So he spends all his money making the facility and doesn't even bother building it in the Willamette Valley in Oregon? WV soil makes way better Pinot Noir than anywhere in California. All the tech in the world isn't going to turn good grapes into great grapes.<p>Typical tech billionaire, trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist and completely missing the basics.
From <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-to-make-a-small-fortune/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-to-make-a-small-fortune/</a> :<p><pre><code> How do you make a small fortune? Start with a large fortune
and then open a winery.</code></pre>
Well, there is no thing such as best wine. You can create most expensive wine or most scarce wine, but there is nothing like best wine, like there is no the best painting in the world.
The article didn't mention anything about why he thinks the SC mountains are good for Pinot. There's a lot of misinformation and lack of detailed journalism out there, in particular regarding how global warming will affect the varietals that are picky about temperature and soil conditions.<p><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/12/wine_and_climate_change_pinot_noir_is_the_vintner_s_polar_bear.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/1...</a>
> A collapse in the roof of a gigantic tunnel being driven into a hillside sounds like a pretty dramatic event.
But the entrepreneur TJ Rodgers is calm as he recalls what happened.
"It's not like you see in the movies with rocks flying, and stuff like that.
"It will kill you but it's kind of a slow motion thing, and you can walk [away] and stay in front of it," he explains.<p>I found this really interesting! A cave in is a small motion thing which you can walk away from.
Aw. I thought the article was about how someone was going to synthesize better wine in bulk, like the "Wine 2.0" startup in Dogpatch.[1] They do well in blind tastings.<p>Synthetic meat is hard. But wine is just a liquid mixture.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.avawinery.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.avawinery.com/</a>
Why try to make "the best" version of something that is judged by purely subjective standards? Make something very good, and some people will consider it to be the best. Those become your best (heh) customers.
Haha of course it's TJ Rogers. I still remember hearing he got in a bit of a scuffle with Los Gatos when he decided to use dynamite to blow a hole in the side of a hill to make his wine cellar.
Article doesn't even talk about yeast. The whole thing sounds close to a factory to me, apparently the guy hasn't even worked with vignerons in France at all. Unlikely to happen.
It is funny how everybody goes crazy when talking about taxes and politicians taking our money and when CEOs do a lot worse with the extra money they take from us in the form of profit it becomes a BBC business news.<p>Taxes > Profit
And since people can't tell most wines apart, what's the point?<p><a href="http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/08/the_most_infamous_study_on_wine_tasting.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/08/the_most_infamo...</a><p>Most people can't tell a red from a white by taste.