“You purchase three acres of grapevines and throw all the money you have into making the best possible 400 cases of wine. At $500 a bottle, this isn’t a big business. Yes, you might get a very high score, but this only equals out to a couple million dollars. When you take into account the fixed costs of a winemaker, vineyard crew and winemaking facility, you can’t expect to make a lot of money when all is said and done.”
He calls his own approach the chateau model — a profit-minded business, though hardly a large conglomerate. “I tried to figure out, what’s the maximum number of cases I can make without compromising quality?” he said. “And that came out around 10,000.” (According to Napa Valley Vintners, a trade association, 80 percent of its members make 10,000 cases a year or fewer.)