Evolving opportunities Is it still possible to find entry into the wine business and make a living at it? On that point, Bockstahler is ambivalent. “When it comes to certain areas—Napa and Sonoma, for instance—you could be getting in the game a bit late in terms of things being really expensive. But there’s always opportunity,” he says. “Between weather shifts and consumer shifts, I would think growing grapes right now could be one of the most frustrating and difficult tasks around. People aren’t necessarily buying fruit the way they used to, and margins can be really slim on grapes, especially if you aren’t considered an ‘ultra-premium’ grower.” In the end, Bockstahler points out that if you don’t have money to start with, it’s all very tough. “But you find ways,” he says. “People can approach winemaking from a savvier direction nowadays, thanks to all the accumulated knowledge out there. You don’t necessarily need premium equipment to
were put up for the contest. “Instead,” the journalist continued, “the greatest
underdog tale in wine history was about to
unfold. The Californian wines scored big with the judges and won in both the red and white categories, beating legendary chateaux and domains from Bordeaux to Burgundy.” Growing pains
But that was then, and every growth-focused business is bound to
change over time. Vintners and other wine professionals who’ve toiled in the business for decades have witnessed
make the best wine and, finally, more buyers are starting to realize that.” Redefining the rules One thing Bockstahler points out is that the wine business in California used to be dominated by a handful of top
remarkable alterations in the ways that grapes are grown, and wine is produced, bottled and sold. One of them, Michael Bockstahler, was literally born into the business. Hailing from Santa
Rosa, he paid some early dues as a busboy for a wine bar, fell under wine’s intoxicating spell, and later enrolled in a harvest internship in the famed Russian River Valley, one of the Golden State’s premier growing regions. “It was a time when you could still get a free tasting in some places,” he says. “Back then, you could still drink 12% alcohol zinfandel, and a really great pinot noir was maybe $40. It was a very cool time to be learning how to make wine.” Bockstahler observes that the California wine industry today isn’t growing in the same, linear way it did from the early 2000s and through the next couple of decades. “With a large concentration of wealth and outside investors, Napa was super- hot 10 to 20 years ago,” he says. “But it was around the time we beat the French [1976], that the wine business turned a corner for us. We could then say that [nearly] every vintage was killer. Small towns flipped into ultra-premium, wine-centric tourism hubs.” That said, Bockstahler has seen a shift in the global market trends around wine, some of it the result of new buyers and new vintners in the market. “Some older-guard [wine production] models may have gone a bit stale, while others are adapting. There’s probably more diversity in the winemaking styles now than 15 to 20 years ago, and I think that’s a really good thing.”
performers the general public recognized. But now, he says, there are hundreds of small producers who’ve entered the market. “I find the occupation of making wine very attractive because it’s very physical work. It can be intellectually stimulating, as well as creative,” he says. “A lot of the old rules are being thrown out and the guard rails are successfully coming off, leading to more interesting wines. People in California are innovative, and with every stale idea that’s preserved, there are five fresh ones being tried and tested.” His advice? “I think if you’ve been in the game a while, a lot of the romance of vineyard ownership and winemaking wears off; it’s a business after all. But that romance is being replaced by really satisfying work.” Michael Bockstahler, winemaker, Guerrilla Wine Co.
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