Colorado Cabernet Franc is a Revelation.

You probably know Cabernet Franc as the quiet supporting actor in Bordeaux blends, overshadowed by its famous offspring, Cabernet Sauvignon. Most people do.

That's often because traditional Bordeaux Cab Francs tend to be lean, earthy, and herbal, with fruit notes taking a backseat to minerality and green spice. They're not the fruit-forward wines many American palates gravitate towards.

In the Colorado climate, Cabernet Franc takes on a completely different character.

Over 300 days of intense Rocky Mountain sun, combined with sharp day-to-night temperature swings, allow the grapes to ripen fully without accumulating excess sugar.

This means the fruit stays fresh, not jammy, and the natural acidity keeps the wine crisp and lively. Instead of an herbal bomb, you get a juicy, deep red that maintains the variety's subtle depths.

People always tell me how hard it is to find a pure Cabernet Franc. Truthfully that's because most Americans don't like the traditional style. If you've been searching for one or just want to explore something new, Colorado Cab Franc will give you an expression you didn't know you were looking for.

GM.
Feeling reflective today.

It’s wild that this is my life.

I make wine on the property I grew up on and sell it by shitposting alongside My People on the internet.

None of this was planned.

At 25, I was floundering. I knew I needed to start something and bet on myself, but had no idea what.

My dad made wine as a hobby. One day he suggested I start a winery. I’d never made wine before, but I said fuck it and started Peony Lane.

That first year, I had no product to sell and hated the job I had. My dad wanted to build a house, so now I live in one that he and I built together.

When I moved home to do that, I lived with a friend who just happened to be a Bitcoiner. I was already into personal finance, and he pulled me down the rabbit hole. He also got me on Twitter, by always knowing everything before I did.

Serendipitously, when my first wine was ready, I happened to be dating a graphic designer. She designed my first labels and built the Peony Lane brand. Today, my labels are made by my best friend from high school.

Twitter started out as a way to learn more about Bitcoin. Then Bitcoiners started buying my wine.

Now, more than half my sales are in Bitcoin.

You can just exit the Matrix

Thicker skins. Slower sugar development. More complexity.

Farming at High Elevation has major advantages.

High elevation means intense UV making the grapes develop thicker skins to protect themselves. More skin = more phenolic compounds (tannin, color, structure).

Cool nights slow the ripening process down. Sugar accumulates gradually. The grape hangs longer, developing flavor complexity instead of just sweetness.

Hotter climates rush ripeness. At 5680 feet, we wait.

Finish a whole bottle before this queue ends.
I dare you.

It would be irresponsible drinking if I told you not to.

Running Peony Lane has shown me how wineries scale and why many do not want to.

With red wine, every production increase takes more than two years to pay off. Early on, you just make wine and figure out sales later because scaling production has no shortcuts. Overproduction is a calculated risk in the beginning and a massive undertaking once you are established.

Sales come in two main forms:
Direct to consumer through a tasting room and online.
Wholesale to liquor stores and restaurants, usually with a distributor who takes a cut.

DTC is the highest margin, but hard to scale volume.
Wholesale is incredibly low margin, so you need huge volume for it to work.

This creates a structural gap in winery sizes.

Small wineries live and die on DTC. If they get a little bigger than their DTC can support, they push the excess into wholesale accounts. Wholesale moves wine, but the real value is exposure. It becomes a marketing play and a liquidity provider more than a profit center.

Large wineries flip the relationship. Tasting room sales become a rounding error for net profit, so the tasting room becomes their marketing play. They use the physical experience to win loyalty, because on a wine list it is easy to look like just another bottle.

There is a massive chasm between these two sizes.

The rough rule of thumb is that being small works up to about 10,000 cases per year. Beyond that, you enter no man's land until you reach the economies of scale that start to matter around 40,000 cases. Without a nationally recognized wine region behind you, crossing that middle zone is nearly impossible.

Colorado's biggest limitation is scale.
We make good wine, but not enough to force national attention.
It is the classic chicken and egg problem.
The region needs scale to get recognition, and recognition to get scale.

I don't "produce" wine.

Producing focuses on creating a specific result. Production oriented winemakers push towards a goal they set before the grapes even come in. I don't blame them, much of the industry and consumers want consistency across vintages and varieties. Having the same taste every year can build brand loyalty.

It misses the point of wine though. You may as well be drinking grape flavored alcohol.

Consistency goes against the nature of wine. Each vintage is different. Each vineyard has its own character and trying to force consistency on an inconsistent base layer strips out everything that makes wine special.

My job is to put the wine in a position to succeed. I support it through the process and help it where it needs help. The end result varies.

Over time you get to know your vineyard and what the wine needs. That relationship takes years and it's not something you can do when you're sourcing grapes from different places every season or from a mix of vineyards.

Look for single vineyard, estate wines if you want something unique.

Ya'll think im crazy
but I'm not the only one

Clean Wine🍷 -> No Hangover 🤯

Now THAT is a Summer Treat. 👀
Order Yours at PeonyLaneWine.com