Wine as a Hobbie

Let's face it. In this economy, even the experienced wine drinkers know they don't need to spend a lot of money to drink good wine. Every day I call a place to set up an appointment I've gotten into the habit of asking what price points work for them because I'm not going to open expensive bottles if they don't plan to spend the money. But what most people don't understand is that wine making is a very expensive hobby. I call it a hobby because most of my clients have "day jobs" and hope people will like their wine enough that they won't blink when it comes to price.

One of my clients is a film producer. Guy Riedel has worked on some great movies... "Wedding Crashers", "Rocky Balboa"... and one of my personal favorites, "Office Space". He makes a Cab and a Syrah called "Guy". Very good high-end wines.

And he knows the science involved in wine (as he should. He's only been making wine since he was 15). He really started getting serious about wine in 2001. He started making wines at home, then went on to make more at a crush facility in San Francisco.

As many of you may know, he's not the only person in the spotlight who makes wines. I just found out last week that Wayne Gretzky also makes wine in Canada... only his are a little less expensive than my guy Guy.

Of course many of my clients have taken interesting career paths... one includes the C.I.A. Don't laugh just yet. I heard a Navy Seal even makes his own wine, although he's not my client.

But let's get back to the *cost* involved in winemaking. My C.I.A. client said making one barrel of wine costs $10K. So let's do the math:

1 barrel= 25 cases

If you wanted to make 100 cases of wine it would cost you 40 freaking thousand dollars.

Let's think of things you can buy for $40K:

A 10 karat engagement ring (although that would be HUGE... I'd settle for four).

Fertility treatment costs half that. And let's not forget, a Mercedes or perhaps a lifetime supply of yoga classes... Neither of which my clients have purchased (that I know of). Instead they shelled out a whole lotta dough with the hopes that you would enjoy their wine. Cheers to them!