Owning and operating a winery is complex and demanding. Wineries in South Carolina face just about every business risk imaginable as they grow grapes, blend wines, and sell their products in a variety of ways. 

Leaving the future of your winery to chance could be devastating. You need winery insurance to protect you from the financial losses that can accompany damaged crops, spoiled wine, lawsuits, and other unforeseen events that can cost you everything. 

It is best to enlist the help of a trusted advisor, such as an independent insurance agent, who can help you identify and find coverage for all of your complex risks. 

What is Winery Insurance?

Winery owners in South Carolina must manage everything from growing and harvesting delicate crops to the financial and legal implications of getting their wines to market. You likely need several business insurance policies and numerous special endorsements in order to be covered by a comprehensive winery insurance program. 

Even a small winery must insure every step of the winemaking process. As you grow, harvest, ferment, bottle, and sell your wines, one unexpected problem can destroy your thriving business overnight. 

That’s why winery insurance is not a single insurance policy, but rather a package of policies that are customized for the unique risks of South Carolina winery owners. Your winery insurance will likely include commercial property insurance, commercial liability insurance, and a variety of additional policies depending on the unique characteristics of your business. 

What Does Winery Insurance in South Carolina Cover?

Wineries are complex businesses, and your business insurance should address the problems that can crop up and cause financial upheaval. These are just a few of the things that can go wrong at your winery or vineyard:

• Guests on your property or at an event slip and fall
• Guests at your winery damage or destroy grapes, finished wine, or equipment
• Grapes in transit are crushed
• Leakage, spillage, or accidental mixing destroys wine in process
• Insecticides used on grape crops drift on to neighboring properties
• Contamination and product recalls
• Winemaking equipment or agricultural equipment breakdown
• Extreme weather or natural disasters
• Wildfires, insect infestation, and plant diseases 

Wine that is in storage comes with its own set of risks, including:

• Spillage or leakage
• Fire
• Theft or vandalism
• Utility or refrigeration outages
• Supply chain or logistics problems or delays
• Transportation and trucking exposures, from poorly trained drivers to accidents and truck refrigeration breakdown 

South Carolina wineries need a customized package of winery insurance policies to protect them from financial loss, including the following:

Property Coverage for South Carolina Wineries

Wineries need business property coverage to protect:

• Buildings and their contents, including winemaking machinery and equipment 
• Inventory and stock
• Business interruption coverage to pay for ongoing expenses after a covered property loss

You can add endorsements to your winery property insurance policy in order to add more customized coverage, such as:

• Contract cancellation coverage that helps you pay for attorney fees, marketing expenses, and other related costs if you are unable to fulfill customer contracts (e.g., you cannot fill orders due to a supply shortage).
• Tank collapse coverage pays for expenses related to processing water after a tank collapse.
• Tank leakage coverage provides protection for leakage of completed or in-process wine from a tank or other container.
• Mobile equipment coverage pays for damage to agricultural equipment (irrigation and harvesting equipment, etc.).

Crop Insurance for South Carolina Wineries

Without viable grapes, you would be unable to produce wine, so protecting your grape harvest should be your first line of defense. Wineries in South Carolina need crop insurance for the costs of crop damage due to weather, vine infections, insect infestations, fires, floods, and other potential hazards. 

Crop insurance will not protect your grapes once they have been harvested, and certain perils such as earthquakes may be excluded from your crop insurance policy. You may need to purchase additional earthquake coverage if you live in an area where it is necessary. 

Coverage for Wine in Storage or Transit

Once your grapes have been harvested and your wines blended, you must take steps to ensure that your valuable product is protected no matter where it is. You may need different policies for wine that is stored on your property and wine that is stored off-site. Your agent can help you determine all of the coverage that you need. 

Wine that is in transit also needs coverage for physical loss or damage. Inland marine insurance for wineries protects against direct physical loss or damage to property or stock while it is being transported.

General Liability Insurance for South Carolina Wineries

General liability insurance provides broad protection for third-party bodily injury and property damage claims. If a guest slips and falls during a vineyard tour, or your wine causes a customer to become ill, your general liability policy pays for direct costs (medical bills, etc.) as well as attorney fees, court costs, settlements, and judgments if you are sued. 

General liability insurance also provides coverage for product liability, advertising liability, slander, and libel claims against your winery. 

Equipment Breakdown Coverage for South Carolina Wineries

Wineries need equipment breakdown coverage to protect against costs associated with the sudden and accidental breakdown of machinery and equipment. It pays to repair or replace the equipment as well as any business interruption costs that accompany it.

Contamination and Spoilage Coverage for South Carolina Wineries

Wineries need special coverage for product losses due to contamination. Contamination and spoilage coverage pays for certain losses if a batch of wine is spoiled or contaminated due to a refrigeration breakdown, utility interruption, or some other type of foreign substance. 

Liquor Liability Coverage for South Carolina Wineries 

Any establishment that sells, services, or furnishes alcoholic beverages needs liquor liability insurance for instances of bodily injury and property damage that result from selling or serving alcohol. 

What Does Winery Insurance in South Carolina Not Cover?

The policies and coverage endorsements described above offer comprehensive coverage for your South Carolina winery. But even these policies exclude coverage for certain events or problems. Your general liability policy, for example, likely excludes coverage for employment liability claims, pollution liability claims, automobile liability claims, and more. 

You also need special coverage for worker injuries and illnesses. 

Fortunately, you can purchase additional policies or endorsements to address any areas of excluded coverage where you need protection. 

• Commercial auto insurance protects your fleet of trucks and any other vehicles owned by your winery. In addition, if employees drive personal vehicles for business use, you need hired and non-owned auto liability insurance. 
• Crime coverage protects your business if an employee or a group of employees engage in theft, forgery, or fraud that damages your business. 
• Workers’ compensation insurance is required for any business that has employees. It protects your workers, such as those who use operate heavy equipment or who harvest grapes in the vineyard, from the costs of work-related injuries and illnesses.
• Cyber liability insurance protects your winery if you are the victim of a cyber breach. If your computer network or website is hacked and confidential customer or vendor information is exposed, the damage to your reputation and bottom line can be insurmountable. 
• Some insurance companies offer a special policy for wineries called chemical drift insurance or pollution liability insurance. If you spray insecticides or other chemicals to protect your crops, those insecticides can drift onto neighboring properties and cause property damage or health problems for others. Chemical drift coverage can offer protection for physical injuries to people, crops, or animals as a result of chemical drift or overspray from your vineyard. 
• Product recall coverage helps pay for costs related to removing recalled, damaged, or dangerous products from the marketplace. 
• Employment practices liability coverage protects you if a current or former employee sues you for discriminatory employment practices.

What Are the Benefits of Insuring Your South Carolina Winery?

Your winery may be a family business passed down for generations, or a new venture that you’ve been dreaming of your entire life. Wineries and vineyards are complicated businesses with vast rewards and no shortage of risks. You wear many hats in order to run your business — from farmer to scientist to marketer, and many more — yet so many things are simply out of your control. 

You need winery insurance to protect you from the financial losses that can accompany damaged crops, spoiled wine, lawsuits, and other unforeseen events that can cost you everything. 

Can I Afford Winery Insurance in South Carolina?

Because of the complex nature of operating a winery, appropriate insurance coverage is not likely to be cheap. But regardless of the price, it’s necessary in order to protect your assets and your livelihood. 

What you’ll pay for winery insurance depends on a variety of factors, including the size and location of your operation, the value of your crops and stored wines, whether you offer tours or otherwise open your facility to the general public, your number of employees, the number of commercial vehicles you own, and much more. 

A knowledgeable, independent insurance agent can help you assess your business risks, recommend appropriate coverage, and find insurance companies that specialize in affordable, highly rated, South Carolina winery insurance.

Do I Need an Agent to Purchase Winery Insurance in South Carolina?

Like any business owner, South Carolina winery and vineyard owners need a trusted advisor who can help them find the best insurance coverage to protect their livelihood from the many potential — and costly — problems that can arise. 

Whether it is dangers to the general public or your employees, or unforeseen events like fires, storms, and theft, you need the right combination of coverages that addresses whatever you might be exposed to.

An independent insurance agent in South Carolina will get to know you and your business. He or she can work with multiple reputable companies who specialize in winery insurance.