Nostr notes by PeonyLaneWine

Ben, your wine was good, and it was even better on the second ...

2026-10-27T17:00:01Z

Ben, your wine was good, and it was even better on the second day, but on the third day? WOW.

It seems crazy to me to let a wine open up this long, even with the cork stuck back in, but to each their own.

Here's what happens when wine meets the air👇

A little oxygen helps soften tannins, open up tight aromas to express themselves, and clarify flavors to be clearer and more expressive.

As long as the wine is open, it will continue to react with oxygen and eventually it will turn the wine bad, but everyone draws that line differently.

Some people like drinking my wine right after popping the cork, some after waiting 3 days. Neither one is necessarily right, but the two experiences can be VERY different.

Wen Lambo?? nah. Wen Peony Lane 🍷 ...

2026-10-25T21:00:01Z

Wen Lambo??
nah.
Wen Peony Lane 🍷

Black Market Wine Scout & Cellar sells a $25 Gallivant ...

2026-10-25T15:00:01Z

Black Market Wine

Scout & Cellar sells a $25 Gallivant chardonnay. The marketing copy says it's made by "a fifth-generation family winery founded in Monterey in 1883." Sounds legit, but they won't tell you which one.

Wente Vineyards, a fifth-generation family winery founded in 1883 in Monterey just happens to sell an $18 Morning Fog chardonnay.

It's the same wine.

The business of selling bulk wine makes sense. Harvest comes once a year, so if you come up short, you buy bulk to fill gaps. If you get a bumper crop, grapes don't keep. You're better off making wine and selling the excess later. Nothing wrong with that.

What sucks is the deception. Romance sells better than reality, so companies create mystery instead of transparency. Real producers can't shut up about their land. They geek out over soil, elevation, microclimate. The best wineries use transparency as their biggest selling point.

Many brands have realized consumers will trust a story without verifying, so they grift off that expectation. If you notice a winery being vague about where their grapes come from, that's your red flag.

Real wineries love talking about their vineyards.

What was the thing that pushed you over the edge to order Peony ...

2026-10-24T21:00:00Z

What was the thing that pushed you over the edge to order Peony Lane Wine?

What receiving Peony Lane feels like🍷 ...

2026-10-24T15:00:00Z

What receiving Peony Lane feels like🍷

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

2026-10-24T03:00:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…cksx
_________________________

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

It still just blows my mind that I can drink 3/4 of a bottle of ...

2026-10-23T18:00:01Z

It still just blows my mind that I can drink 3/4 of a bottle of Peony Lane Wine to myself, not take drinking water before bed seriously and wake up without a hint of a hint of a headache the next morning.

If you're wondering how every historical figure survived being drunk all the time, this is how.

Starting at 10, I worked every summer in the vineyard that is now ...

2026-10-21T14:00:01Z

Starting at 10, I worked every summer in the vineyard that is now my livelihood. I hated it.

If I could go back in time and tell myself one thing...I probably would've kept my mouth shut.

"This is your future" - would have scared me away
"Buy Bitcoin" - I'd never have learned hard lessons

Sometimes the naivety of the moment is the best thing for you.

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

2026-10-20T17:00:01Z

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.

A winemaker in the USA can add any of these acidity adjusters to ...

2026-10-19T18:00:01Z

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 ...

2026-10-18T21:00:01Z

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 ...

2026-10-18T15:00:00Z

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)

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

2026-10-17T22:00:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…z7wh
_________________________

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

At Peony Lane is just You and the Grapes, Skin to Skin. 🍷 No ...

2026-10-17T21:00:01Z

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

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

Wine is art. Drink your art. ...

2026-10-16T18:00:00Z

Wine is art.
Drink your art.

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

2026-10-15T16:00:01Z

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.

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

2026-10-14T22:00:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…223x
_________________________

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

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

2026-10-14T14:00:02Z

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 ...

2026-10-13T23:00:01Z

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🍷 ...

2026-10-13T17:00:01Z

Treat your friends to a bottle of Peony Lane🍷

Wine and whiskey both contain alcohol. But your body does not ...

2026-10-12T18:00:01Z

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 🍷 ...

2026-10-11T21:00:00Z

Now that's some #Bitcoin Wine 🍷

Don't wine about it Everything is gonna be grape ...

2026-10-10T21:00:00Z

Don't wine about it
Everything is gonna be grape

What pairs with Bone Marrow? #Winechain ...

2026-10-10T15:00:01Z

What pairs with Bone Marrow?
#Winechain

Eat Steak. Drink Natural Wine. Have fun. ...

2026-10-09T18:00:00Z

Eat Steak.
Drink Natural Wine.
Have fun.

You shop differently at a farmers market. I sold wine at farmers ...

2026-10-07T14:00:00Z

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 ...

2026-10-06T23:00:01Z

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.

Nostr event nevent1qqsqjenhdmtdlh9m0yj8trhvjuadeqt0rvq5vez0j82pdyrar73s37czyrmkw260fxn9nn96s5rx2y8snf5sm3a80p5kjq7f3c37tygg09zfg3r9dpr

2026-10-06T17:00:00Z

Wine culture can be so cringe. 🍷

Colorado Cabernet Franc is a Revelation. You probably know ...

2026-10-05T18:00:01Z

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.

I make low intervention wine at high elevation. The best deal ...

2026-10-05T03:00:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…gnx8
_________________________

I make low intervention wine at high elevation.

The best deal I'm currently offering is 4 bottles of my Estate Pinot Noir + 1 month of free TBL Pro from The Bitcoin Layer for $210 with Free Ground shipping.

Only 21 available.
https://peonylanewine.com/wines?utm_source=nostr&utm_medium=reply&utm_campaign=tbl-pinot-bundle&utm_content=peony-engager

Seems like selling wine for Bitcoin was a good idea. Too bad I ...

2026-10-03T21:00:01Z

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 ...

2026-10-03T15:00:01Z

"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 ...

2026-10-02T18:00:01Z

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

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

2026-09-29T23:00:00Z

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 ...

2026-09-29T17:00:00Z

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🍷

An unlimited supply of this wine is why all my friends are now ...

2026-09-28T18:00:00Z

An unlimited supply of this wine is why all my friends are now Bitcoiners.

In business today, you are either growing or you are dying. ...

2026-09-27T21:00:01Z

In business today, you are either growing or you are dying.
Bitcoin gave me a third option.

Bitcoin is my growth division.

When I started Peony Lane, all I knew was that I wanted to build a business I enjoyed. My logic was simple. If I enjoyed doing it, I would find a way to make enough money, and since the work is tied to my family, I wanted something I could see myself doing forever.

Turns out running a big winery and dealing with distributors does not sound fun at all.
I like making wine for Bitcoiners and shitpoasting on the internet.

No, it doesn't make a ton of money, but I figured out this Bitcoin thing. If I'm right, my retirement is already covered and if I'm wrong, I'll get to enjoy debt slavery anyway.

So my goals are simple.
Stay cashflow positive and keep making great wine.

I have no plans to scale production and I don't think I need them.

Bitcoin IS my growth plan.

Is my career safe from AI? We're all thinking it. A ...

2026-09-27T15:00:00Z

Is my career safe from AI? We're all thinking it.

A winemaker's future isn't as simple as "a robot will take my job."

I'll benefit from the first wave of automation through better software tools for marketing and production. When I zoom out, I see robots working my vineyard, trained more precisely than any human.

A robot can't make good wine though, right?

Most wine, especially in the USA, is ready for robotic production. Massive wine operations focus on reproducible, consistent, and formulaic results. This doesn't create interesting wine, but it's big business.

Winemaking is a balance between art and science. A robot will definitely be able to complete the science based tasks, but the question remains: Can AI do art?

There's this concept of "wu" from The Man in the High Castle - this soul-connection between maker and creation. You notice it when AI images lack that certain something that gives it soul or makes it feel real.

AI will get better and better at replicating soul. The masses won't care, they already don't, and will appreciate cheaper wine.

My career future rests on whether people care enough to spend the extra money for wine with soul produced by a human.

Your grandparents wouldn't touch the wine you see in stores ...

2026-09-26T15:00:00Z

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

Drink Peony Lane.
Make them proud.

The Sovereignon Individual. ...

2026-09-22T23:00:01Z

The Sovereignon Individual.

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

2026-09-22T22:00:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…xhde
_________________________

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

It takes four years before a new vine gives you a good harvest. ...

2026-09-22T17:00:03Z

It takes four years before a new vine gives you a good harvest.
That's also the minimum length of time you should hold bitcoin.

I planted a new vineyard in 2020 and found bitcoin later that same year.
Both are taking longer than I expected.

That's fine by me.

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

2026-09-21T22:01:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…wwew
_________________________

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

I make low intervention wine at high elevation. The best deal ...

2026-09-21T21:00:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…07np
_________________________

I make low intervention wine at high elevation.

The best deal I'm currently offering is 4 bottles of my Estate Pinot Noir + 1 month of free TBL Pro from The Bitcoin Layer for $210 with Free Ground shipping.

Only 21 available.
https://peonylanewine.com/wines?utm_source=nostr&utm_medium=reply&utm_campaign=tbl-pinot-bundle&utm_content=peony-engager

Wine here Get your wine here! Low Intervention, High Elevation, ...

2026-09-21T18:00:00Z

Wine here
Get your wine here!

Low Intervention, High Elevation, TASTY wine here!

The Clean Wine Contradiction: Why I Use the Term (And How You ...

2026-09-20T21:00:01Z

The Clean Wine Contradiction: Why I Use the Term (And How You Should Evaluate It)

I need to address something uncomfortable: I market myself as "clean wine," and that term has been completely bastardized.

Anyone can slap "clean wine," "low intervention," or even "natural wine" on their label. There's zero regulation about these terms in the USA and Companies are exploiting wine's unique regulatory gap. Alcohol is the only major beverage category that doesn't require ingredient lists.

That means many producers sell premium-priced "clean" wine while disparaging conventional producers. They're making bank off consumer anxiety about mysterious additives, often while their own wines come from the same bulk market they're supposedly disrupting.

How the Wine World Deals With It (Spoiler: They Don't)

There are people calling out this BS, but there's no grand solution in sight.

The regulatory gaps that allow this nonsense also exist for legitimate reasons - wine isn't a manufactured product with consistent inputs year after year.

Requiring detailed ingredient labels would crush small producers under bureaucratic burden. Many winemaking aids don't actually stay in the finished wine - do those go on the label? And ingredients lists won't tell you if the producer used pesticides anyway.

Meanwhile, there's a thriving "black market" where anyone can buy bulk wine, slap their own label on it, and compete aggressively because they don't have vineyards to maintain.

Unless you want government agents inspecting every winery (and trust me, alcohol regulation is burdensome enough), this wild west situation isn't changing anytime soon.

My Solution: Don't Trust, Verify

So why do I still use the term "clean wine"? Because when done right, it means something. But you can't rely on the label to tell you what that is.

Here's my two-part litmus test for evaluating any wine, including mine:

1. Meet the Producer (Or Get As Close As Possible)
High-quality wine producers are transparent because they're proud of what they do. They want to tell you about their vineyard, the growing season, why their location creates amazing terroir. They geek out over details.

If a producer is vague about where their wine comes from, that's your red flag. Marketing companies selling private label wine keep things mysteriously simple.

Ask questions. Where are the grapes grown? Who makes the wine? What's their approach to vineyard management? The answers (or lack thereof) will tell you everything.

2. Live in a "Don't Trust, Verify" World

After you've done your homework, there are only two questions that matter:

Do I like the wine?
How do I feel afterward?

That's it. That's your quality control.

Your body knows the difference between wine that's been manipulated to death and wine that's been crafted with care. Some people get headaches from certain sulfites. Others react poorly to high tannin manipulation.

The proof is in the bottle

Nostr event nevent1qqsynddt67g8gm5fzrjl8gnrvl5h9f7788tfklsq8m5zv6r8hce0wcszyrmkw260fxn9nn96s5rx2y8snf5sm3a80p5kjq7f3c37tygg09zfgm57cnu

2026-09-20T15:00:00Z

Did you know wine is good?

This is who I make wine for 🫡 ...

2026-09-19T21:00:00Z

This is who I make wine for 🫡

Running Peony Lane has shown me how wineries scale and why many ...

2026-09-19T15:00:04Z

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.

Corks are 100% Natural. They come from cork trees and unless you ...

2026-09-18T18:00:03Z

Corks are 100% Natural.

They come from cork trees and unless you want polyurethane glue in contact with your wine, you need to choose wine that uses them.

So many wineries cut costs here.

The difference between Pinot Noir vines and Thompson's ...

2026-09-17T16:00:03Z

The difference between Pinot Noir vines and Thompson's seedless. Both planted in CO in 2004.

Farming Pinot Noir at elevation isn't easy 🍇

I make low intervention wine at high elevation. The best deal ...

2026-09-17T04:00:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…264m
_________________________

I make low intervention wine at high elevation.

The best deal I'm currently offering is 4 bottles of my Estate Pinot Noir + 1 month of free TBL Pro from The Bitcoin Layer for $210 with Free Ground shipping.

Only 21 available.
https://peonylanewine.com/wines?utm_source=nostr&utm_medium=reply&utm_campaign=tbl-pinot-bundle&utm_content=peony-engager

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

2026-09-16T22:00:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…xeql
_________________________

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

EAT MEAT DRINK WINE🇺🇸🍷 ...

2026-09-16T14:00:00Z

EAT MEAT DRINK WINE🇺🇸🍷

Nostr event nevent1qqsv3utud9hy3nz42y7kdcr0xt3c36thsh857nqggwcgwthjysg6jaczyrmkw260fxn9nn96s5rx2y8snf5sm3a80p5kjq7f3c37tygg09zfgve9xze

2026-09-15T23:00:00Z

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

We're really gonna make this whole mission happen. Freedom ...

2026-09-15T17:00:01Z

We're really gonna make this whole mission happen. Freedom money 💪

I got sucked into Bitcoin, but never would have gone this hard if a bunch of psychopaths didn't start buying my wine with Bitcoin.

We're gonna win because of you.

Stop aging cheap wine. That wine was made with enough ...

2026-09-14T18:00:01Z

Stop aging cheap wine.

That wine was made with enough preservatives to make last forever, not age gracefully.

Your kitchen wine rack isn't helping either.

Get serious about aging or drink the damn bottle.

You're being lied to about wine, Anon. To most people, ...

2026-09-13T15:00:01Z

You're being lied to about wine, Anon.

To most people, vintage variation is entirely theoretical. They haven't actually experienced it and even if they have, it's a bit shrouded in mystery.

Have you ever taken the time to open up 2 bottles from the same vineyard of different vintages at the same time and given them the attention it takes to recognize the differences?

Vintage variation is ephemeral and hard to experience.

That's exactly why it's become lost in most American wine.

The average wine consumer is buying a $20-$30 bottle. They're picking by variety, then likely by finding a cool label. Once they find one they like, they stick with it because the wine aisle is an extremely daunting place to be.
That wine brand now has their loose loyalty because you liked their product that one time and know where to find it on the shelf. If the winery makes a vintage that tastes different (not necessarily "worse") they could lose you as a customer.

Not to mention, the ratings agencies that score wine have very specific flavor profiles they look for and, at the scale of these wineries, the difference between a 90 and a 91 score is millions and millions of dollars.

The fiat wine world incentivizes manipulation, and sameness and blending between vineyards to the extent that vintage variation is an extreme afterthought and no one even knows they're missing it.

But Ben, if no one even knows they're missing it, why should I care?

Vintage variation is a look into the soul of wine. You can tell characteristics about the vineyard from any vintage, but the difference in taste year to year is that ephemeral bit that makes people go crazy about wine in the same way that people go crazy about bitcoin when they first start going down the rabbit hole.

It's the secret sauce.

It's what truly differentiates soulful wine from the grape derived alcoholic beverages that are created by food scientists in labs that pass for wine these days.

Most bottles are just empty vessels. The soul was never invited in.

Wine sulfite removal drops are everywhere, They promise to ...

2026-09-12T21:00:01Z

Wine sulfite removal drops are everywhere, They promise to eliminate headaches and hangovers with a few drops.

But do they actually work?

These products contain food-grade hydrogen peroxide that chemically converts sulfites into sulfates through oxidation. UC Davis research shows a quarter teaspoon of 3% hydrogen peroxide can neutralize free sulfites in a typical wine bottle.

So yes, they do legitimately reduce sulfites by 30-50% through legitimate.

Only about 1% of people have genuine sulfite sensitivity, mostly those with asthma. For everyone else, hangovers come from alcohol dehydration, acetaldehyde buildup, histamines, tannins, or one of the 72 other additives allowed in American wine.

Outside of the Placebo Effect, the "hangover be gone" claim is misleading marketing for 99% of wine drinkers.

I don't think you need to be paying premium prices for stabilized hydrogen peroxide to solve a problem you probably don't have.

Better hangover prevention: drink water, eat food, moderate alcohol intake and drink Low Intervention Wine.

Bitcoin attracts people from every walk of life The only real ...

2026-09-12T15:00:01Z

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 ...

2026-09-11T18:00:00Z

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?

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

2026-09-10T22:01:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…6a78
_________________________

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

2026-09-10T22:01:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…24mr
_________________________

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

A small group of people can reshape an entire system. Nassim ...

2026-09-10T16:00:01Z

A small group of people can reshape an entire system.

Nassim Taleb coined the term Intransigent Minority to describe the
phenomenon.

When the cost of acquiring that group is low, the rest of the population is indifferent, and that group is stubborn enough to stand on what they believe, the system bends.

His go-to example is kosher food.

Fewer than 0.5% of Americans follow kosher rules, yet a huge portion of the grocery store is certified. Observant Jews won’t touch non-kosher food, but most people don’t think twice about it. So if you run a factory, it’s easier to make everything kosher than split your product line. One group has strict requirements. The other is flexible. That’s enough to tip the entire system.

I’m seeing something similar with bitcoin businesses. The pressure here isn’t negative or rooted in avoidance. It’s completely positive.

What I do see is a sharp rise in demand for products and services from companies that accept bitcoin alongside the dollar. Whether bitcoiners use it as a medium of exchange or not, it’s clear that having that option is good for business.

This pattern has been clear to me ever since bitcoiners started buying my wine, but my scale is small. Since then, I’ve watched everything from cottage producers to large ranching operations benefit from the same magnetic pull. Steak n’ Shake, with over 450 locations, is just the next evolution.

If a bitcoiner is getting a burger, Steak n’ Shake just jumped to the top of their list. They’ve already gained the attention of a group that punches above its weight. Time will tell how much we impact their business.

Bitcoiners’ impact doesn’t come from protest. It shows up as positive reinforcement. The Magnetic Minority rewards alignment and that reward is scaling.

Taleb gave us the template.
We’re writing our own story.

I do not foot stomp my grapes ...

2026-09-09T14:00:01Z

I do not foot stomp my grapes

If you’ve seen Sour Grapes, you know the story: A guy sold ...

2026-09-07T18:00:00Z

If you’ve seen Sour Grapes, you know the story:
A guy sold millions of dollars of fake "fine wine".

The reason his scam worked reveals something deeply engrained in the wine industry.

Most wine drinkers are being fooled. Just in a different way.

Rudy Kurniawan blended cheap wines and passed them off as rare Burgundy.
He wasn’t exposed because something tasted off.
He got caught because some of his labels didn’t match historical records.

That’s how easy it is to manipulate wine.
People trusted the story, not the contents.

Wine is ephemeral.
Every bottle changes every year and every hour after opening.

There is no fixed flavor to test against.
You could open five identical bottles and each one would taste a little different depending on how it was aged.

That’s part of the beauty. But it also makes it easy to hide behind.

The wine Rudy made wasn’t necessarily fake. It was engineered.
He used blending, additives, and packaging to mimic the character of rare bottles.

That same playbook is used across the wine industry.
Only now, it’s considered standard practice.

Most grocery store wine relies on:
- Low-grade grapes
- Oak flavoring
- Sugar
- Concentrates
- Lab-designed enzymes

It’s a formula made in a lab, sold with a story that is designed to make it feel like art.

The same confusion Rudy exploited is what allows commodity wine to dominate.
A wall of bottles, branded with warmth and tradition, hiding a product built through food science.

The wine world keeps you in the dark. On purpose.

How do you avoid this?

You don’t need a cellar or a huge budget to drink something real.
You just need to get closer to the source.

Shake your winemaker’s hand. Ask questions.
No one worth buying from will make you feel small for wanting to understand.

If they do, they’re part of the act.

The wine industry sold its soul.
And most people are still drinking the lie.

I make Unfiltered Wine in Colorado and am happy to answer any questions.

The idea of Tokenizing Fine Wine is clever. But it only makes ...

2026-09-03T16:00:00Z

The idea of Tokenizing Fine Wine is clever. But it only makes sense in a world distorted by fiat money.

Platforms like Bacchus and VinoVest let people buy fractional shares of rare bottles as an alternative investment. The demand for this product is coming from people looking for new ways to protect or grow their wealth as the value of fiat erodes. This is the same force driving crypto speculation, meme stocks, the explosion of sports betting and the rise of the S&P 500. When saving doesn’t work, you're forced further out on the risk curve.

Vintage wine is a great candidate for financialization. It is more scarce than Bitcoin. Once a vintage is gone, it’s gone and unlike bitcoin, its consumable. The best bottles can increase in value for decades. But ultimately, wine is not forever. It peaks, then fades and the fleeting goal of collectors is to time the peak...by drinking it. The highest purpose of wine is to be opened and enjoyed. That purpose disappears when a bottle becomes a line item in your brokerage app.

Tokenizing wine solves problems that only exist in the fiat world. It is a way to turn enjoyment into speculation, but it kills wine's fundamental value prop. YOU DON'T GET TO TASTE YOUR FRACTION. No one is going to mail you a sip of wine. You just have to hope someone else wants it more later. That logic treats wine less like culture and more like collateral.

In a world where money works, where saving in Bitcoin preserves your time and energy, you don’t need to chase exposure to an obscure asset class that you probably don't understand.. You don’t need a token for everything. These platforms aren’t bad ideas. They are just ideas for a broken system.

Fix the money, fix the incentives.
Make Wine Wine Again.

If Bitcoiners are Cyber Hornets, what should I call this wine? ...

2026-09-01T17:00:01Z

If Bitcoiners are Cyber Hornets, what should I call this wine?

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

2026-08-22T21:00:00Z

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

High Elevation Wine Farming Works without chemicals (while most ...

2026-08-22T15:00:00Z

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.

Oak aging brings more dramatic shifts, but most of a wine’s ...

2026-08-18T23:00:00Z

I make low intervention wine in the mountains of Paonia, ...

2026-08-16T22:00:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…5j7d
_________________________

I make low intervention wine in the mountains of Paonia, Colorado.

Minimal sulfites. No toxic additives.
Peony Lane is unfined and unfiltered.

If you can't taste the difference, you'll feel it the next morning.

6+ bottles ship free.
https://peonylanewine.com/wines?utm_source=nostr&utm_medium=reply&utm_campaign=peony-engager

Do calories all count the same even if they make you feel ...

2026-08-11T17:00:01Z

Do calories all count the same even if they make you feel differently?

Tryna figure out how wine calories don't count so more anorexic girls will buy my wine

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

2026-06-15T22:03:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…ktgp
_________________________

Pairs with Peony Lane? 🍷

If you’ve seen Sour Grapes, you know the story: A guy sold ...

2026-04-16T21:00:01Z