One of my great joys of late summer is biting into a juicy, succulent peach and experiencing that expression of sun and soil. It doesn’t happen with each one. All too often, they have been picked before their prime. The flesh is too solid and barely enough juice to wet my palate, much less dribble down my chin.

This is often the case with peaches bought at grocery store chains. They are picked early with the hope the fruit will continue to ripen during transport. This usually doesn’t happen. They are pretty, but lacking in any real “peach” character. The best peaches, in my opinion, are those found at roadside stands (one of the many benefits of living in the South). These stands often sell produce picked by hand at the point of perfect ripeness from local farms.

This got me thinking about the process of winemaking. Large, industrial-scale winemakers often make wines I find similar in quality to those store-bought peaches. They are pretty and readily available, but they don’t give me real satisfaction or expression of the ripe grape character. A merlot may be indistinguishable from a syrah.

These “wine factories” have the same problem faced by other fruit growers. They typically harvest grapes by machine, mixing ripe with unripe, from vines grown many miles away from their production facilities. When they blend juice from grapes grown in a variety of soils and locales, the resulting wine loses its sense of place, that expression of soil and sun that sets those flavors, aromas and textures apart from any other.

I prefer wines produced in smaller quantities, usually made by family-run operations where the grapevines are often tended from bud break to harvest by the same two or three people. The vineyard is frequently adjacent to the winery itself. Perfectly ripe fruit can be picked by hand and carted directly to press, preserving all the fruit’s goodness, flavor, and aroma. These wines convey their sense of place and the varietal character of the grapes. Syrah tastes like syrah, merlot like merlot, and you can taste the difference in a wine produced from similar grapes grown just down the road.

Luckily, these wines are not as hard to find as you might think. It’s certainly easier than searching for that one ripe peach from the overloaded display at the grocery store. In fact, you probably will need to get out of the grocery store altogether. Visit a local wine shop where the merchant will happily introduce you to any number of wines from small-production, family-run wineries. The joys and passions of the vignerons (French for wine grower) can be found in the finished product. In my experience, the price will not be much different.

Take a sip, and be transported to that place and time of harvest, be it a hillside in Spain or France, a tiny village in Italy, or sunny Napa Valley. Just be careful of that dribble down the chin.

Asheville resident Rob Campbell has more than 25 years in the wine business, as retailer, distributor, restaurateur, and enthusiastic consumer. He welcomes comments or questions and can be reached at wino4now@aol.com.