Tracy Smith

How tough is it to break in?

And then there's the matter of trust.

Doing business in the wine country is often very personal.

You bond with a person and then maybe go into business with them?

But as we'll find out, watch out if that bond is broken.

because the stakes are high.

The money makes people crazy.

Lou Perdue is a tech entrepreneur and the most respected wine writer in Napa.

Money is intoxicating, and when you mix money and wine, I think you get intoxicated to the second or third power.

How often does it happen that somebody comes in with a lot of money and not so much knowledge about wine, but just wants to be a part of this?

Every day.

Back in 2011, a guy named Robert Dahl was about to get drunk on all that money.

He decided to leave Minnesota, where he had an unglamorous mold removal business, and become a Napa Valley wine entrepreneur.

Just a big presence.

Miles Davis is an electrician who worked for Dahl almost from the beginning of his time in Napa.

You were friends with him initially when he was doing what business?

Selling and buying grapes.

Selling and buying grapes.

That's one way of saying Dahl was in the lower end of the wine business.

He wasn't making fine wines.