Hello everybody and today is February 10th and on this day in 1955 the Australian golf legend, Greg Norman was born. Norman was the first golfer in PGA history to surpass $10 million in career earnings. And besides his tremendous success on the golf course, he has earned millions upon millions in other businesses including being a spokesperson for General Motors. He also has interests in MacGregor Golf, Greg Norman Golf Course Design, and you may have dined at his restaurant in North Myrtle Beach, in South Carolina .

Back in the 70’s and 80’s, while touring the states, he soaked up a lot of the American culture along with a lot of California wines. In the early 90s, Greg teamed with winemakers from Beringer Blass and launched The Greg Norman Estates Winery.

Which brings us to our Wine Word of the Day: Estate

Okay, you pick up a bottle in the store and it says “Estate” on the bottle. What does that mean? It simply means it was bottled in a state, like California or Washington.

Oh, how I wish it was that simple.

To label the wine with an estate designation it must meet several federally mandated regulations:

For instance, the grapes must come from same property where the winery is located. Or the growing of the grapes must be entirely controlled by the winery. When a bottle is labeled “estate”, the label must also list the AVA (or the American Viticultural Area) from where the grapes were grown. Both the grapes and the winery must be in this area (like Paso Robles, or Edna Valley, Napa Valley).

The wine making process (from crush to bottle) must never leave the winery property. That sounds obvious, but many wineries have multiple facilities for crushing, ageing, wine treatments, and bottling. Just like Greg Norman Estates has wineries in Australia and California and uses grapes from 17 different regions. I’m not saying that bad in any way, I’m just saying that it is highly unlikely that any of the Greg Norman Estates wines are actually “estate” wines. Does that make sense?

So that brings us to one last rule. You can have the word “estate” in your winery’s name without actually making estate wine.

For transcripts, links and more podcasts, please go to WineWordOfTheDay.com. If you have any suggestions for more words, historical facts, or tips on how I can improve my golf game to the point where I could become so famous that I could simply put my name on one of the 54 brands at Treasury Wine Estates (which may or may not have “estate” wines), please send emails to wwd@moonstonecellars.com

and until next time, Cheers to you

Also recommended by Grape Stomper Todd

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