Wineries aren’t one of the businesses that most of us think would be in an inordinate amount of debt are they?

In fact, the process of growing grapes isn’t extraordinarily expensive.  The most expensive wine gift in California can cost hundreds of dollars per bottle, but it only costs the winery about $4,000 to farm an acre of land.

So where does all the debt come from?

Land of course.  It’s easy and cheap to farm, but you’ve got to buy that land from someone and most wine regions are already well established. In Napa Valley less than an acre of land will cost you about a million bucks.

Now, does it make sense where the debt comes from?  When it comes to wine, land costs are the eqivalent to government entitlement programs like social security and medicare.