GM. Feeling reflective today. It’s wild that this is my life. I make wine on the property I grew up on and sell it by shitposting alongside My People on the internet. None of this was planned. At 25, I was floundering. I knew I needed to start something and bet on myself, but had no idea what. My dad made wine as a hobby. One day he suggested I start a winery. I’d never made wine before, but I said fuck it and started Peony Lane. That first year, I had no product to sell and hated the job I had. My dad wanted to build a house, so now I live in one that he and I built together. When I moved home to do that, I lived with a friend who just happened to be a Bitcoiner. I was already into personal finance, and he pulled me down the rabbit hole. He also got me on Twitter, by always knowing everything before I did. Serendipitously, when my first wine was ready, I happened to be dating a graphic designer. She designed my first labels and built the Peony Lane brand. Today, my labels are made by my best friend from high school. Twitter started out as a way to learn more about Bitcoin. Then Bitcoiners started buying my wine. Now, more than half my sales are in Bitcoin. You can just exit the Matrix

If you’ve seen Sour Grapes, you know the story: A guy sold millions of dollars of fake "fine wine". The reason his scam worked reveals something deeply engrained in the wine industry. Most wine drinkers are being fooled. Just in a different way. Rudy Kurniawan blended cheap wines and passed them off as rare Burgundy. He wasn’t exposed because something tasted off. He got caught because some of his labels didn’t match historical records. That’s how easy it is to manipulate wine. People trusted the story, not the contents. Wine is ephemeral. Every bottle changes every year and every hour after opening. There is no fixed flavor to test against. You could open five identical bottles and each one would taste a little different depending on how it was aged. That’s part of the beauty. But it also makes it easy to hide behind. The wine Rudy made wasn’t necessarily fake. It was engineered. He used blending, additives, and packaging to mimic the character of rare bottles. That same playbook is used across the wine industry. Only now, it’s considered standard practice. Most grocery store wine relies on: - Low-grade grapes - Oak flavoring - Sugar - Concentrates - Lab-designed enzymes It’s a formula made in a lab, sold with a story that is designed to make it feel like art. The same confusion Rudy exploited is what allows commodity wine to dominate. A wall of bottles, branded with warmth and tradition, hiding a product built through food science. The wine world keeps you in the dark. On purpose. How do you avoid this? You don’t need a cellar or a huge budget to drink something real. You just need to get closer to the source. Shake your winemaker’s hand. Ask questions. No one worth buying from will make you feel small for wanting to understand. If they do, they’re part of the act. The wine industry sold its soul. And most people are still drinking the lie. I make Unfiltered Wine in Colorado and am happy to answer any questions. If this helped you understand wine differently, give this post a reNOST, it really helps me keep doing these.

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"Wine Tannins give me Massive Headaches"🍷 As a low-intervention winemaker, that one caught me off guard. I’ve heard people blame sugar, sulfites, even histamines. But tannins? Let’s talk about what they are—and what they’re not. 🧵 Tannins are natural compounds found in grape skins, seeds, stems, and oak barrels. They aren’t about flavor—they’re about texture. They’re much more present in red and orange wines than in whites or rosés, since those wines stay in contact with skins, seeds, stems, and oak barrels much longer. I often hear people say a wine is dry, referring to that mouth-drying sensation you get from certain wines. However, when a wine is dry, that means it isn’t sweet. People who describe highly tannic wines this way aren't totally wrong because tannins bind to your saliva and do leave your mouth feeling dried out. While a lot of the tannins in red wine do come from the grapes of oak barrel, then can also be added during winemaking—usually in powder form. Most of these powders are derived from natural sources like oak or grape skins, and can support structure, aroma, and color without changing the identity of the wine. I use oak-derived tannins in some of my wines, especially since I age in neutral barrels. This helps me use less sulfur in my winemaking. Tannins act more like a protective coating that helps show off the wine’s natural brilliance—not a tool for manipulation. Most wine additives are used as part of a manipulation regime—designed to hit a target flavor profile, often at the expense of transparency. And with over 70 approved additives that don’t have to be listed on a wine label, the real culprit behind your wine headache could be anything. Tannins are different. There is some nuance. Hydrolyzable tannins like gallotannins (from oak galls or chestnut wood)—have been linked to mild inflammation or histamine release in sensitive individuals. But they’re typically used in small amounts and are far less likely to be the issue than residual sugar, poor fermentation, or a cocktail of other additives. Tannins aren’t usually the problem. The winemaking style might be. Wine is complicated and often swept into a shroud of mystery to keep consumers in the dark. But knowing a little can change a lot. I’ll be sharing more about how to navigate additives, labels, and wine in general. If this gave you value, please like or retweet that first post.

Bitcoiners are the best customers I’ve ever had. They’re loyal. They rebuy. They tell their friends. They want you to win—and they’ll help make it happen. And right now, almost NO ONE is building for them. That means there’s still time to become the Bitcoin-aligned brand in your category. In most industries, Bitcoiners don’t have a default go-to. No trusted shop, no favorite label, no company that “gets them.” That could be you. And once they pick their brand, they don’t switch easily. You don’t have to become a bitcoin company. You don’t need to ditch dollars. You don’t need to be perfect. Just make something good. Accept bitcoin (not crypto). And let people know who you’re aligned with. I did it with wine. Now Bitcoiners are 100% of my customer base. Not because I ran some flawless playbook— but because I paid attention to the right customers and leaned in. Bitcoiners are your perfect customer. They don’t need gimmicks. They just want to know you see them. The lift is minimal. The downside is basically zero. The upside? Tremendous. We're looking to spread this experience to extremely high quality brands via @Soak Quest and need to hear back from bitcoiners as to what makes a company a "bitcoin company" that you would support like this?

We're really gonna make this whole mission happen. Freedom money 💪 I got sucked into Bitcoin, but never would have gone this hard if a bunch of psychopaths didn't start buying my wine with Bitcoin. We're gonna win because of you.