Adam Torres and Michael Juergens discuss wine in Bhutan
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Show Notes:
Bhutan Wine Company currently has approximately 200 acres of vineyards, growing 16 different grape varietals—nine red and seven white—spread across nine sites in Bhutan. In this episode, Adam Torres and Michael Juergens, Founder of Bhutan Wine Company, explore the Bhutan Wine Company story and plans for growing the wine industry in Bhutan.
About Bhutan Wine Company
The BWC is working with strategic partners within the Kingdom to make this vision a reality. We are collaborating to leverage the country’s unique terroir across many diverse macroclimates, strong history of agricultural success, and impressive global reputation as environmental pioneers (and the only carbon-negative country in the world).
Specifically, the BWC’s vision is to assist in research and development to evaluate potential wine growing regions within the country, develop corporate-owned vineyards, invest in capital equipment and assist local farmers with the conversion of their lands to vineyards, build wine making facilities to be shared across growers and producers, and offer a sales and marketing channel to sell Bhutanese wine to the global market.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today’s guest is Michael Juergens, and he is the founder of Bhutan Wine Company.
Mike, welcome to the show. Hey, man. Thanks for having me on. this is an interesting one. I’ve had a lot of I’ve had interviews through the years, a lot of different regions, a lot of different wines, a lot of different stories, Bhutan. This is 100 percent my first interview on that. let’s start a little bit in the beginning here.
And like, were you always in wine? Like even before this, like how’d this come about?, I actually got into wine as a hobby in my early twenties , and just kind of dabbled for about this, like in college, after college, like time period, I’m just trying to get a feel. I had a slightly different career.
I didn’t actually start college until I was 22. So it was more like the beginning of college, but it’s just a long rod. I took many, many years in college. I should be a doctor, but I’m not. It’s okay. Go ahead. , I have a save. Go ahead. Yeah. So I probably more at the beginning of college, but I had a very different college experience.
I think that most people did, but yeah, it’s about 22 dabbled in it for I don’t know, 10 years, 15 years, and, gradually got more and more serious and then eventually. Started studying for industry certifications and then kind of changed my career path to focus more on the wine space. Kind of got , my way there the long way around.
But yeah. Now, was it a fascination in hospitality originally? Like, hospitality as a sector or was it just wine? Like, was it like something about it that just kept coming? Calling you back like I’m trying to get a feel well, so I have a theory about this actually, and I think that, , tell me theories.
I like this. Mike. I like where this is going. Tell me theories go. So I think that for probably, 7 or 8000 years, before we had written language. Wine was just an inherent part of human culture. You know, it was our, it was our religious ritual. It was our medicine. It was how we purified our water.
It was how we had fun. It was how we saved off the darkness. And so I think that neurologically all human beings are kind of wired. To accept wine. And at some point in time, if you’re lucky enough, you have an experience that kind of flips the switch to on and everybody is that I know that’s in the wine can, can talk about theirs.
And I can talk about mine. I know exactly what it was. I can remember every minute of it, even though it was probably 31 years ago. And so, so that kind of happened to me and it sort of, it sort of turned the switch on and I was like, Oh, this is, this is some interesting stuff I need to. And and so I leaned it, but it had nothing to do with hospitality.
It was all about this, like, Oh, this wine thing is kind of interesting. And I just kept going deeper and deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole and the cool thing about wine is it’s, unknowable, you know, infinite, infinite, infinite. If you, you peel back one layer, you’re like, Oh, this is awesome.
I’m here. And then you’re like, Hmm, I wonder if there’s one more and there’s always one more, like even today, there’s always one more. And I’m actually, creating this thing in Bhutan, which is just adds one more layer , to the audience. If we had to vote for your theory, and I subscribe to it.
So you have one more convert to your theory, if anybody asked. Like, I love it. I do, agree. I do think that is something that connects us in what something about like the way that I think. Think about podcasting and what we’re doing here is I actually link it back similar to the way that you link and what your fascination with wine is.
I think it’s more so this conversation that you and I are having, and I always take it back to like caveman days or whatever it was. We around fires, these conversations, there’s something that links us. So I completely agree with you, like that same type of characteristic can translate to wine because it’s played such an important part our civilization.
So I’m in man, all in with what you just said. So now, it’s funny that you say that because I, I do believe if you really look at human civilization, , we spent, let’s just say we got organized 50, 000 years ago. It’s probably under some but then we, lived in tribes for 40, 000 years and then we started trying to cultivate stuff and we lived in.
for another 8, 000 like modern day cities have been around for 200 years, right? So long, long time, but AI is here now, Mike. So everything changed. No, I’m just going to go ahead. I had to, I had to, where are we going with opening? No, we’re not going to do that tangent on this one. Sorry. We’re talking wine, but go ahead.
Yeah, no. So I think the things that were around for that period, are just deeply ingrained in us. And to your point, one of those for sure is this idea of sitting around and having a conversation. I think music is another one. I think particularly rhythm and storytelling , and wine, you know, and food probably too, for sure.
You’re down this rabbit hole. Like many of us, Entrepreneurs go down and we’re going down a rabbit hole. We’re chasing one or the other. Who knows? At what point did you know that, it doesn’t have to be this company, but just wine in general, when did you know that was going to be your thing that you were going to spend a significant amount of your time and energy on.
I’m 53 years old and I would bet that it was probably around being 35. the time, I’m a partner in a large consulting firm which, was paying the bills. And what I did was that I spent the next sort of 10 years figuring out how I could convince my firm that we should have a wine business and I should be in charge.
So I sort of created a for myself at the job I already had. Before that, I was more of a technology consultant and I sort of morphed it into wine So it wasn’t like I. made this decision. Oh, I’m going into the wine industry. I just kept kind of making minor changes until my world shifted.
I love it. I mean, many different ways of entrepreneurship. And that’s one of the things I like about this podcast and just about shows in general and these conversations is, people will listen to this and I feel like so much attention is like paid to the, Elon Musk of the world or the Mark Zuckerberg or the, this or the, that, or whatever did this, but there’s just so many countless variations of what gets people into being an entrepreneur or what gets them into.
Like even when I started my first business, I didn’t even know what the word on, I knew what it meant, but I didn’t consider myself an entrepreneur. I was like, I’m just working. What do you mean? Like, just because I guess my name’s on the door, I guess, Oh, that does make me an entrepreneur, but I wasn’t thinking about it that way.
I was just looking at what kind of, you know, value I could get out there and add. So I like it. So I like your story a lot because you also took that concept of being an intrapreneur to go your entrepreneurial route. So you kind of crossed the two over kind of, that’s good. Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think The entrepreneurial mindset.
, some people decide, Oh, you know, there’s a void in the market to make, I don’t know, I’m making this up, right? Plastic bags, and they go out and they start making plastic bags, and they do it, and that’s great, good for them. And other people just kind of pursue a passion with no objective or end state mind, and eventually it a business you know, that erupts.
Like you mentioned Zuckerberg, I don’t know that Zuckerberg was sitting around it. At Harvard, creating, you know, the page for the Harvard team thinking, oh, I’m gonna change the world. I think he was just doing it because it was cool. He knew how to do it. And then it just kept growing and growing and growing.
And I don’t know that there’s a right path. , but what I do know, and I know this with certainty, is it’s a hell of a lot more fun pursuing your passion and seeing where it takes you than making plastic bags. So, how did the Bhutan Wine Company come about? Like, , where did this idea, and why Bhutan?
I mean, I looked at your website, and it’s, I’ll just read it, perhaps the first time in 150 years, a country’s launching a new wine industry. And what may be one of the last. A viable wine development opportunities in the world. , like how’d that come about? It’s such, it’s a bold statement and it’s a bold move.
How’d that come about? Well, certainly wasn’t because of any, research or analysis that I did. I went the Himalayas to run a marathon. And, , being an American, when we think of a Himalayas, we think of. Glaciers and Yeti and, you know, Mount Everest, but the reality of it is, this really fertile place with a really clean environment.
had no idea, right? I had no expectations. And I, I went there, I went to the time to run this marathon of wall. I was there, every fruit and vegetable I ate. Was some of the best I’ve ever eaten in my life. Yeah. I being a wine guy just assumed that like every other country in the world, they grew wine grapes.
And so I kept asking everybody, Hey, where’s the wine grapes? Where’s the wine? Or where, where’s the wineries? Like, I want to visit them. And I ended up having dinner with some government people and I said, Hey, where are your wineries? They said, we don’t have any and I said, well, you guys are screwing up like this.
Wait, when was this? What year? What year was this? This was maybe 2017. Wow. That’s unbelievable to me. Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. Because they have some tourism. They have like, it’s, you know what I mean? Like, I’m just, wow, that’s interesting. I mean, what an opportunity. It’s amazing. Yeah, Bhutan is like this magical place and it’s a bucket list travel destination and everything else.
I agree. Yeah. I just assumed they would have wine they didn’t. And so I, being a curious and passionate guy, I just said, you guys really need to do this. This could be important for the wine world, not just now, but as climate change impacts wine regions, like you need to get in this game. And I think that you will be one of best global wine regions in the world.
As we look to the next hundred years, I had no intention of doing that. And finally, the country, said. We agree. We want to try this. Will you do it? And I was like, you’re a volunteer. That’s amazing. I love it. Yeah. I’m like this punk rock skateboard kid from Southern California.
You’re going to give me this blank slate to create a wine industry, whatever, you know, whatever my vision is, like, I’m all in on that. That’s the coolest adventure in the wine world of all time. Like. Anyone can go to, Paso Robles or, or Napa and buy a vineyard and make some, some wine.
But like to do this, I was like, Oh, you got my attention and I’m in. So that’s kind of how it happened. It wasn’t part of this master plan. Frankly, if I was thinking about starting a winery, the worst place in the world to do it might be the Himalayas, just geographically and logistically and everything else.
But yeah, it just sort of, evolved. And I think I have another theory have a theory that we all. Walk around, and the universe is constantly putting opportunities in front of us, and most of the time, we’re too busy or we’re too caught up in the day to day stuff to see them and so we ignore it, and I’m sure I’ve done that thousands of times, but in this particular instance, I was in the right place at the right time and asked the right questions and I felt strongly about it, And then it dropped in my lap and then I had a go no go decision and I said, hell yeah, I’m in.
Wow. me about where you’re at with the project now. Like talk to me, I’ve been on your Instagram and it’s amazing for anybody that’s listening to this, I highly go check it out. You just put in bootown wine and it’s going to come up and you’re going to know you’re on the right page. But so I seen it from that aspect, but like talk to me about where you’re at with the project now.
Well, so lots of challenges to, create a wine industry where one does my gosh, do anything as an entrepreneur. Of course. Like, come on, go ahead. But where we’re at today. So we have 10 vineyards at about a total about 200 acres. goal is to scale that to about 2000 acres of vineyards over the next five to seven years.
We will do our first commercial harvest. This summer. And so we will have our first one. Whoa, congratulations. That’s amazing. Wow, how amazing is it going to be for that first bottle, right? Oh my God, from a marathon to that, like all the pain. I know you’ve been through pain. You don’t have to tell me every entrepreneur, any new idea there’s pain.
So especially starting a new market, like, like all that pain, everything else to have that first glass of wine. Wow. I’m really looking forward to it, but I’ll tell you a story. So last summer I was there and we had some grapes and we’re going out to one of our vineyards and we’re, we’re harvesting some grapes and I’m looking at this bunch of grapes and it was in this particular case, it was Malbec and I’m looking at it and all along, I’ve just had this theory that says, If you can grow the world’s best guava and the world’s best mandarin orange, you can grow one of the world’s best grapes.
And I pick my first boot knees grape off the bunch in the vineyard and I’m looking at it like, I hope it’s good. I hope it’s good. I hope it’s good. And , I go to put it in my mouth and I literally had this moment of trepidation. I pop it in my mouth and it is. The flavors, the aromatics, the power of it was exactly what I thought it was going to be and I broke down.
started crying and I’m breaking down right now. I had to go take a minute and sit in the corner of the vineyard and just kind of process it. It was a super powerful moment. I was like, I think we’re right. I mean, a huge gamble, right? bet a decade of my life on this.
I’m already seven years in more than seven years in and, you know, seven figures plots and money, on this idea that this might be cool. And then it was so I’ve got the great side of it. I am really looking forward to taking the first glass of wine. Oh, my gosh. I’m sure I’m gonna completely lose and have to go, you know, again, but, those are the experiences that you remember.
Yeah, I can’t even imagine like what that’s going to be like. It’s going to be amazing. Talk about the for those that we, I want to spend just a little bit of time here. We’ve talked about the pride, we’ve talked about your journey, but let’s talk about the, just for those that have never been or seen, or I don’t want to assume here Bhutan, like talk about the magic of the place and like what drew you to it?
Because I, it doesn’t surprise me that your first grape would cause that, like, cause it’s just such a special place. I have not been. For yet, but this is giving me more of an incentive to go. I want to go visit these vineyards. But like, talk about the place and why it was that you have such a connection to it.
I mean, and, and by the way, you got an open invite. I have a nice house there. You’re more than welcome to come and stay hang out and check out the country, broadcasting from Bhutan. Come on. You heard it here. Mission matters. Okay. I did not know a thing about Bhutan.
My girlfriend read a book about a Canadian woman who moved to Bhutan. and met a guy and fell in love with the place. She read this in high school. So the whole time we’ve been together, you know, 20 years now she’s been talking about. But don’t I didn’t know anything about it. And I did not bother to do any research whatsoever prior to going there.
But I actually thought it was an island in Indonesia. I didn’t even know it was in the Himalayas. Oh, wow. Yeah. That’s funny. This is for all the entrepreneurs out there. See, you can do it too. Go ahead. I had to do it. Sorry, Mike. When I went there I sort of got a sense of the place.
And so a couple of things about the country. Number one, it’s the only carbon negative country on the planet. Right. Which is cool in and of itself. Number two, it was closed off to the Western world until the 70s. And to this day, they don’t have things like traffic lights or Starbucks or anything else.
And so it is this kind of special place and they do not measure gross domestic product. They measure gross national happiness. Actually, there’s a film on the festival circuit right now. Where follow one of the guys , that tracks gross national happiness around Bhutan , and how he measures it and stuff, which I haven’t seen yet, but I’m dying to see.
it’s just got this energy and magic to It’s, it’s monasteries and the Himalayas and just crazy, crazy environmental stuff. And I swear, every time I go there I come back a better human being. And was that experience for me the first time I went there. I thought I was, I booked a marathon.
I thought I was going to Indonesia. I went to the Himalayas instead and when I got there, then I had this like jaw dropping experience of , this magical little country and I was like, you guys need to make wine. You know, , that’s kind of how it, how it all fell into place. But it truly is remarkable.
And what I found. Is that when I talk about the project, 80% of the people have no idea what the fuck Platon is. . 20% of the people are like, oh my God, that’s been on my bucket list for 20 years. , maybe it’s not even 20, it might be 90 10, frankly. But it is this magical place and I think if you.
Buy into the narrative that wine can express sense of place, which is what comes out of Burgundy and Bordeaux and, Piedmont, Italy and so on and so forth. We have the opportunity , to generate that for Bhutan with a blank sheet of paper, which is an awesome opportunity and also Incredibly intimidating because you definitely don’t want to get it wrong., feel sometimes, and this is, I’m way overstating my own importance and value to the world. But sometimes I feel like. They asked Leonardo to paint the 15 chapel, you know, and you’re going to spend years doing it. And it’s this special thing that only you get to do and that’s sometimes the way that I feel as I’m going, down this journey with this thing.
And I get that comparing myself to Leonardo is way overstepping my own importance, but the same sort of, well, I don’t know while you’re working on creating, , what will turn into, , billion dollar industries and infrastructure and everything else like that.
It’s a big, big business and you’re adding a piece to it. So I don’t think, I mean, this stuff takes time. It takes generations for these things, but somebody has to start it, right? Okay. And that in this case is you, right? Time, right place. And and willing to take the chance and willing to put in the work and the effort, like somebody started Napa, there was the first, right?
There was a, somebody started like somebody started in all these places. Right? Like, so you’re the first mover there and it’s never easy to be the first mover in anything. So I think it’s an amazing story. That being said, Mike, we’re about out of time for this episode, some people here , that are listening and watching this that are going to want to follow up.
They’re going to want to follow the journey. They’re going to want to follow what’s happening next. Like how do people follow? Easiest thing is our website and our Instagram. So the website is, is boutonwine. com. The Instagram is boutonwine. are both great ways to follow this and then if you’re interested in any of the books I’ve written about wine or any of my other wine stuff, you can go to drinkingandknowingthings.
com they’ll have links to everything there. I wish the entire world knew about Bhutan and everybody wanted to go there. Welcome everybody. Yeah. And I see on the website, there’s a little spot there that says that the historic first bear barrel, they have a hundred bottles on this moment, monumentous event to be made available for special allocation only.
And if you want to be, if you want to be considered for it, there’s a button there to click. Don’t click there because I’m putting my name in there. So definitely don’t do that. Cause I don’t want any competition out there. So definitely don’t go to boutonwine. com and click on that button. You like that little reverse psychology, Mike, like what I did there.
I love that. Yeah. There’s only a hundred. You’re going to take at least. And speaking, so speaking to the audience Hey, thank you for tuning in as always. And if this is your first time with us, definitely hit that subscribe button. Cause this is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new entrepreneurs new stories, new companies, new founders, new ideas.
If that sounds interesting, hit that subscribe button, because again, daily show, there’s going to be another episode coming out tomorrow. I don’t want you to miss it. Mike, thank you so much. When I meet you in person, I’m gonna have to get an autograph, man. I’m gonna be like, come on, you were one of the founders of the Bhutan wine.
I know a guy. So thank you for coming on. Thanks for having me, Adam.
