At a blind tasting with Pinot Noirs from around the world, professionals swore my 2023 Estate Pinot Noir was Burgundy. They were shocked by where it came from. The 2023 vintage is special to me. 5 years into Peony Lane Wine production, this was the vintage I had been waiting for. Each year before had gone wrong. 2019 was my first year making wine and the learning curve was steep. Normal crop. Average wine. 2020 was weird. California wildfires pushed birds off their migratory pattern. By the time we noticed, they'd eaten half our grapes. After harvest that Fall, a hard frost wiped out the whole state's crop. 2021: zero grapes. 2022 was a second recovery year. Vines had grown back from the roots, but they weren't ready to produce much quantity. Good wine, very little of it. By 2023 the vineyard was reestablished. Growing season went without a hitch. I got a full crop with amazing ripening. I was ready to take advantage of it as a winemaker and I'm proud to say it is the best wine I have ever made. People tell me they like my wine all the time, but when a blind tasting has professionals confidently declaring my wine to be a Burgundy, I know I did good.

This is what happens when I try to help my family understand Bitcoin.

Is my career safe from AI? We're all thinking it. A winemaker's future isn't as simple as "a robot will take my job." I'll benefit from the first wave of automation through better software tools for marketing and production. When I zoom out, I see robots working my vineyard, trained more precisely than any human. A robot can't make good wine though, right? Most wine, especially in the USA, is ready for robotic production. Massive wine operations focus on reproducible, consistent, and formulaic results. This doesn't create interesting wine, but it's big business. Winemaking is a balance between art and science. A robot will definitely be able to complete the science based tasks, but the question remains: Can AI do art? There's this concept of "wu" from The Man in the High Castle - this soul-connection between maker and creation. You notice it when AI images lack that certain something that gives it soul or makes it feel real. AI will get better and better at replicating soul. The masses won't care, they already don't, and will appreciate cheaper wine. My career future rests on whether people care enough to spend the extra money for wine with soul produced by a human.