So says Paul Sullivan for The New York Times at CNBC.com, here:
Of all the winemakers and vineyard owners I spoke to, the one who has the least risky and most sustainable model of building his business was Fred Schweiger. The only catch was it took him 51 years to get Schweiger Vineyards where it is today.
Mr. Schweiger, who owned a construction company until two years ago, bought the original eight acres in 1961 for $250,000; he said that parcel alone is now worth $3.2 million.
In the intervening years, he cleared the land, planted the vineyards and built all the structures himself on what is now a 55-acre property. Before the vineyard started making its own wine in 1994, he sold the grapes to other wineries at a profit.
All along, he paid cash for every expansion until 2002, when he borrowed $2.5 million to upgrade equipment in the winery. By then, he said, that loan was only 10 percent of the value of the vineyard.
“From an economic point of view, it takes 16 to 20 years to make a profit,” Mr. Schweiger said. “I didn’t hear that until we were in the winery business for five or six years. It wasn’t until last year that we made a profit.”
Watch the Schweiger bottling operation here.
