As a matter of fact, Chuck and Donna Hussey say they have plenty of grapes but few gripes about their vineyards–Chalk's Bend, a five-acre parcel of Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chalk's Ridge, 12 acres of Cabernet Franc, both in the Alexander Valley of Sonoma County, Calif.

“You'll hear no sour grapes from me about how things turned out after Chuck retired from the insurance business,” said Ms. Hussey.

Mr. Hussey spoke passionately about various grape-growing and winery matters–including numerous commercial lines insurance concerns–during remarks here at the 75th annual Inland Marine Underwriters Association annual conference.

Ms. Hussey told National Underwriter that she and her husband decided to go into the wine business after taking annual vacation trips to the Sonoma wine country since 1980. “It was just so beautiful that we decided that's where we should retire,” she said. “So in 1989, we bought a piece of land there.”

At the time, the Husseys were living in Reading, Pa., where he was vice president of Rigg Insurance Agency, a commercial lines brokerage.

“It was all kind of serendipity,” said Ms. Hussey, who explained that in 1993, her husband was recruited by the American Institute for CPCU and the Insurance Institute of America to become marketing director of the Western Region.

“The Institutes eventually told Chuck he could pick anywhere in California to live, so we naturally chose to live on the property that we already bought in Sonoma County,” she said. The couple eventually built their home on that plot of land and planted some grapes. They grow Cabernet Sauvignon.

Mr. Hussey mentioned several inland marine exposures in vineyards and wineries, starting with mobile equipment. “You've got earth-moving equipment to rip soil, tractors to mow and harvest fruit, backhoe/loaders to trench or drive stakes, scooters to spray and fertilize, and mechanical harvesters,” he said. He described mechanical harvesters as expensive items–costing between $300,000 and $400,000 apiece.

He also singled out fixed equipment, including tanks for fuel and water, generators and pumps for irrigation, and sprayers and fans for frost protection. For wineries, there's mobile equipment such as forklifts, movable tanks, hoses, pumps and filters. He cited various pieces of fixed equipment such as tanks, fermenters, piping for wine and water, and bottling lines.

As a vineyard owner, it didn't take Mr. Hussey long to learn a basic lesson: “You only get one harvest a year with grapes, so things have to go right, but I quickly learned that any number of things could go wrong.”

Take wineries, for instance. “Tanks and barrels can leak,” he said. “There can be contamination, spoilage or evaporation from improper temperature and humidity” during the grape growing season early in the year.

Turning to vineyards, he said animals such as deer, wild turkeys and starlings can do a lot of damage to the vines. “Deer and wild turkeys love our fruit, so with their eating habits, they aren't doing us any favors with their presence in our vineyard.”

He cited various other insurance exposures such as abandoned cars set afire in vineyards, mobile equipment rolling over, and climate factors such as rain, hail and drought.

Mr. Hussey also cited transportation risks and a few other exposures. “You've got a real mess on your hands when grapes fall when you're moving them to the winery,” he said, noting that lost income expenses can arise when the bottling line breaks down during harvest time. “And stacks of wine barrels have been known to topple over during earthquakes,” he noted.