The Understory is a form of community supported agriculture. Your regular monthly support allows us to pursue innovations in natural farming and connections between this way of farming to how we eat and drink. It’s not enough to farm in an ecologically sound way. Those practices must be tied to changes in flavor, culture and lifestyle if they are to become durable. We are uniquely positioned to explore these connections at the scale of a small working farm. Your involvement helps us complete the circle of land, food and human community.
In exchange for this monthly support we are able to offer you a set of wines that reveal the flavor, breadth of style and meditative complexity that is possible from such a farming system. Working with over a hundred different varieties and reaching deep into the history of wine for inspiration we produce an unprecedented range of wines in every style and color imaginable.
The Understory is the gateway to this world. Each fall you will receive a unique set of wines as part of your Understory allocation and exclusive access to the dozens of other wines we release during the year.
Understory
An introduction to the wines of Hiyu
$45 per month
6 unique bottles per year
Exclusive access to all Hiyu Wine Releases
10% off additional wine purchases and wine tavern experiences
Shipped once a year in the fall
This is the ideal introduction to our wines and includes six unique bottles in different styles and colors.
One of our dreams was to see if we could make a miniature historical model of the world of wine on our 12 acres of hillside vineyard. We wanted to see how much color, flavor and emotional range could be expressed from a single place. Each grape is capable of accessing different information about the site. With dozens of grapes interplanted on the small fields which our wines come from, they represent an especially deep and complex way of understanding place and time through wine.
All subscriptions begin on December 1st of the calendar year. If you wish to join a subscription mid-year we ask that you catch up for the months you missed retroactively so that you will receive the full six bottle allocation for that year’s shipment. We will reach out to you to arrange this at the start of your subscription. Please email understory@hiyuwinefarm.com for questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
When you join the Understory, you commit to a minimum one-year subscription. This allows you to experience a holistic selection of our wines and your subscription benefits. If you cancel your subscription prior to one year, you will be responsible for reimbursing Hiyu for any Understory discounts received.
We ship once a year in the fall to all fifty states via a temperature controlled carrier. We will notify you of your shipping date one month in advance. At this point it is important to let us know if your address has changed, or if you have any dates when you will not be home to receive your shipment. This is also a great moment to add additional wines to your order. We also offer pick up at the farm by appointment. We do not currently offer international Understory subscriptions.
We offer pickups of your Understory bottles and web purchases Wednesday through Sunday from 11am – 3pm. All pickups require a reservation with at least 24 hours advance notice. Please email understory@hiyuwinefarm.com to reserve your pickup time. If you book a lunch or dinner at the farm we will automatically prepare your pickup for you.
We ship Understory Subscriptions once a year in the fall via refrigerated carrier. If you have ordered additional bottles we can either consolidate them with your fall shipment or ship them at the time of your order as weather allows. Please email us at orders@hiyuwinefarm.com if you have any questions about the precise date your subscription will ship.
Understory subscriptions are processed monthly. This payment plan supports all of our endeavors at Hiyu, where animals, fields, and vine sites must be tended to from dusk to dawn, every day.
Tales & Meditations
Stories about life at Hiyu, ideas that inspire us, and deliberations that result from our experiments and observations.
