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In 2004, Peony Lane Wine planted its first plot of Pinot Noir, a natural wine, in one of the highest wine-growing regions of North America — Paonia, Colorado. Owner Ben Justman takes a unique approach to winemaking, marrying a process that dates back thousands of years with a modern-day approach to business operations by accepting Bitcoin transactions and even featuring a Bitcoin-inspired Satoshi’s Reserve wine.
Justman grew up on the Pinot Noir vineyard he operates today, a vineyard his dad tended to throughout his childhood as a hobbyist. After graduating college, he knew he wanted to start a business, and despite having no background in wine-making, the winery was a natural business opportunity. “We started the winery in 2019 and didn’t sell any wine until 2021. In that time, I committed, made, and invested in three vintages with zero proof of concept, zero proof of my ability to do this,” said Justman. Despite these challenges, the wine received positive reviews from customers and sommeliers alike.
Bitcoin and the wine business
Justman is a big believer in Bitcoin. He not only empowers customers to pay for his goods with it, he has converted 1% of all fiat wine sales to Bitcoin in the last three years using Square as an early adopter. “That 1% of Bitcoin, it’s cool to go sell wine and then come home with a little bit of Bitcoin,” said Justman.
He’d like to increase how much he converts to Bitcoin in the future as the winery’s sales grow, but for now, he leaves what he converts untouched. These sales are converted to Bitcoin and appear in his Cash App Bitcoin Balance. This process is so automated as a part of Justman’s business operations that he hasn’t purchased Bitcoin on an exchange in the last few years.
Justman says Bitcoin is one of the fundamental human inventions in monetary technology that can move society forward. “I think of it as if my business succeeds and Bitcoin succeeds, great. I win. If my business fails, and this is the business I’ve ever really run, and Bitcoin succeeds, I win,” said Justman. If Bitcoin fails in his lifetime, he says, then he’d worry about his ability to access financial freedom without it. Justman is aligned with the mission of Bitcoin, creating freedom from relying solely on fiat money. He uses his business to help spread awareness and found that customers paying in Bitcoin are willing to be patient when it comes to a much more friction-full checkout experience.
As of now, he says a small but not insignificant amount of his online sales occur in Bitcoin. “I’ve never or hardly ever met Gen Zers that are into Bitcoin,” said Justman. When it comes to customers, his winery is typically an older demographic. “It’s more millennials through boomers. I mean there’s a lot of 60 plus year olds that are really psyched to buy my wine with Bitcoin.”
Fostering a strong wine community
From 2021 to 2024, Peony Lane Wines was available exclusively in person at farmers’ markets and online. Justman started selling exclusively at farmers’ markets, on the road six days a week throughout the summer, and navigating hardships like wine going bad or having to extend the aging of certain batches by a few years.
“All of my capital was invested in the wine whether it was being made or aging,” said Justman who also sells wine online. “I’ve been slowly whittling that down to where first it was five farmers markets, then four, then three, now I’m at two a week during the summer.” Selling wine in person gave him the gift of seeing people’s reactions to the product firsthand, exposure that led to sales without a ton of upfront capital. However, hitting the road six days a week made it hard to scale the business. One of the keys to taking a step back from in-person sales was tapping into the Bitcoin community.
The Bitcoin community isn’t the only one helping grow his business. He continues to learn about Bitcoin and winemaking regularly, listening to personal finance podcasts and Bitcoin podcasts, and reading marketing-focused business books. Justman also often looks to a group of neighboring winemakers who share a mission to grow awareness of Colorado wine in the U.S. Farmers’ markets allow new and returning customers to try his Pinot Noirs and maybe a neighboring stand’s Cabernet Sauvignon too. He hopes in the coming years Peony Lane Wines scales up, becomes known for Pinot Noir, and the region broadly gains more recognition for its wine industry.
