Anyone have any experience doing this? My wife and I are big wine fans, and think it may be fun to invest into a small boutique winery here in central Texas. Something over 10 acres but less than 50... DD
I have been in the wine business for over 8 years (after more than 7 in the beer business). I would not recommend it.
I am still doing that, this would be a side company. I travel to Napa with my wife and those places are booming, then I go up 290 to Fredricksberg and I see a similar thing happening in the next 20 to 30 years..... Why would you say stay out of it? I am looking at having a tasting room, and sell wine directly to the public.....probably not even in distribution at all. DD
Oddly enough I was just looking at some land in the California central coast wine country this past weekend. I had thought I might like a vineyard, but that wasn't the main reason I was interested in the land. I was talking with the real estate agent about what all is involved and she said it was very expensive, and hard to make a profit, and that a lot of wineries just do it because it's fun, and kind of a hobby. You can have your own land or lease other suitable land in exchange for a percentage of what you sell etc. I think it takes a while and is a lot of experimentation to see what kind of grapes end up being produced on what soil. The grapes can vary from soil that is relatively close in proximity. In other words one plot of land may grow excellent grapes while land only a few acres away might have just average grapes. You may have known all of that stuff already, but that's all I really know about it.
Look, if you want to be an alcoholic, just go for it You don't need to deal with this whole winery sham, let the haters hate
As long as it is for fun you are probably cool. There is an obscenely detailed amount of knowledge about grape varieties and micro-climate variations that are involved in making "good" wine in the snooty sense. If your goal is to make something special or even decent, you really need to know a whole lot than you probably think, even if you have some idea about how difficult it is. Making a good wine is a lot like making a good restaurant. First, you need a 'chef' with tons of experience and knowledge as well as an ass-load of natural talent. You need a great location, and most of those already have successful restaurants. And then, even if everything is great, you need a whole lot of luck. Add to that the fact that 90% of wine snobs will immediately dismiss you out of hand for being from Texas. Also, there are issues with distributing alcohol that require state-by-state reciprocal agreements that make the entire business model very byzantine. As a hobby, you are probably OK. If you expect to be pumping out Texas brand Chateau Margaux in 6 months to worldwide acclaim, you are probably in for a disappointment. There are tons of guys who started out intending to make the next great thing who end up selling their grapes every year to Gallo for jug wine just to keep from going broke for no reason other than bad chance. And these are people with undergraduate agriculture degrees, and Master's degrees in Viticulture from UC-Davis. It is not an easy thing to do well.
People here in Kentucky are friendly. And the wineries here do pretty darn well from what I can tell. If you contact Equus Run or Talon, I wouldn't be surprised if the owner(s) could talk to you more about your ambitions. theSAGE
Just buy this one. It's close to you, anyway. Invite me up for a weekend. http://www.vinesmart.com/real_estat...yon-lake-TX-vineyard-and-winery-for-sale.html http://www.vinesmart.com/real_estat...lty/images/Leach-Family-Vineyard-FOR SALE.pdf
my boss (and family friend) and his brother own their own winery in southern california... relatively small, boutique operation from what i can gather but apparently in a very beautiful location. not sure how their day-to-day operations go in terms of turning a profit, but they come from extreme wealth so i'm sure that's not their top concern. it would definitely be an interesting venture if you had the disposable income...
And rightfully so..........there's never been a great wine from Texas, and I can probably count on one hand the number of actually good wines to come from this state. A vintage or two of Messina Hof Reisling come to mind, and that's about it. I'd love to have a winery too, but it would be a retirement career and it would have to be "income be damned." And I'd probably have to move to Oregon where the wine country still has an emphasis on "country"----and isn't some oenophile disneyland like Napa and Sonoma (although it is still fun to go there).
DaDakota, Have you considered starting a winery in Greece? You could watch all VSpan's games, then. Just think of all the GARM threads you could start while giving us updates of his progress.
