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Blow to the wine industry: Bodega Norton went bankrupt

Was surprised to hear that Norton Wines declared bankruptcy today. They have been around since 1895. I wonder how the smaller vineyards are doing.

Vine biz sounds brutal. That reminded me of a guy I follow on X. He posted some stories about the ups and downs of owning a bodega.



 
Vine biz sounds brutal. That reminded me of a guy I follow on X. He posted some stories about the ups and downs of owning a bodega.




Ouch. I met a guy that lived in Mendoza. He thought it would be cool to own his own vineyard. He was extremely wealthy but he said it was a severely money losing operation. I would guess this guy is losing tons of money. $55 dollar bottles of wine is pricey for Argentina. I can't imagine he is doing too much volume.
 
Vine biz sounds brutal. That reminded me of a guy I follow on X. He posted some stories about the ups and downs of owning a bodega.




This is what you call an expensive hobby. There are some wealthy guys in Napa that also toy around with their vineyard but lose money. Many feel like having a toy project like having your own wine but it is difficult to make money.

There are probably a lot of vendors that got stiffed that were owed a lot of money to in that area. I also wonder how many other vineyards are in the same situation.
 
I met a winemaker in a restaurant at Don Julio a few months ago. I asked him how the business was and he said it was very difficult in Argentina. He mentioned some of the things in that article. High inflation, increasing costs (bottles, yeast, corks), weakening local demand, difficult export conditions. He said that Argentine wineries make 1/3 of the typical winery in other countries. I was shocked he said only in the 5% to 10% range.
 
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