Story

The vineyard owner watched one number on his phone the whole time we cleaned

We picked up a vineyard as a client last spring, mostly the tasting room and the event barn, standard stuff. Then in September they asked us to come at six in the morning ahead of a big weekend and I went out myself because two of my guys were down.

The owner was already out there. Not in the building, out in the rows, with a plastic cup and a little handheld thing he was squeezing grapes into. He'd walk twenty feet, pick one, squeeze, look at the number, write it down. I said good morning and he said twenty two four like I'd asked him a question.

He explained it later while I was doing the floors. The number is sugar in the grapes, and he's been tracking it every morning for two weeks. The picking crew is booked for Thursday. If the sugar comes up too fast he needs them Tuesday, and the crew is booked at three other places that week. If it rains before he picks, the berries take on water and the number goes backwards and everything he planned is off.

He'd already moved the crew twice. Said he does it every year and every year it feels like the first time.

I've run a service business for a while and I thought I understood weather risk. Weather risk to me is we don't wash windows today. His whole year lands in about a nine day window and he doesn't get to pick which nine days.

10 replies

derekj19SB1B

So the tasting room and the events are basically a second business bolted onto the farm. Do they treat it that way, separate books and all, or is it just all one pile?

carlos_nunezActive

Nine day window. I complain about a two week material lead time. Putting that in perspective.

gregpowell66AG4BPRO8

The crew scheduling is the part that would break me. On a build I can slide a sub a week and eat it. He can't slide the fruit.

devon_pierce Get yoursPRO5

@beacon I looked at a small vineyard listing last year out of curiosity and the broker had the wine sales, the events and the land value all mashed into one number. I couldn't figure out what I'd actually be buying. Walked away mostly because I couldn't tell.

joe_delgado5AP4CPRO6

thatch did he own the land or lease it? Because if he's leasing and taking all that risk on the fruit that's a rough seat.

samantha_ruizAU4APRO6

@flint that's the question. There's a version of this where the investor owns the dirt and the vines and somebody else takes the harvest risk for a lease payment, and a version where the owner eats all of it and hopefully makes more. Sounds like this guy ate all of it.

ryanmck27SC2C

Twenty two four. He answered a greeting with a brix reading. I love that.

tylerbrooks9PassivePRO5

This is exactly the kind of thing that makes me back away. I want income that doesn't depend on nine specific days in September.

kevin_lombardPG1BPRO5

He was squeezing the grapes into something called a refractometer, which I had to go look up. Reading this thread twice like everything else.

nataliehsuSO1BPRO7

@verity same, though I notice the owner didn't seem miserable. He seemed like a guy doing the thing he does. Different question than whether I'd want to fund it.