Rock star winemakers are like rock stars

[Don Giovanni]

Some say rock star winemakers are like rock stars -- they're born, not made.

The wine mechanics

When there's a challenge, wineries big and small consult with a Mr. Fix-It

Tim Teichgraeber, Special to The Chronicle

Click On Me

[Florida Jim]

John,

Russell Bevan (mentioned in the article) is a good friend. I go to CA each year to help him out at crush and have seen his meticulous methods and tasted every vintage (at many different stages) of the wines he has made.

I have no idea if he was born with those skills but I can tell you that his devotion to his task is all consuming and his sense of detail beyond most folk's comprehension.

Maybe he was born with that - and that bodes well for his wines.

Best, Jim

Edited May 5, 2007 by Florida Jim (log)

[Don Giovanni]

John,

Russell Bevan (mentioned in the article) is a good friend. I go to CA each year to help him out at crush and have seen his meticulous methods and tasted every vintage (at many different stages) of the wines he has made.

I have no idea if he was born with those skills but I can tell you that his devotion to his task is all consuming and his sense of detail beyond most folk's comprehension.

Maybe he was born with that - and that bodes well for his wines.

Best, Jim

←

Jim,

I feel that the type A personality people with OCD are the very best winemakers...like you pointed out...it's being meticulous and cutting no corners...call it a good winemaking skill taught from tradition and adapted to modernization...yes you can learn to a point...your heart and soul have to be filled with a passion that "burns...burns...burns..like a ring of fire"..TY Johnny Cash and his wife who wrote the song June Carter Cash...then you are IMHO born with this skill.

[JohnL]

I read the linked piece.

Greg La Follette is quoted pretty extensively. (possibly misquoted).

For someone who was born in Europe and professes to practice wine making with a European approach, this guy is a jumble of contradictions.

neither he nor the writer of this fluff seems to have much of grasp of the current situation in Europe which has plenty of these wine maker consultants (so called rock stars). In fact the wine maker as celebrity started in Europe!

Then there is this quote from Gregg La Follette:

"If you want to get a ninety five from Parker, you definitely don't hire me, I'm very terroir driven."

This peaked my curiosity because I am familiar with La Follette's recent wines (Flowers) and while there are differences vineyard to vineyard the wines are often imbued with a sweetness that can often border on cloying and I certainly would not term a lot of these wines as "Burgundian" in style. they often are IMOP very good california Pinot Noirs. I am also familiar with Parker's notes and scores and recalled him being quite pleased with Flowers offerings.

So I did a bit of research.

Sure enough on La Follette's own web site for Tandem (his latest venture) Parker ratings (many ninety to ninety three) and notes are proudly listed along with this:

"Under Greg's leadership, Flowers was called one of the five finest producers of pinot noir in America by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate."

???????????????????

Little of the quotes by La Follette seem to make much sense but I believe that most wine makers are better off just making their wine rather than talking about it.

The piece does do a decent job in noting the fact that many wineries hire consultants and that wine makers are notoriously flighty.

The whole wine maker as rock star is IMOP really overplayed. Just another "angle" for a "sizzle" starved wine press.

By the way:

That $150 a bottle cabernet and $70 Syrah better have more going for them than just Mr Bevan's background and track record!

The really good wine comes first --then the "rockstar status!"

Edited May 7, 2007 by JohnL (log)

[Florida Jim]

By the way:

That $150 a bottle cabernet and $70 Syrah better have more going for them than just Mr Bevan's  background and track record!

The really good wine comes first --then the "rockstar status!"

←

Agreed. Unfortunately, those prices will make it a pretty limited sampling as to quality.

As for Greg; I think it is fair to say that anything on his website is meant to be promotional, hence, comments about his leadership at Flowers may be taken with a grain . . .

I know first hand that several of the winemaking decisions there were not entirely within his perview; Walt and Joan were not absentee owners.

At Tandem, of course, all decisions are his so, when evaluating his work, that is a truer measure.

And John, although neither Russell or Greg make many wines that are to my taste (their's is a bigger, richer, more textured style than I prefer), both make wines that their customers (or future customers) seem to enjoy. Considering the place where they work and the cost of living day to day in CA wine country, I do not fault them their choices.

I just don't buy many of their wines.

And to me, rockstars are rockstars and winemakers are winemakers. Period.

Best, Jim

Edited May 7, 2007 by Florida Jim (log)

[JohnL]

Well said Jim.

My point, I guess, is that most wine makers are often not the best sources of information about their own wines or even wine making in general beyond some technical background type info.

I believe that their work speaks much more eloquently than they do.

Same for most "rock stars" (well ok some rock stars).