In Good Taste
This state-of-the-art gadget lets enthusiasts
produce their own wine at home.
When Greg Snell arrived in Napa, California, he yearned to own a
winery. But prohibitive costs and his limited knowledge of winemaking made
the dream infeasible. Undeterred, he conceptualized a contraption designed
to guide oenophiles through the intricacies of making wine. The result is
the WinePod: a high-tech, multitasking home winemaking machine that
instructs users in undertakings ranging from grape crushing to
fermentation. As Snell puts it, “There is nothing else like it.”
By removing traditional barriers to winemaking, the WinePod., priced at
$3,499, has struck a chord with wine enthusiasts. “Until now, winemakers
[haven’t had] interactive products to make wine,” says Snell, 41, who
co-founded Provina Inc., his San Jose, California, business, with Vlad
Firer, 55. By year’s end, projected sales should mature to a cool $1.5
million.
Snell is toasting the fact that his innovation has been so
well-received: “People from all over the world want to buy the
product.”
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