Producers Who have performed a total 180 on Winemaking style?

I was just thinking about Pax today, a favorite California producer of mine. I’m in my thirties, so wasn’t around for the early Pax days, when the wines were big and extracted, often pushing 16 percent alcohol, though I’ve read about them. I think about the wines today, in the 12 percent range, using carbonic, and eschewing new oak, and wondered are there any other producers who have varied so drastically in their winemaking style so relatively quickly?

I’m thinking most examples would be in the Pax vein: moving from high throttle, to more lean and restrained, but would love to hear examples of the opposite.

happens a bit in Burgundy when a new Generation takes over, off the top of my head…
Fourrier
Arnoux-Lachaux

Copain comes to mind…

Caymus would be the textbook example of the opposite.

Yeah. Faiveley comes to mind. Gouges has also softened. I’ve heard Perrot-Minot has dialed back the oak.

Were old Fourrier much less friendly?

St. Emilion

Copain and Faiveley were two that immediately came to mind for me but I see others have already mentioned them.

As Robert implies there are so many examples on the right bank of Bordeaux that one is tempted to list the whole region. Figeac, Bel Air, the list goes on…

This is not an uncommon phenomenon once you think about it. Technology and styles change region wide every few decades

I was thinking Right Bank Bordeaux, in general, as well as a ton of Barolo modernists in the 80s/90s.

I was just thinking that Nicolas Joly would probably fit in this category, too. Started out making fairly traditional wine and used chemicals in the vineyard, then moved on to extreme biodynamics and a more wild winemaking style.

I think people consider Jean-Marie’s wines to be “sappier” and more fruit-forward than his father’s.

Hardly a “total 180,” but in the vein of “younger generation takes over,” the ascending quality, prices, and hype of Bartolo Mascarello is much due to the phenomenal work that Maria Teresa has done. She has kept things traditional but, in my admittedly small sample, the M-T era wines are significantly more elegant and refined than ever before.

His Father dumped a fair bit of potassium on the vines and cropped at pretty high levels and the wine making was average at best.

Surprised no one has mentioned Adam Tolmach from Ojai Vineyards - did a 180 in 2008 or 2008 or so - and was a ‘darling’ of RMP and others. Risked quite a bit, but his wines, to me, have gotten better and better.

Cheers.

I believe Broc Cellars made bigger boned wines early on. Not huge wines mind you but different from what is made today. Broc Cellars wines today are fresh, juicy, pure and low alcohol.

Tom

When I saw the title, I immediately thought Pax, but many large producers have taken the opposite tack, i.e. Beaulieu and Chateau St. Michelle. They had Andre Tchelistcheff in common setting a classic Bordeaux profile, which was lost gradually as successive wine makers enriched the mix. Of course, the whole world of wine making was changing, and holdouts like Mondavi lost favor with point granters, and most eventually gave in.
There were actually a couple of waves in California of Chardonnay producers going from a rich buttery style to more restraint, backsliding, then getting religion again.

It’s funny that so many of us immediately thought of Pax and Copain. I was on the Copain list post-180, but then immediately dropped when the owner cashed out and sold.

I was not being flippant above when I said in a pithy fashion, St Emilion. That entire region is 180 degrees from the St Em I fell in love with in the early 90s. Very few classic wines remain. Magdelaine closed. Everyone hiring Rolland. Even the stalwart, Figeac, flipped. Gracefully, Pomerol is still producing many classic wines. You pay more but you get what you want, a reliable classic wine, you just pay more. Well, they generally are better anyway.

95 was searingly tannic. I think it was J-M’s first vintage. The Griotte was about $35 and there was a stack of it at Wine Club. After I tasted it, I didn’t buy more.

Really? Ryan Zepaltas is an excellent winemaker. Have you tried Copain wines he made? This marked a great opportunity for him, so curious how he’s done.

1985s drinking pretty deliciously today for all that…

I wasn’t drinking much Washington Cabernet 15 to 20 years ago because I found way too many of them over oaked. About 5 years ago I started buying them again and have enjoyed many of them. Either my palate changed or many producers started backing off on the oak treatment. Probably a bit of both.