Dirty Talk About Money

Can the wine industry start to open up about how people get paid?

It always comes down to money, right?

After last week’s post wondering if certifications are all just a racket—a way for corporations to simply make money and spread their influence—I realized that to talk about resiliency, one must talk about having the resources to be resilient. The universe had already brought me into conversations with countless small California winemakers alarmingly circling around the same topic: They weren’t making any money. And I don’t mean that they weren’t rich enough to buy a big fancy house on a vineyard (or a vineyard, period). I mean, like, they couldn’t pay themselves—sometimes at all, sometimes for years. Most felt they were one surprise disaster—or one dismal quarter of sales—away from bankruptcy. They sacrificed their own paychecks to pay for the sustainability certifications. They skipped paying for their own health insurance to cover that of their teams. They worked nights and weekends as well as mornings and weekdays hustling for their brands, effectively for free, some of them averaging $10/hour or less, pre-self-employment taxes (in California!), if they realistically accounted for all their hours. They often relied on their spouse or their “day job” to cover their own living expenses, kicking the can down the line and relying on that privilege (which, whether unearned or earned, was still a privilege). Crucially and most disturbingly to me was that those who looked the most successful externally were often the least profitable internally; tens of thousands of social media followers did not equal tens of thousands of dollars of profit.

Next, the universe started putting all sorts of industry-adjacent, related articles and ideas in front of me, which steadily drove me bonkers. The perpetuation of a broken cycle because we feign success, security or happiness and thereby make others believe we’ve “made it” (and they can, too!) is pure insanity:

Many Bars Are Award-Winning. But How Many Are Financially Stable?

Wine + Writing = Money?

There Really Is No Ethical Restaurant Under Capitalism

Hum. Shit.

The older, stodgier half of me kept shouting, “So what?! Stop complaining! That’s what hard work looks like! That’s what it takes to be successful! If it was easy, everyone would do it! When I was your age… … …”

But the younger, wiser half of me knew that in FACT “making it” (becoming financially successful and achieving upward mobility by starting your own business) in this millennium is truly, legitimately harder than it was before—unless you come from generational wealth or have been funded by someone swimming in cash who doesn’t much care if you can ever pay them back. (For one of my favorite books that helped me personally understand some of this, check out Anne Helen Petersen’s Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation. Also I am linking to Amazon for reference but strongly encourage you to purchase from your favorite local independent bookshop!)

The silly old cliché, “If you want to make a million dollars in the wine industry, start with two million,” surfaces. I am wondering in this moment if “making it” as a wine brand on your own today is even remotely possible, and if so, who has done it? And how, exactly?

Originally, I was just going to put together a single post around this topic of financial solvency in the wine business. You know—offer some “hot takes” and “insider tips” on profitability and then move tidily back along into cute pigs content. But, this deeper and more nuanced and holistic consideration is one of the parts the “natural wine” movement fell short on and that we’re trying to improve upon with Resilient Wine, isn’t it? And, much to my efficiency-loving chagrin, it’s looking like this isn’t just a divot in the yard… it’s a sinkhole, and the damn cavern might lead right into the center of the Earth resiliency. So rather than gloss over this now, I’m working on engaging in conversations about the state of wine finances with folks trying to do resiliency right. I want to find out how individuals who own wine brands can build profit without sacrificing their own well-being, why that profitability is important, and what you can do with profit if you make any.

If you’re a winemaker or a winery label who would be willing to let us peek under the hood of your operations to better understand what your finances look like and how you use your profit (if any) to foster resiliency, drop me a line. I am particularly interested if there is anyone out there who has scaled from a truly “small” brand into a more moderately sized or even large company.

Brainstormed list of initial questions for makers:

1.     Would you consider yourself (your brand) financially solvent, meaning able to pay all your debts when they are due?

2.     How much did you profit in 2023, and what are your plans for that profit?

3.     If you were not profitable, where is the “buffer” money coming from to cover your bills?

4.     What costs or debts or vendors or bills pose the biggest challenge for you, regularly?

5.     OR, what time of month or year poses the biggest cash flow challenge for you?

6.     How have your costs changed since 2020?

7.     What kinds of things can you not afford right now that you would like to? What kinds of things could you not afford historically, and how did you build to a place where you could afford them?

8.     What labor do you wish you had in place, and how much would it cost you to pay for this?

9.     What kinds of “surprise!” or unexpected costs have come up or could come up (that you’re afraid of) that would pose a major challenge you’re not sure you could overcome? If they did, what steps would you take right now to try to overcome them?

10.  Given the “surprise” costs we saw come up with the Pandemic or with wildfires, what steps are you trying to take now to be prepared to overcome future obstacles?

11.  Would you be willing to share a P&L publicly? If no, why not?

12.  What questions am I not asking?

13.  So as not to sound like we’re all just complaining, to what underlying causes do you attribute these financial challenges? Have you thought through how they could be remedied in the bigger picture, outside of just you?

I look forward to sharing a bit about what I learn in the coming weeks/months. Even if it’s just commiseration at first, I think opening up transparent (yes, sometimes awkward or uncomfy) conversations is the first step to real, tangible, positive, inclusive, forward progress—and, ultimately, resiliency.