Get Active in Our Amazing Community of Over 451,000 Peers!

Schedule mock interviews on the Meeting Board, join the latest community discussions in our Consulting Q&A and find like-minded Case Partners to connect and practice with!

Area Size for Wine Production Wrongly Considered

Bain Case: Old Winery
New answer on Jun 15, 2020
4 Answers
1.4 k Views
Kanishka asked on Jun 12, 2020

It says in the case that only 1/4 of the produce is converted into wine & rest is sold off. But when I look at the calculation for the yeild, they have taken the entire 11 hectares for calculating the amount of wine produced. This looks wrong, since I would assume we should take only 1/4th of the 11 hectares as the area for wine production. Maybe I'm missing something here?

Overview of answers

Upvotes
  • Upvotes
  • Date ascending
  • Date descending
Best answer
Clara
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Jun 14, 2020
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

In this case, it´s the total POSSIBLE production, not taking into consideration the 1/4.

However, agree with you, this is not clear and would be good clarifying with the interviewer -would be a good question-.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Was this answer helpful?
Axel
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Jun 13, 2020
Bain Consultant | Interviewer for 3 years at Bain |Passionate about coaching |I will make you a case interview Rockstar

Hi

In the calculation, it states that its the total possible wine production when they are using the full 11 hectares not the actual production.

What is a bit surprising is that this is not a discussion under various ways to increase profitability later in the case. I would assume that currently, they are selling 75% of the grapes to other producers at a wholesale price. The question then becomes if it would be more profitable for the winery to convert these grapes to wine in-house instead.

-A

Was this answer helpful?
Ian
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Jun 13, 2020
#1 BCG coach | MBB | Tier 2 | Digital, Tech, Platinion | 100% personal success rate (8/8) | 95% candidate success rate

Hi Kanishka,

This is a great lesson in clarifying questions!

The beginning of the case is not the only time you should ask clarifying questions. Throughout the case, if you are unsure of the question, objective, context, etc., ask!

That being said, I know you can't ask when reading a case on your own, but still wanted to point this out :)

Was this answer helpful?
Luca
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Jun 15, 2020
BCG |NASA | SDA Bocconi & Cattolica partner | GMAT expert 780/800 score | 200+ students coached

Hello Kanishka,

Text is asking about the potential total wine production, that's why they consider the total area. ANyway don't worry too much, this is the perfect sample of something that you should ask your interviewer.

Best,
Luca

Was this answer helpful?
Clara gave the best answer

Clara

Content Creator
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut
68
Meetings
24,420
Q&A Upvotes
149
Awards
5.0
57 Reviews