I realised when I was 18 and running nightclubs part-time while pretending to study medicine, that certain businesses arouse passions rather more than others. With nightclubs, there are always men who are keen to get involved for non-financial reasons (I leave readers to speculate why). And the same applies to the wine trade. It is an industry that connoisseurs prefer to see as a calling, where snobbery abounds and where priorities can get confused.
What happens when entrepreneurs get carried away with their emotions is that they tend to lose lots of money. Be enthusiastic, be knowledgeable, be committed, whatever trade you're in, by all means: but remember you're in business to make money.
Charles Shaw forgot this. He bought a vineyard in California and attempted to make Burgundy in the 1980s. His business went bankrupt in 1995, and was bought by a wily operator called Fred Franzia. Mr Franzia did not forget why he was in business. He has now sold 400m bottles of his $1.99 Charles Shaw wine - nicknamed "Two-Buck Chuck". He knows that even the middle classes love a bargain and says: "No bottle of wine is worth more than $10, in my opinion."