Peony Lane Wine

A winemaker in the USA can add any of these acidity adjusters to their wine without disclosing the info to the consumer.

calcium carbonate malic acid tartaric acid lactic acid potassium bicarbonate sodium bicarbonate potassium hydroxide sodium hydroxide ammonium carbonate ammonium chloride ammonium hydroxide magnesium carbonate sodium carbonate

The only way to know what is in your wine is to ask the winemaker directly. Shake your Winemaker's Hand

I much prefer drinking a few glasses of wine one night per week over one glass of wine a few nights a week.

That's balance for me

To recap:

Low Intervention Red Wine...

• has a chemical that stops testosterone reduction
• has the least micro plastics of any beverage
• you don't get hungover afterwards

But u still love beer (and manboobs)

At Peony Lane is just You and the Grapes, Skin to Skin. 🍷

No need for an ingredients list. Wine, the Justman way. 🍇

I agree that, technically, alcohol is poison and circadian rhythm is vital.

However, I think that occasionally staying up until 2am drinking red wine with people you love is medicinal.

Wine is art. Drink your art.

YOU DO NOT PROCESS ALL ALCOHOLIC DRINKS IN THE SAME WAY.

If you feel horrible after you drink, audit what you are drinking and find something that works for you.

If you don't have a problem drinking in moderation, you do not need to quit drinking entirely.

Switch to low intervention wine Switch to blanco tequila

Fuck, I even feel solid after drinking a nice whiskey in comparison to beer, shitty wine or mixed drinks.

Aeration helps the flavor open up. It doesn’t fix what went into the bottle.

Additives stay, and so do the headaches that come with them. DRINK CLEAN WINE

I used to think alcohol was alcohol. Beer...Wine. They both got me drunk.

Then I started paying attention. To how beer left me foggy. And how wine didn’t.

Here’s what I found 🍺🍷🧵

Wine and Beer Start From Different Foundations

Wine is made from fermented grapes. Beer is made from fermented grains.

That difference really matters.

Grapes naturally contain compounds that survive fermentation and end up in your glass. These include polyphenols, which have been studied for their ability to reduce inflammation, support blood vessels, and protect cells from oxidative stress.

Beer starts with starch. After fermentation, most commercial beer is filtered, pasteurized, and standardized. That strips out nearly all of the byproducts that might offer anything beyond alcohol and empty calories.

Both wine and beer can include additives that aren't listed on the label. But with wines, more of the beneficial compounds tend to stay in. It is also easier to find low-intervention wines with few additives, and there is a stronger culture of traceability in wine. People care who grew the grapes, how they were grown, and where.

You can find good beer and bad wine. But at the baseline, wine has more going for it.

Blood Sugar and the Crash

Most people chalk up how they feel after drinking to “just a hangover.” But part of that foggy, sluggish feeling is driven by blood sugar swings.

Wine, especially dry red wine, has virtually no residual sugar. During fermentation, yeast consumes the natural grape sugars. A standard glass of dry red often contains less than 1 gram of sugar.

Beer, on the other hand, contains maltose and residual starch, both of which break down quickly into glucose. This gives it a higher glycemic load, especially when consumed without food or in large quantities. Blood sugar spikes, insulin rises, and then comes the crash.

Alcohol itself makes this worse. It inhibits gluconeogenesis, which is your liver’s ability to produce glucose when blood sugar runs low. That makes it harder for your body to recover once blood sugar drops.

This is why beer often leaves you drained and cloudy, even after just a couple. Wine avoids about as much of that as possible. Less sugar spike. Less crash.

Antioxidants and Inflammation Red wine contains polyphenols like resveratrol, quercetin, and anthocyanins. These compounds have been studied for their role in reducing inflammation and protecting blood vessels.

Beer contains some antioxidants from hops and barley, but at much lower levels. The process of filtration and pasteurization removes most of what might help.

If you’re going to drink, wine actually gives your body something to work with.

Hormonal Effects

Beer contains hops, and hops contain a compound called 8-prenylnaringenin. It’s a powerful phytoestrogen, meaning it acts like estrogen in the body.

In high enough quantities, it can start shifting hormone levels. Chronic beer consumption has been linked to lower testosterone, reduced libido, and, in some cases, increased body fat in areas like the manboob.

Wine doesn’t contain estrogenic compounds like this. Some of the polyphenols in red wine may even slow down how fast your body breaks down testosterone. One lab study found a reduction in testosterone clearance by up to 70 percent.

Beer increases estrogen. Wine slows testosterone loss.

Transparency and Sourcing

Neither beer nor wine is required to list all ingredients or additives on the label. That means you're often drinking blind unless you know the producer.

With wine, it's usually easier to trace the origin. There’s a stronger culture around knowing who grew the grapes and how the wine was made.

Beer doesn’t have that same emphasis on sourcing. It’s possible, but less common.

If you want to drink better, ask questions and buy from people who can answer them.

Not all alcohol is created equal.

Beer gives you sugar spikes, estrogenic compounds, and fewer nutrients. Wine gives you antioxidants, lower sugar, and for guys, a possible hormonal edge.

I’m not saying wine is a health drink. But switching from beer to wine might actually make you feel better.

I’ve noticed it myself. I rarely drink beer anymore. Curious if anyone else has had the same experience.

Treat your friends to a bottle of Peony Lane🍷

Wine and whiskey both contain alcohol. But your body does not respond to them the same way.

From a health perspective, here is what actually matters🍷🥃🧵

What They’re Made From

Whiskey starts with fermented grains like corn, rye, wheat, or barley. Different styles use different blends. Bourbon is mostly corn. Scotch is malted barley. Rye and Irish whiskey follow their own rules.

Once distilled, those differences mostly disappear. Distillation strips away nearly everything except ethanol and water.

Red Wine starts with grapes and grapes naturally contain compounds that survive fermentation and end up in your glass. These include polyphenols, which have been studied for their ability to reduce inflammation, support blood vessels, and protect cells from oxidative stress.

Barrel Aging Both wine and whiskey usually spend time in oak. Whiskey can age for decades. Wine typically ages for a few years.

Barrel aging affects taste. It does not affect how your body processes the alcohol.

Sugar and Blood Sugar

Alcohol interferes with your liver’s ability to regulate blood sugar. That is why drinking on an empty stomach can leave you shaky or foggy. This effect is made worse when alcohol is paired with sugar.

Whiskey is often mixed with soda, syrup, or bottled cocktail blends and even unflavored whiskeys may contain added sugar or glycerin to smooth the taste. This spikes your blood sugar and crashes it fast.

To avoid the worst affects of whiskey:

• Skip flavored whiskeys and sweet mixers
• Look for "straight" or "bottled in bond" on the label
• Drink it neat or with water

Dry red wine has less than one gram of sugar per glass. It will only produce a small rise with less of a crash.

Additives

There is no ingredients list required for wine or whiskey in the United States.

When you feel bad after drinking, that lack of transparency makes it hard to know what you are reacting to.

Wine can include Mega Purple, acidity regulators, gums, and excessive sulfites. Whiskey can include caramel coloring, sugar, artificial flavorings, or texture enhancers like glycerol or glycol.

You cannot really avoid one single additive and ignore the rest. These things tend to come together.

Tips to avoid them:

For wine, look for low-intervention producers. French and Italian bottles are often less manipulated and not hard to find.

For whiskey, get to know the producer if you can, but other than that, there's not much you can do.

Sourcing and Contaminants

Glyphosate has been found in many conventional wines, even some labeled organic. Grapes are often heavily sprayed, and glyphosate is not routinely tested for.

Whiskey is distilled. Distillation removes nearly all chemical residues, including glyphosate.

From a contamination standpoint, whiskey comes out ahead. But it is not that hard to avoid glyphosate in wine.

My vineyard has never seen glyphosate. The land has been farmed organically for over 100 years.

Tips: Either verify that your producer has a similar commitment, or default to French or Italian wines where these chemicals are banned.

Whiskey gives you the downsides of alcohol, and very little else. But at least you can drink it without a ton of sugar.

Red wine, especially low-intervention red, brings more to the table. It retains polyphenols, organic acids, and fermentation byproducts. It also contains quercetin, a compound that slows the breakdown of testosterone in your body.

If you are already drinking and want to choose the lesser of the evils, drink low-intervention red wine.

Now that's some #Bitcoin Wine 🍷

Most wines taste the same.

I've commonly opened bottles and thought "I've had this wine before" even if its from a producer I've never heard of.

Most wine is made as a commodity. It is made to be an alcoholic beverage and there's nothing wrong if your main goal is to get drunk.

Wine can be far more than that. Winemaking sits between art and science, but when focusing on the bottom line, the art is usually the first thing removed.

Price isn't everything, but as you start going up, the commodity wine begins to disappear.

Anyone with a winemaking degree from UC Davis can make technically correct wine, but it takes an artist to make interesting wine.

Drink whatever tastes good, but if you have never understood why people get fall down the wine rabbithole it's probably because you've mostly been exposed to commodity wine

Don't wine about it Everything is gonna be grape

What pairs with Bone Marrow? #Winechain

Eat Steak. Drink Natural Wine. Have fun.

I rely on this old tractor to a pretty insane degree.

During winemaking season I am much more All-In on this tractor working than Bitcoin.

You shop differently at a farmers market.

I sold wine at farmers markets for 4 years. People were there to buy local, treat themselves, and to feel good for the weekend.

I didn't see much followthrough outside that environment. People kept that part of their lives boxed into one day a week during the Summer.

I found the same ethos in the Bitcoin circular economy. Buy quality from businesses building the world you want, but bitcoiners seem to integrate that mindset into the rest of their lives instead of boxing it in.

Somehow learning about bitcoin has scaled the farmers market ethos.

The Bitcoin Circular Economy is a "buy local" movement that is actually working and scaling.

Oak aging brings more dramatic shifts, but most of a wine’s quiet evolution happens once it’s already in the bottle.

Wine is almost always evolving.

Corks aren’t sealed air-tight. Tiny amounts of oxygen slip through over the years, softening tannins and deepening aromas. This slow, steady exchange lets tannins bind together, softens edges, and builds the depth that only time can create. When it happens too fast, freshness fades and the wine flattens before it’s ready.

Different closures change the pace. A traditional cork lets in a little air. A synthetic cork often lets in more than you’d want. A screw cap allows almost none.

If you’re holding wine for the long run, store it cool, dark place on its side.

If you don’t have a way to do that, just find a good reason to pop that cork. Wine only gets better with age when it’s being treated right.

Wine culture can be so cringe. 🍷

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.

The only thing stopping the USA from succumbing like the UK is guns and people like you drinking the Blood of Tyrants (Peony Lane🍷).

Keep going💪

Every famous wine region started as a place no one believed in. Colorado is still in that phase.

I've gotten used to people writing Peony Lane off.

It's all part of the process because you can’t borrow tradition. You have to earn it pour by pour.

May the best wine win.

Seems like selling wine for Bitcoin was a good idea.

Too bad I listened to all the retards who disagreed because I didn't want to be different and missed out.

"Sulfites" give me headaches when I drink wine.

I hear it all the time, but something never rang true to me.

If you have a true sulfite sensitivity you would have an asthma-like reaction to drinking most wines or eating dried fruit.

The key thing is: YOU WOULD KNOW

TLDR at the bottom👇

My thinking on this has been that if a wine maker adds a ton of sulfites, they are probably adding a bunch of other additives.

Since wine ingredient labeling is extremely opaque, you could be reacting to "anything" and without meeting your winemaker, it would be very difficult to ascertain which is giving you an issue.

My advice to people negatively affected by wine has been 3-tiered:

Best) Meet your winemaker and ask questions Better) Drink Low Intervention or "Natural" wines Good) Default to French/Italian/European wines generally

Now, I'm back to the initial 80 IQ statement being correct.

SULFITES DO NOT CAUSE WINE HEADACHES, but they do absolutely decrease your body's ability to process histamines.

Histamines + High Sulfur lead to your body having an allergic response

Your body produces histamines naturally as part of your immune alarm system causing blood vessels to dilate, tissues to swell, flushing and congestion.

Thats the entire mechanism behind allergic reactions and why you take antihistamines to treat them.

I'll go into the science of all this more in another thread

TLDR

Histamines exist in wine and "sulfites" decrease your body's ability to process them which leads to allergic reaction-type symptoms.

This works QUICKLY. If you feel hot, congested or get a headache within the first few glasses you are having histamine issues.

Quick solutions:

White wine -> Lower Histamines Low Intervention wine -> Lower Sulfites

DAO Enzyme supplements -> Help process histamines Allegra -> Safest Antihistamine with alcohol (last choice)

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

A winemaker in the USA can add any of these sweeteners to their wine without disclosing the info to the consumer.

Maltodextrin Sucrose Glycerol Sorbitol Dextrose Fructose Glucose Invert sugar Artificial sweeteners

The only way to know what is in your wine is to ask the winemaker directly. Shake your Winemaker's Hand

People who consistently drink California Cabernets are usually thrown off by my wine. They aren't wrong because Taste Preference is Personal

But if you specifically drink California Cabernet Sauvs you are drinking one of the most commoditized products in the wine world.

High end California Cabernet can be World Class. It can be amazing wine.

The problem is that most California Cabernet is not World Class. It is styled and manipulated to fit a very specific flavor profile.

Deviate from that and it's suddenly "not what a Cab should taste like."

That single phrase tells you everything about how narrow the template has become.

Peony Lane is different and that's the point. I do not make California wine in the mountains of Colorado.

People tell me all the time, "Ben, we need to get your wine into this restaurant."

Here's why I say no.

When I started Peony Lane, I had no idea what direction I wanted to take things. I began at farmers markets because I needed first-hand sales experience. I wanted to see if my wine had enough traction to survive, and after investing much more than everything I had, I needed sales before I could think about the next stage.

At the time, I thought that next stage would be a tasting room in my hometown.

Community has always been huge for me. I figured I'd build it by creating the kind of space I wanted to spend time in. The "if you build it, they will come" idea. I'll meet the right people if I build the place they'll all want to gather in.

On the road to getting there, I ended up finding the community I really needed online. We centered around one big idea, Bitcoin, and once I found that, I realized I couldn't find many of the connections I really wanted outside of it.

So when I turn down restaurants or liquor stores that want to carry my wine, it's not because I don't want to grow Peony Lane. It's because I've learned what actually drives me.

I don't get energy from just making and selling wine. I get it from producing value for my community. As soon as my wine becomes just another bottle on a shelf or menu, all the excitement disappears for me.

Sure, it would be nice to make those sales, but fulfilling wholesale orders takes energy that pulls me away from what brings me joy. Focus is scarce, and I want mine aimed at what matters.

If there's one thing I've learned about entrepreneurship, it's that consistency is everything when it comes to survival. New opportunities pop up all the time, but knowing when to say no is the difference between building something lasting and burning out.

To make it anywhere in business, you need to be pumped about your goal, and I quickly realized that just making really good wine wasn't enough for me.

What drives me is giving people the same experience I had when I realized wine doesn't have to make you feel bad afterward. Educating about wine in a way that isn't pretentious and getting back to basics: Does it taste good TO YOU? How do you feel the next day?

It's deeply gratifying to show that you can make a great product, focus only on serving your community, and still win in a real way.

Business has never really been about the money for me, which is ironic given that all our Bitcoin community cares about is fixing THE money.

The wine world loves to brag.

I hear Californians flex about farming at 2000 feet in their "High Elevation" vineyards. Meanwhile, in Argentina’s Andes, some guys are growing grapes at over 10,000 feet.

These guys don't even care to look down at the rest of us.🧵

The Calchaquí Valleys sit on the Altiplano in northern Argentina. A dry, rugged plateau surrounded by some of the tallest mountains in the Andes.

Vineyards like Bodega Colomé’s Altura Máxima are planted at 10,500 feet, with 20,000-foot peaks towering above them.

Farming at this elevation is a different game.

In this high desert environment, all of the water comes from snowmelt, moved through simple gravity-fed ditches carved into the rock and Tractors struggle to run in the thin air so most of the work is done by hand.

How can grapes even grow at this altitude?

• They’re closer to the equator, so the sun is stronger and more consistent.
• The dry air from the Andes keeps disease pressure low.

These brutal conditions do a few things to the grapes:

• Thicker skins
• Smaller berries
• Higher natural acid
• Slow sugar development
• Deeper color and structure

The vines get battered all season long and that can be a good thing.

Most every grape varieties can't take it.

Malbec survives because it handles UV, drought, and cold nights without breaking down. Torrontés survives because it ripens fast and keeps its aromatics even under a punishing sun.

But how different do they taste from their neighboring, low elevation counterparts?

Malbec from these heights is darker, fresher, and tighter than anything you’ll find in the lowlands.

Torrontés turns sharp, floral, and piercing. It is electric compared to a coastal white.

Of course, vineyards this high are small by nature. Yields are low. Most of the wine stays local. But if you want to hunt some down, look for bottles from Bodega Colomé or Bodega Tacuil.

I grow Pinot Noir at 6000 feet, in the highest wine region in North America. Sometimes I think what I’m doing is crazy.

But these guys put me to shame. They’re farming grapes at elevations that match the highest mountains around me.

I really need to get my hands on a bottle from here to compare.

Cheers🍷

Most wine isn't built to age.

What should you look for in a wine before you spend your next decade decade waiting?

Acid and tannin are the frame.

These are your two biggest structural clues. Acid keeps wine alive over time. Without it, the wine falls flat after a few years. Tannin provides grip and preservation for reds. Without enough tannin, they lose their backbone and turn flabby.

You want to look for wines that feel tight, even a little aggressive, in their youth. They need time to soften. If a wine already feels smooth and easygoing, it's probably showing you its best self right now.

This is counterintuitive and takes time to learn.

Alcohol can be a red flag.

High alcohol doesn't age well unless there's serious balance to back it up. That 15% fruit bomb sitting on the shelf is probably peaking right now. Lower alcohol with robust structure is usually a better bet for the long haul.

Here's why: the alcohol shows up as heat which comes to the forefront as wine ages. What feels warm but manageable at year one can turn hot and harsh at year ten.

Oak isn't aging.

People think oakiness equals aging potential. Not always. Heavy oak can add tannic structure, but will also mask flaws early on. It doesn't guarantee anything outside of the wine will tasting like vanilla or toast for longer.

Wines with light, well-integrated oak often hold up better over time and since its whats underneath the oak that matters, you'll be able to tell that easier.

Reputation matters (sometimes).

If a wine has a track record of aging well, that's a good sign, but each vintage has some variation due to weather, winemaking decisions, and vineyard changes. There is no guarantee.

Check the winery's cellar practices, vineyard site, and aging history. You shouldn't make an aging decision based off a pretty label.

The longest my family has aged our estate Pinot Noir is 17 years. The longest I've aged wine that I personally made is 6 years. Upon last check, both are still getting better.

The Sovereignon Individual.

This is who I make wine for 🫡

EAT MEAT DRINK WINE🇺🇸🍷

I genuinely don't understand why plates exist.

All you need is a cutting board and wine glasses. Try it tonight.🍷

Bitcoin attracts people from every walk of life The only real barrier to entry is curiosity. Curious people tend to be successful, so when you gather a bunch of curious people together, you get humbled fast.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve met a random Bitcoiner only to realize they were way ahead of me. Smarter. More Successful in business. Or just figured this all out 10 years before I did.

I have been in countless conversations thinking, "Who the fuck am I? I’ve done nothing compared to this person, but for some reason they want to talk to me?"

There's always a bitcoiner thats better than you at everything.

For Example: Skiing has always been my thing. I am really fucking good and I rarely get to ski with people who push my limits. Being the best in my crew has been a source of ego for me for a long time.

A few years ago, I went to the Bitcoin Ski Summit and as we broke into groups and the first one was labeled, “If you’re the best skier on the mountain, join this one.” I jumped right in. It was a powder day at Jackson Hole. I wasn't about to be polite waiting on some Jerry to go find their lost ski.

The last person to join the group was some dude without a helmet. Jerry-ville for sure.

Turns out the dude was an Olympic skier and I couldn't keep up even going 100%. Best Day Ever and I was honored when he defied the authorities to smuggle a bottle of my wine home to Canada.

They say firewood warms you twice. Well, Bitcoin humbles you twice. First, by showing you the world does not work the way you thought. Then, by surrounding you with casually incredible people.

I need a license to buy grapes. I need a license to drive to pick up grapes. I need a license to make wine. I need a license to pay taxes on the wine I sell.

OI! You got a Loicense for your life?

Here is a list of all the preservatives a winery can add to their wine without having to disclose that information on the label.

sulfur dioxide potassium metabisulfite potassium sorbate ammonium sulfite ammonium bisulfite sodium sulfite sodium bisulfite sodium metabisulfite copper sulfate zinc sulfate

There's no way to find out which of these is in your wine without contacting the winemaker directly. Shake your Winemaker's Hand.

Saturday Sun! ☀️ Pregame for Saturday Night 🍷

Whoever said "Don't get high on your own supply" definitely never made wine. 😉🍇🧡

Does wine get more valuable over time?

Let's level set.

You can't just walk into a wine shop, grab any bottle off the shelf, stash it away for a few years, and expect to flip it for a profit. The wine might improve in quality if you store it well, but there are real barriers to resale.

Don't trust. Verify.

How can I be sure you stored that bottle properly for a decade? What if the power went out one summer and your wine fridge hit 85 degrees for two days? That's enough to cook a bottle.

The only real proof that the wine was aged well comes when you pop the cork. Unfortunately, the sale happens long before then so reputation is everything and that takes decades to build.

The wine has to matter in the first place.

Most wines on shelves aren't built to age and don't come from a vintage anyone's hunting for. There's a glut of wines that taste similar, fade fast, or never had any upside to begin with.

Why would someone pay a premium for your ten-year-old bottle when there are tons of others with the same profile?

Only a small handful of wineries have earned a reputation for age-worthy wines. Within that, not every vintage even stand out.

If you want to dip your toes into aging wine, here's my advice: Buy a full case of a red you love. Store it properly. Open one bottle every six months. You'll notice a difference and it'll be an enjoyable exercise.

As for those of you buying my wine with the idea of flipping it someday: I'm honored. I think my wine is suited to age well and unique enough to be worthwhile. If you end up making money by reselling my wine, that's great for me.

But I'm not holding my breath...especially in Bitcoin terms.

EAT MEAT DRINK WINE🇺🇸🍷

I do not foot stomp my grapes

I don't make Merlot anymore because of the movie Sideways.

Hollywood ruins everything.

You can just grow grapes here 🍇

Preston had one too many...bottles 😉

Peony Lane FTW 🍷#Bitcoin #Winechain

Shake your winemaker's hand

Bitcoin attracts people from every walk of life The only real barrier to entry is curiosity. Curious people tend to be successful, so when you gather a bunch of curious people together, you get humbled fast.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve met a random Bitcoiner only to realize they were way ahead of me. Smarter. More Successful in business. Or just figured this all out 10 years before I did.

I have been in countless conversations thinking, "Who the fuck am I? I’ve done nothing compared to this person, but for some reason they want to talk to me?"

There's always a bitcoiner thats better than you at everything.

For Example: Skiing has always been my thing. I am really fucking good and I rarely get to ski with people who push my limits. Being the best in my crew has been a source of ego for me for a long time.

A few years ago, I went to the Bitcoin Ski Summit and as we broke into groups and the first one was labeled, “If you’re the best skier on the mountain, join this one.” I jumped right in. It was a powder day at Jackson Hole. I wasn't about to be polite waiting on some Jerry to go find their lost ski.

The last person to join the group was some dude without a helmet. Jerry-ville for sure.

Turns out the dude was an Olympic skier and I couldn't keep up even going 100%. Best Day Ever and I was honored when he defied the authorities to smuggle a bottle of my wine home to Canada.

They say firewood warms you twice. Well, Bitcoin humbles you twice. First, by showing you the world does not work the way you thought. Then, by surrounding you with casually incredible people.

This Chardonnay was a YOLO experiment.

It's the only wine I've ever made that HASN'T won an award because "It lacks varietal character"

That's exactly what I wanted.

So after hearing that and getting feedback from wine professionals that this was my best wine, I've stopped caring about wine awards.

You won't see me bragging about how well I fit into their narrow boxes for what wine "should" taste like.

Judge Me Harderr Daddy

Wine is nothing but a multiplier.

Great company, good food, the right moment. Wine can elevate the experience.

Even the nicest bottle can't turn a shitty day around and shitty wine can be amazing with friends.

Drink to enhance, not to escape.

I much prefer drinking a few glasses of wine one night per week over one glass of wine a few nights a week.

That's balance for me

DRINK ANOTHER FUCKING MERLOT

What goes through your head when you drink my Pinot Noir? 🍷👀

High Elevation Wine Farming Works without chemicals (while most other regions depend on them)

If it's not cold, and it's not dry, you're going to have pest, disease or fungus problems. Most U.S. wine regions don't offer both which is why farming organically is nearly impossible.

On the extreme difficulty end of the spectrum, Virginia (2% of US wine production) is too hot and too humid. Summer rain fuels black rot, downy mildew, powdery mildew, and botrytis. Only three vineyards in the entire state are certified organic.

The Finger Lakes (0.5%) are cold, but still humid. Same diseases.

California (81%) is dry, but pest pressure is extreme. They fight Pierce's disease, phylloxera, and leafroll virus with a mix of chemicals and integrated pest strategies.

Fighting all of these issues is while remaining organic can be like fighting against inflation by holding treasury bonds. Its just not affective enough and is the main reason why only 0.4% of the wine grapes grown in the USA are produced organically.

The best way to avoid these issues is to find a place that is just cold enough to kills pest and just dry enough to stave off infection while also not being too cold and too dry to be able to actually farm.

Only small pockets of these zipper zones exist around the USA and they do come with their own challenges, but Colorado's West Elks AVA is one of them.

Here we farm at knifes edge between the Rocky Mountains and the Utah Desert. At 6,000+ feet, the winters kill off most threats and the arid summers prevent mildew.

The tradeoff? Most vines can't survive here and even the ones that do get frozen back to the ground (destroying an entire vintage) every few years.

Despite being known as a finicky grape, Pinot Noir thrives here. Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer and Riesling do too.

Our Wine Region is small, but this climate allows us to punch above our weight.

Turns out by accepting Bitcoin, my prices will go down Forever. I'm Rekt.

Why didn't anyone tell me? Peonylanewine.com

Eat Steak. Drink Natural Wine. Have fun.

Your grandparents wouldn't touch the wine you see in stores today. They'd taste the chemical additives.

Drink Peony Lane. Make them proud.

Oak aging brings more dramatic shifts, but most of a wine’s quiet evolution happens once it’s already in the bottle.

Wine is almost always evolving.

Corks aren’t sealed air-tight. Tiny amounts of oxygen slip through over the years, softening tannins and deepening aromas. This slow, steady exchange lets tannins bind together, softens edges, and builds the depth that only time can create. When it happens too fast, freshness fades and the wine flattens before it’s ready.

Different closures change the pace. A traditional cork lets in a little air. A synthetic cork often lets in more than you’d want. A screw cap allows almost none.

If you’re holding wine for the long run, store it cool, dark place on its side.

If you don’t have a way to do that, just find a good reason to pop that cork. Wine only gets better with age when it’s being treated right.

Winemaking is v dangerous

If you don't buy wine, you're a bear.

The Art of Storage: Wine, Bitcoin, and Trusting Time

The best things improve with time, but only if you store them right.

The Real Deal: Cold Storage & Natural Wine When the asset is real, you store it with care. Natural wine goes in the cellar. Bitcoin lives in cold storage. Both require:

• Shelter from daily volatility
• Time to realize their potential
• Patience to let nature take over

You think in longer timeframes here. Bitcoin moves in four-year cycles. Good wine spends years in its prime. No rush. No panic moves.

The Proxies: Hot Wallets & Conventional Wine Then there's the fast lane: Treasury strategies. Mass-market wine. Built for access, not aging.

• Preserved wine can sit on shelves
• Bitcoin in a fund needs constant oversight
• Both reward activity, not stillness

These models rely on management, not maturation. They can perform well, but they don't reward patience.

The Principle The closer you get to the real thing, the more cold storage and patience become valuable. If you're betting on innovation, you need to act fast and stay nimble. If you're holding scarcity, time does the heavy lifting.

Conventional wine can taste great. Bitcoin proxies can perform. But there's something different about holding the real thing and watching it blossom on its own timeline.

What are you storing for the long term?

Eggs can Make Wine Great Again

Seriously. Egg whites are used in red wine as a natural clarifying agent to soften tannins, reduce astringency, and improve mouthfeel.

You pour the egg whites in, stir, and wait.🧵

A protein called albumin binds to sediment, settles out, and leaves a clearer, smoother, egg-free wine.

How do you know if a wine was clarified this way? You won’t, unless you meet the winemaker and ask.

Ingredient labels are not required, and it would probably kill sales if a winemaker went around telling everyone he uses eggs.

On the flip side, you also can’t tell if a wine didn’t use this process. A wine labeled vegan won’t have been clarified with eggs, but many self-respecting winemakers, like me, can’t bring themselves to label their wines ‘VEGAN’ even if they are.

Because of the implication.

I don't have any data to prove my wine is the best.

In fact, I think numbers ruined wine.

As soon as we started caring about how many points a bottle scored more than the experience we had while drinking it, the soul of wine died.

Wine is an art form meant to be enjoyed. It's best with friends or in accompaniment with another art form like cooking.

Reduce it to numbers and you miss the point entirely.

I love when Bitcoiners come visit the cellar🍷

"Wine Tannins give me Massive Headaches"🍷

As a low-intervention winemaker, that one caught me off guard.

I’ve heard people blame sugar, sulfites, even histamines. But tannins? Let’s talk about what they are—and what they’re not. 🧵

Tannins are natural compounds found in grape skins, seeds, stems, and oak barrels.

They aren’t about flavor—they’re about texture.

They’re much more present in red and orange wines than in whites or rosés, since those wines stay in contact with skins, seeds, stems, and oak barrels much longer.

I often hear people say a wine is dry, referring to that mouth-drying sensation you get from certain wines.

However, when a wine is dry, that means it isn’t sweet.

People who describe highly tannic wines this way aren't totally wrong because tannins bind to your saliva and do leave your mouth feeling dried out.

While a lot of the tannins in red wine do come from the grapes of oak barrel, then can also be added during winemaking—usually in powder form.

Most of these powders are derived from natural sources like oak or grape skins, and can support structure, aroma, and color without changing the identity of the wine.

I use oak-derived tannins in some of my wines, especially since I age in neutral barrels.

This helps me use less sulfur in my winemaking.

Tannins act more like a protective coating that helps show off the wine’s natural brilliance—not a tool for manipulation.

Most wine additives are used as part of a manipulation regime—designed to hit a target flavor profile, often at the expense of transparency.

And with over 70 approved additives that don’t have to be listed on a wine label, the real culprit behind your wine headache could be anything.

Tannins are different.

There is some nuance.

Hydrolyzable tannins like gallotannins (from oak galls or chestnut wood)—have been linked to mild inflammation or histamine release in sensitive individuals.

But they’re typically used in small amounts and are far less likely to be the issue than residual sugar, poor fermentation, or a cocktail of other additives.

Tannins aren’t usually the problem. The winemaking style might be.

Wine is complicated and often swept into a shroud of mystery to keep consumers in the dark.

But knowing a little can change a lot.

I’ll be sharing more about how to navigate additives, labels, and wine in general.

Linking wine to status never made sense to me.

Wine has so much less to do with what you spend on the bottle than the connections it creates. Any wine can be great if you pair it with good friends or a nice meal.

The memories are what matter in the end. So why spend more when cheap wine checks that same box?

The difference is in how you feel afterward.

A great night with friends shouldn't end with a headache as you're going to bed and you shouldn't have to think twice about opening a bottle because you're worried about how tomorrow will feel.

That comes down to what's actually in the wine.

Most conventional wine is full of additives and excessive sulfites that your body doesn't handle well. That's where much of the hangover comes from.

Drink low intervention or natural wine. Meet your winemaker. Ask questions about what goes into the bottle. Once you find wine that leaves you feeling good the next morning, you stop worrying and start enjoying the nights that matter.

You'll find more excuses to have them too Peonylanewine.com/wines