Wine is fragile and difficult to ship. Bitcoin is volatile internet money. Neither seemed like a foundation for a business— until I found my best customers: Bitcoiners. 🧵 How I took my winery from zero to all-in: 2021 I’d just started selling my wine at farmers markets. One day, a guy asked, “Do you accept crypto?” I said, “I’ll take your bitcoin,” and had no idea how I’d actually do that. He walked away. But it stuck in my mind. The first person who ever asked. I was a Bitcoiner, but didn’t think that had anything to do with wine. Bitcoiners were 0% of my sales. 2022 I joined Twitter. Went to my first Bitcoin conference. And the people in it? They were my people. Honest. Curious. Genuine. Driven. A few folks started asking if they could buy wine with bitcoin. I said yes—not because I saw a business opportunity. I just wanted more bitcoin. I added a little Bitcoin logo to my wine bottles. Put up a “Bitcoin Accepted Here” sign at the farmers market. But that was mostly for my own obsession. I mostly had old men come up and warn me about bitcoin’s volatility. But sometimes, real ones would trickle through. One woman saw the sign and said: “You accept Bitcoin?? I HAVE TO GO GET MY HUSBAND.” I could tell she was married to someone who couldn’t stop talking about bitcoin, like me. Sure enough, I now consider him a friend. Bitcoin sales still felt more like a fun side quest than a real channel. Bitcoiners were ~10% of my sales. 2023 This is when I felt the shift. Early in the year, bitcoin sales started covering my living expenses. By the holidays, the momentum was undeniable. Still not everything—but enough to make me pay attention. Bitcoiners weren’t just buyers. They were thoughtful. Loyal. Fun to talk to. It didn’t feel like marketing—it felt like alignment. Bitcoiners were ~50% of my sales. 2024 Things got wild. I released Satoshi’s Reserve, a wine I’d quietly been setting aside since 2021. The auction blew past anything I’d seen before. In dollar terms, it beat the entire prior year of online sales. Then I dropped HIGHER, my second bitcoin-focused wine. Another record. Same story: Enthusiasm. Loyalty. People telling other people to support me. Meanwhile, I was still at farmers markets. Twelve-hour days every weekend. Pitching the same story to strangers who’d never come back. Bitcoiners were showing up, rebuying, and selling for me. That made the decision easy. Bitcoiners were ~75% of my sales. 2025 No more farmers markets. No more trying to reach “everyone.” I’m all in on Bitcoiners now. I’ll probably make less money this year. But I’ll be fired up by everything I do. And I’ll have complete alignment between my job and my mission. Selling wine for bitcoin isn’t just good business. It feels like doing my part to make the world better. And the fact that I get to do that with wine from my family vineyard? That’s about as soul-filling as it gets. Bitcoiners didn’t just become my best customers. They joined my mission. Bitcoiners have high expectations, are discerning and HATE deception, but if you have that, then they are dying to become your best customers. Plant a Flag. Bitcoin Preferred. PeonyLaneWine.com 🍷