The long bet

This year, I am acutely aware of the number checks I’ve written for AERILYN without a single bottle to sell.

That feels strange in any business. It feels particularly strange when the wine industry seems to have a new piece of bad news every week. A legendary Sonoma producer filed for bankruptcy. Direct-to-consumer sales continued to contract. Producers I respect are talking openly about how difficult the market has become.

I would be lying if I said I don’t think about it.

So I went back to the questions I have asked throughout my career: What exactly did I build? Why did I build it this way? And does it still make sense when I strip away everything happening around it?

The answesr took me back to 2023, when I made a series of decisions before I knew what the next few years would look like.

I decided to keep production small and sell directly to my end consumers through allocations rather than build a retail or wholesale business. I decided we would rent capacity rather than plant a vineyard or build a winery, partnering with responsible growers who had fruit available, and with production facilities that had the equipment and expertise to execute my vision. That allowed me to put resources into the wine itself rather than into infrastructure I didn't need to own.

It turns out the smallest producers, selling serious wines directly, are the one part of the industry that grew in value last year. That was never the reason I built AERILYN this way. But it is reassuring to see that the part of the market I chose to build for is still standing.

Then there was another commitment, one that was much more personal. I would never put anything in a bottle that I didn’t actually like. Full Stop.

I wanted to be proud of these wines. I wanted to be able to pour them for my family and friends and be genuinely excited about what I was giving them.

That standard shaped the way we make the wine. We chose the traditional method and use only the purest juice from the press. We give the wines years in tirage because I believe time is part of what makes the world’s best sparkling wines. We ferment and age in small lots, taste each one throughout the process, and make blending decisions based on what we want to end up in the glass.

There are more than 90 years of collective winemaking experience among the people I am fortunate enough to work with. I bring my own experience and judgment to the decisions, and together we have come up with something I think is genuinely special.

The surprising part is how well the wines are already showing.

Every time we open a bottle, I get more excited about our 1st releases. I find myself thinking about the people I want to pour them for, and about the moment when I can finally put a bottle in front of someone and say, “Here. Taste this.”

I am excited for 2027, when I can start doing exactly that.

The market may take time to find its footing. I don’t know what it will look like when the AERILYN releases begin. What I do know is what I built, why I built it, and the standard I set for what goes into the bottle.

That is why I made the long bet.

Ever curious,

Tammee