Somebody stop us

There is a distinct possibility that we will soon become the owners of a
vineyard that supplies the Concha Y Toro winery.

Ten hectares (about 12 and a half acres) of which eight ha are given
over to grapes. Decent house in good order, though needing
refurbishment. Outbuildings. Price a quarter of a million US dollars.

The Doctor is in full cry. I'm boggling.

"I've always wanted to have a vineyard."

"I know sod all about it."

"I'm willing to learn. And we can hire people to do the work."

"Well, OK. You know how I earn a living and that's not going to change."

 

Post corrected.

 

You clearly know sod all about land area - 10 hectares is ~24.7 acres
does that make it more of a bargain for you?

Rowdy

 

Indeed, indeed.

 

No, that's just my mental arithmetic. I know a hectare is two and a half
acres: just somehow fused in betwen calculating and typing.

 

(The Older Gentleman) gurgled happily,
sounding much like they were saying:

So you're thinking of buying a small industrial-scale soft fruit farm
(which, purely coincidentally, happens to be grapes that happen to become
industrial-scale wine, but might as well be raspberries or tomatoes or
whatever else)?

But you'd not going to be _wine-making_, would you? You'd just be
producing a cash-crop of soft fruit for somebody else's factory.

You write about industrial-scale food processing, and about the
challenges facing small-scale growers who supply to them, right?

 

250k USD? Bargain.

BTW - have you seen Bottle Shock?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0914797/

Well worth it if you haven't. Most apposite.

 

"... for nothing, if we have a few bikes knocking about the place that
they can play on outside work hours." ??

 

Indeed I do. However, I've already suggested we take a worst-case view:
that we don't sell a single grape and rely on Plan A for income.

 

(The Older Gentleman) gurgled happily,
sounding much like they were saying:

That's not the worst-case.

The worst-case is that you make a whopping loss trying to grow/sell
grapes...

 

Heh. The barter economy.

"Sort out this row of vines, Jose, and I'll fix the puncture on your
Chinese 125."

 

We had 2 hectares of vinyard in France and an arrangement with the
local wine cooperative - they looked after the vinyard and took the
grapes and gave us a few cases of paint stripper in return!
Unfortunately all gone now as really not viable for them running such a
small plot and we've run of tuits.

 

(The Older Gentleman) wrote in

"feex my bike, geeve me the grapes or I keel your wife"

 

Which is what I meant.

 

And for those interested, Google Earth location:

-34.6407788292,-71.0975087668

Everything bordered by those tall trees, really, up to that straight
line that runs almost exactly north-south in the top right-hand corner.

Well, we'll see. Plenty more places to look at tomorrow.

 

So about half the size of the average European vineyard. That's too
big to be run just for fun. So either you want to grow grapes on a
commercial basis or you don't. I'd have thought not. Find a vignette
instead!

 

In communiqué <1juw2xq.qzy2qx1n3mjgjN%>,

Hacienda of it then.

Looks like plenty of off-road biking opportunities not far away.

Just maintaining boundaries and preventing it returning to wilderness
will take some work. I have just under 2 hectares at 'the chateau'.
Fortunately the highways people keep most of the boundary hacked back as
it is in a loop in a 'D' road. Then, you would be there most of the time
to go out and have a quick swing of your machette.


--
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<snigger>

JB

 

It sounds like trouble and hassle. Much more than you can know. The opposite
of a decluttered and simplified more relaxed life.
Leave agriculture to those who have to do it or got born into it. Pleasure
isn't a major feature.
There are far far better things to do with $250k

You will already have enough space for bees and if you must make yourself
busier I'm sure the vineyards will appreciate more bees and hives around the
region. Bees are busy and interesting and not excessively hard work.

But WTF do I know with only 300 years of agricultural and dairy history in
the family. Both sides of the family. )

I expect you are posting because you already made up your mind. Which is a
shame.

 

Far from it. Lots more places to see tomorrow.

Having a long chat with SWK later this week, really, about the
possibility of simply renting out the wineyard to someone else.