
Semiconductor CEO trying to make the world's best Pinot Noir - malchow
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40496904
======
nosequel
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.

Typical tech billionaire, trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist and
completely missing the basics.

~~~
malchow
You're crazy. Higher altitudes and steep slopes in California work very well
for Pinot Noir. Pinot planted on flatland in the valleys, however, I would
indeed leave alone.

~~~
Mikeb85
Maybe, can't say I've ever had a PN from California that stacks up to the WV
or Burgundy though.

~~~
greensoap
William Sylem from Russian River. Golden Eye from Anderson Valley. I think
they both stack up very well though I will admit they are a bit less earthy
than a typical Burgundy.

~~~
mmmpop
+1 for Russian River. Rodney Strong has a damn fine RR Pinot for a reasonable
price.

------
kqr2
From [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-to-make-a-small-
fortune/](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-to-make-a-small-fortune/) :

    
    
      How do you make a small fortune? Start with a large fortune 
      and then open a winery.

~~~
rjbrock
Ive heard something similar from Richard Branson about airlines. "How do you
become a millionaire? Start with a billion dollars and create an airline"

------
dejv
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.

~~~
azinman2
I came in to make the same comment. It’s all a matter of taste, and even then
you’d want variety. No one wants to eat the same thing every day, even if it
started out as the best meal of your life.

------
RichardCA
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.

[http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/1...](http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/12/wine_and_climate_change_pinot_noir_is_the_vintner_s_polar_bear.html)

------
ralfd
> 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.

I found this really interesting! A cave in is a small motion thing which you
can walk away from.

------
mmmpop
Watch out Napa, this one Tech Millionaire is Disrupting the Wine Industry

~~~
DrScump
... using _this one weird trick!_ "

------
Animats
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.

Synthetic meat is hard. But wine is just a liquid mixture.

[1] [https://www.avawinery.com/](https://www.avawinery.com/)

~~~
petra
I'm curious, let's say these guys sucseed, and they partially, or fully
commoditize wine via synthetics.

What happens then? will it really replace most wine production ? or is wine
one of those things that people will just pay a lot more for "authenticity" ?

~~~
bllguo
Definitely, seems to me a lot of people buy wine just to show it off, so
there's no way wine production will be replaced completely. Especially high-
end wines. Wine is a luxury good.

------
SmellTheGlove
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.

------
hkmurakami
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.

------
MrGando
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.

------
owebmaster
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.

Taxes > Profit

~~~
8ytecoder
The difference is I can shun a company making unfair profit and choose a
competitor (in most cases at least) but I can't not pay taxes for any reason
(even civil disobedience is hard to prove). In general, any
company/institution where I voluntarily part with money will, and has to, have
lower regulations (not zero) than an institution where I don't have a choice.

~~~
owebmaster
> The difference is I can shun a company making unfair profit and choose a
> competitor

You could but most of the times the companies become so huge they finance laws
that turn the state part of their profit, a huge part of it coming from taxes
(or lack of) too.

------
syphilis2
Sounds like an expensive lesson in wine and perfection.

------
valuearb
And since people can't tell most wines apart, what's the point?

[http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/08/the_most_infamo...](http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/08/the_most_infamous_study_on_wine_tasting.html)

Most people can't tell a red from a white by taste.

~~~
mmmpop
The difference in pinot noir and say, cabernet sauv is like night and day, so
I'm not sure what you're talking about.

~~~
shallot_router
Sure, but they probably meant "would an average person be able to
differentiate TJ Rodgers Pinot Noir from another high quality winery's Pinot
Noir"?

~~~
NoPiece
Most people could differentiate them, but wouldn't be able to identify the
higher quality wine.

~~~
barrkel
Burgundy pinot vs new world pinot? If they're a fan, they'd have little
trouble spotting the Burgundy.

~~~
NoPiece
I agree, but the parent said average person, so I was thinking of someone less
experienced.

~~~
Godel_unicode
This is exactly the problem; studies are done where random person who has a
glass now and then can't tell food-coloring altered white from red, readers
see "nobody can tell wines apart".

