If you're reading this, there's a decent chance you've looked at a vineyard listing. A few acres in Sonoma, maybe, or a farmhouse with vines in Burgundy. You priced the land, the equipment, the crew, the permits and the years before the first good vintage — and you closed the tab.
I started SplitVineyards for that moment. Not to talk anyone out of the dream, but because the part of it that matters most — making the calls that decide what a wine becomes — shouldn't require moving to wine country or taking on a farm.
What we actually do
We lease people vines at working vineyards. The winery's crew farms them and the winery's cellar makes the wine. You make the decisions that shape it — when to pick, how much new oak, where the blend lands — and the wine those vines make is yours. You never own the land. I'd rather say that plainly up front, because the honest version is the better one.
There are two ways in. A Block Commission is your own block for three vintages or more: every call is yours alone and your name goes on the label. A Crew is the shared version — a share of one lot, from five vines, for a single vintage, with the calls decided by vote among a small group.
Most of us drink wine the way you'd read a book from the last page. We wanted a way to read it from the first.
Why the winemaker sets the options
The first question every serious drinker asks is whether a group of amateurs can ruin good wine. Here, by design, they can't. At every fork the winemaker lays out choices they'd stand behind, explains what each one does to the wine, and the Crew chooses among them. You learn the craft one decision at a time without ever putting the bottle at risk.
Why you won't see the winery's name
Listings lead with the place and the wine — the climate, the soil, the vessel, the price and yield per vine — and hold back the producer's name until you commit or visit. Good estates won't publicly advertise spare vines, and anonymity is how they can take part. That puts the trust on us: before anything is listed, we visit the vineyard, meet the winemaker and taste past vintages.
What we promise
We'll publish what we know and say what we don't. A whole-block deposit is fully refundable until you sign the lease. And if the wine you make is good, we'll help you enter it in blind competitions alongside the famous names — where the judges have no idea it came from ten vines.
Most of all, we'll keep the work with the people who do it every day, so the part left for you is the part you came for. If that sounds like the vineyard you priced out, I'd love for you to make a vintage with us.
— The founder, SplitVineyards
Written by
Split Vineyards
Published October 6, 2026
