Winery Insurance

We’re just starting to shop around for winery insurance which would include liquor liability. Anybody have thoughts on the better companies or the ones to stay away from? How important is it to have the same insurance company covering the farm and winery?..Thank you, Gary

Our agent is very good (and he’s very professional) - Joe Sucatre at Vantreo in Santa Rosa. If interested pm me for contact info.

Gary- If possible, consolidate your vineyard and winery operation with the same underwriter. This way, if you’re ever to have a claim that’s ambiguous as to which side of your business it concerns, you’ll prevent an issue of impropriety, where 2 carriers each point at “the other guy” to cover the loss.

At my previous job, we worked with Malloy, Imrie & Vasconi from St. Helena - we were wine retailers but they seemed to know their way around the wine/insurance world.

Wish I could tell you more about insurance, but there slight mention of the topic sends me to sleep.

I did not do a big comparison shopping thing, but Brooke has done a fine job for us and was suggested by others in the Biz.

Her details:

Brooke L. Dunton, CIC
Wine Valley Insurance Services, Inc.
2017 Redwood Rd.
Napa, CA 94558

Office: 707.226.8604
Fax: 707.226.8564
Toll Free: 800.493.8604
Brooke@wvinsure.com

Let me know if you compare and find something better.

Thank you for the replies. I can appreciate the suggestion to keep vineyard & winery insurance under the same company. That was suggested by our prospect first agent(Nationwide) as well. He seems to know something about the business as he covers a couple of small farm wineries and a few fruit orchards. We are reaching out to a couple of other independent agents that carry Chubb and Travelers for farm winery insurance. Over the next month we will work them in around our daily vineyard activities. We have some friends with Farm Family insurance and they are shopping again. Thank you again. Cheers!

Ran into my “retired” insurance agent from years ago. He mentioned to me that even though an agent might not be licensed in our state it takes very little cost to gain a license. Thus experienced farm winery agents from other states might be interested in business outside of their territory. We shall see.

Any conclusions on this? For those who posted references, thanks. I’m looking for general liability coverage in a minimalist policy for a producer with inventory stored in professional warehouse (which of course would like their certificate of liability insurance). Cold-called one local broker to explore options and got that special hostility reserved for small wine producers–get enough of that daily, thanks so much! Since I’m not producing this year, very little liability! I might consider insuring the inventory if premiums were reasonable. Need a broker who is open to mortal clients, not just fishing for whales.

I cut my premiums by almost 50% switching from Nationwide Agribusiness to a policy through Bidwell Insurance in Chico. I connected with them because they showed up at a Garagiste tasting where they were specifically targeting small producers. Here’s the contact info for my agent
Andrea Zigan
Bidwell Insurance Agency, Inc.
andrea@bidwellinsurance.com
(530) 894-1096 T

That’s who I use, and they helped me a lot thru some issues which were my very first claim…

Just cycling back to this topic since I’m looking again. The Nationwide Ins. we have cannot get their underwriter to cover wind damage for farm/winery buildings in my area. My agent and I were very surprised so I’m out looking ahead to make a change in early 2019.