What Did Nick Kokonas Tell Napa Grape Growers?

Nick Kokonas keynoted the Napa Valley Grape Growers Association last spring after telling the group they had the wrong person. He knows almost nothing about grape growing and is still learning. The growers called him the only optimist left.

They wanted his why. He is planting grapes, building a wine bar in town, and he bought property while everyone else was selling. The talk opened with a hope to learn from the room, not a lecture for Randy Dunn or the people who started 30 or 40 years ago. Smiles followed. The room had expected a new rich software guy to claim the tasting rooms were doing great. The point instead was 30 years up and to the right, plus an assumption that prices would never fall. Hippies who came in the 50s could not have imagined thirty eight thousand dollars a ton, so nobody is owed that price. The cycle will look like any other cycle. The time scale is really long. The grapes will not be good until he is 70, and yelling will not make them grow faster, though the way the businesses run can feel different.

Kokonas thinks he gave the room a little hope, and he left a choice between copium and hopium.