement, corporate policy, or offer of coverage. Refer to your insurance policy for specific coverage. There is no representation as to the accuracy or completeness of any information found by following any link on this site. Please contact your local independent insurance agent with further questions and for more details on any insurance policy-related information you read here.

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