Ben Justman🍷

Winter has come. The first snow of the season has fallen. It's quiet today. Fall is gone and the birds with it. The only sound is the occasional oomph from snow sliding off the roof. Snow is good for the grapes. It keeps the ground warmer and wetter for the roots. Last year, we lost 1/3 of our vineyard because we didn't get enough. Normally, the snow would melt off by tomorrow afternoon and we'd be left looking at a lot of brown, but another storm is coming. Winter is here.

Most businesses are waiting to get through Thanksgiving so they can start their huge Black Friday Sale. It is a big day for sales volume, so I get it. I found much more value in Thanksgiving itself though. This is the difference between focusing on brand and focusing on sales. I was bombarded with people reaching out or posting that they were drinking Peony Lane Wine with their family for their Thanksgiving meal. Whether they opened it because it is their favorite wine or because they wanted to tell their family they bought it with Bitcoin, they drank my wine during the most important meal of the year. No Black Friday sale can compare to that customer experience. Did I miss out on some sales by not giving a huge discount and focusing on Black Friday? Definitely. But every company posting record volume days would kill for the brand equity created by being part of Thanksgiving dinner.

In business today, you are either growing or you are dying. Bitcoin gave me a third option. Bitcoin is my growth division. When I started Peony Lane, all I knew was that I wanted to build a business I enjoyed. My logic was simple. If I enjoyed doing it, I would find a way to make enough money, and since the work is tied to my family, I wanted something I could see myself doing forever. Turns out running a big winery and dealing with distributors does not sound fun at all. I like making wine for Bitcoiners and shitpoasting on the internet. No, it doesn't make a ton of money, but I figured out this Bitcoin thing. If I'm right, my retirement is already covered and if I'm wrong, I'll get to enjoy debt slavery anyway. So my goals are simple. Stay cashflow positive and keep making great wine. I have no plans to scale production and I don't think I need them. Bitcoin IS my growth plan.

So good

The best part about Social Media is how easy it is to cut negative people out of your experience. I'm so quick with that mute on negative Nancy's No value in them

Ben, your wine was good, and it was even better on the second day, but on the third day? WOW. It seems crazy to me to let a wine open up this long, even with the cork stuck back in, but to each their own. Here's what happens when wine meets the air👇 A little oxygen helps soften tannins, open up tight aromas to express themselves, and clarify flavors to be clearer and more expressive. As long as the wine is open, it will continue to react with oxygen and eventually it will turn the wine bad, but everyone draws that line differently. Some people like drinking my wine right after popping the cork, some after waiting 3 days. Neither one is necessarily right, but the two experiences can be VERY different.