Harvard’s $36 billion endowment includes full ownership of a company called Brodiaea, Inc. And that company has been buying up vineyards and farmland in California’s Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties for the past two years. Harvard now owns more than 10,000 acres, making it one of the top 20 growers in California’s Paso Robles wine region, according to Reuters.
Paso Robles is getting more attention as a wine region — Wine Enthusiast said in 2013 that it was reinventing itself “with flair” — and Harvard expects the vineyards and land it’s buying to become more valuable over time. Reuters points out that the university’s endowment also owns water rights to deep-water wells in the area, a big issue because of the ongoing California drought.