Thieves steal grape harvest with wine harvesting machine

[don]

Re: Thieves steal grape harvest with wine harvesting machine

I live less than an hour from Sonoma and Napa. When we visit south Florida the Sonoma and Napa wines are cheaper at the supermarket than at home. Go figure.

[Jay]

Re: Thieves steal grape harvest with wine harvesting machine

I live less than an hour from Sonoma and Napa. When we visit south Florida the Sonoma and Napa wines are cheaper at the supermarket than at home. Go figure.

The places we went to don't even distribute. Awesome.

[Chomsky]

Re: Thieves steal grape harvest with wine harvesting machine

Most of the time you are correct: wineries are hobbies for 37 year old retired Goldman VPs. But there are a few who made it big -- the Gallo brothers ended up billionaires...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_%26_J_Gallo_Winery

That was before FIRE took over the economy and blew up RE prices everywhere. You could get land in Napa, Sonoma, etc., cheaply.

[GRG55]

Re: Thieves steal grape harvest with wine harvesting machine

That was before FIRE took over the economy and blew up RE prices everywhere. You could get land in Napa, Sonoma, etc., cheaply.

Exactly! Which is why I qualified my comment with...

"...Anybody entering the wine business in the past decade or two is almost certainly in a chronic negative return on capital situation..."

...the latter stages of FIRE v.2.

[jpatter666]

Re: Thieves steal grape harvest with wine harvesting machine

I live less than an hour from Sonoma and Napa. When we visit south Florida the Sonoma and Napa wines are cheaper at the supermarket than at home. Go figure.

Wasn't always that way. You used to be able to get wines at a discount at the wineries in the 80s. But people started buying directly from the wineries and shipping it back home so the distributors forced the wineries to sell at the same retail price you'd see in a store. No discounts.

So yes, perversely you can buy the wine cheaper here in Virginia than at the winery in Napa.

IMO, stupid.

I don't buy wines at wineries anymore unless it is a specialty wine I think I might not find outside the winery.