[ConsiderCrying]

Would you say you're aiming for the high end market or is that too risky of a venture, relying on reaching the appropriate and steep quality level, when the lower end would be easier? It seems like you've put substantial effort into this so I'm presuming you're shooting for the stars.

[scrumbledober]

Growing them indoors you are never going to have anything near the margins required to make it economical if you're trying to undercut commodity level grapes. If you're going through the effort of growing in a controlled indoor environment like this I would imagine it only makes sense to target the highest quality product possible.

[smogcutter]

I expect that’s true for a pilot, but it seems plausible that if it’s successful you could eventually become more economical than traditional growers. You’re not limited by access to high-value grape-growing acreage, for one thing. If this eventually does scale I’d expect it to swing the opposite way, producing commodity “grown to order” grapes for the low end (by price, if not quality), while the high end of the market continues to differentiate by terroir and traditional production methods.

[jmheflin]

Thanks for your question!

Grapes used for making bulk wine wholesale for about $2000/ton. I am not yet able to produce them at that price point. For now, I am hoping to partner with a vineyard that wants to make the highest quality wine possible, and is willing to pay for grapes that enable them to do so.

[zaphod12]

I mean the argument is you're going to lose any sense of Terroir...and that is a huge amount of the cost at the high end of the market. Sure, you pay for taste, but you also pay enormously for origin and provenance.

[jmheflin]

Absolutely agree. I am not going to convince people that wine origin doesn’t matter. But I believe that 15% of grapes from a ‘Napa Valley Cab Sauv’ labeled wine can be grown outside of Napa. 25% if the wine is labeled as a ‘North Coast Cab Sauv'. So maybe the project is good for these types of situations.

[jfengel]

Rather than a vineyard, perhaps you'd want to seek out a "custom crush" facility? You could locate an experienced hobbyist who wants to make a small amount of high-end wine, but doesn't have a full set of facilities. And you could locate several different makers, giving you multiple chances per year of finding a set of growing parameters to show progress towards an exceptional wine.

Making a ton of wine at a custom crush house could cost around $5,000, so you're talking about people with multi-thousand-dollar hobbies. You might be able to talk them into taking a flyer on expensive, experimental grapes. It would be a lot of work to handle a lot of sales one ton at a time, but perhaps easier than finding a high-end winemaker willing to take a risk on unproven growing techniques.

[jmheflin]

This is a great idea. I will reach out to some. Thanks!