Willamette Valley Vineyards

Jim Bernau's dream of running a winery came true with the help of about 1,200 partners--all of them fellow aficionados of the grape. His Willamette Valley Vineyards is the nation's first consumer-owned winery. Pride of ownership "boosts sales, and in turn increases profits," said Bernau, president and general manager of the 3-year-old venture, which has grown to 4,500 shareholders. "It's a self-fulfilling dream."

Jim Bernau's dream of running a winery came true with the help of about 1,200 partners--all of them fellow aficionados of the grape. His Willamette Valley Vineyards is the nation's first consumer-owned winery. Pride of ownership "boosts sales, and in turn increases profits," said Bernau, president and general manager of the 3-year-old venture, which has grown to 4,500 shareholders. "It's a self-fulfilling dream."

Bayhawk Ales Inc. is barely a bubble in the huge beer market, but more than 300 investors have wagered $1.2 million so far that the fledgling Irvine microbrewery will be a success. Operators of the pint-size brewery, which pours out about 1,500 gallons of ale a week in full view of patrons in an upscale bar and seafood restaurant, paint a romantic picture of providing investors entree into an industry that is going nowhere but up.

After three years and an $100-million investment, the Nasdaq Stock Market on Monday began trading stocks in an upgraded system that it hopes will increase its trading volumes and win back market share from alternative share-trading networks. The No. 2 U.S. stock market started trading five low-volume stocks in the system, which is called SuperMontage. "It's good to have this day.... It went just the way it was supposed to," said Dean Furbush, Nasdaq vice president.

It's a ritual for anniversaries, birthdays and gatherings of good friends: The waiter comes to your table, presents the bottle of wine, then removes the cork and places it on the table for inspection. But what if the cork isn't cork? About 50 million bottles of wine now on the market contain plastic corks, which come in different colors and are pulled out with a corkscrew.

To visit the dozens of wineries in Oregon's Willamette Valley, one of the nation's lushest agricultural preserves, is like touring an asylum devoted to the treatment of one peculiar obsessive disorder: a fixation on Pinot Noir. Oregon grows other grape varieties, producing pretty good Riesling, Gewurztraminer and, especially, Pinot Gris. In fact, Pinot Noir occupies only about one-third of the state's 7,100 acres of vines. No matter.