Well I do consult Ketan on social media and German wine purchases 
Was thinking This thread would need to be moved to the Gospel Music thread in the Asylum for a minute there.
what ‘consultants’ are you referring to? aaron mentioned the winemakers.
Isn’t Thomas Rivers Brown considered a consulting winemaker who works with several wineries? I did a quick google and this 2018 article says he has 45 clients!
trb is now the winemaker for glorious revolution. meaning there is no other official winemaker and trb consults. it’s just trb and his staff.
i understand what you refer to where a winery has an in-house ‘associate’ winemaker along with a consulting winemaker, this obviously is just for cache and the savings are passed on to the consumer. it’s rather goofy.
however here i don’t think that’s the case. i have no dog in the fight, just wanted to clarify that this isn’t one of those situations we both dislike.
Thanks for clarifying. I see what you mean. I still would rather see a winemaker who is focused on one or two projects at the helm rather than someone who has a team and 45 clients. But I get it, if the TRB style is what you love then this is a great outcome.
I just got back from 10 days in Germany where the concept of consulting winemaker or winemaker for hire does not exist. I was discussing a particular domain, that will go unnamed, with another winemaker and he said he has gone over 30 hectares its too much and I said are you sure that seems big and the winemaker said I taste it in the wines. I checked and sure enough he was right!
As I said if TRB works, great, I am happy supporting the producers I like.
1 Like
74 acres seems like a lot for a German winemaker, especially if steep.
This is an interesting note. Many feel “all Napa Cabs taste the same these days.” I don’t think that’s true (Valley fruit vs mtn, oak regimen, pick dates, soil etc. But I do think when you have consultants like TRB, Melka, Bevan, Fayard, etc. and those wineries hiring these winemakers want their “style” some of the nuances can be a little lost. Unfortunately, wineries are a business and they have to make payroll and hopefully a profit. For smaller outfits like Glorious Revolution and others having the winemaker name recognition is worth it. That’s my two cents at least. I enjoy many wines TRB makes or oversees. I also dislike some. Same goes for each of those other big “Consultants” as well. Sometimes that boils down to the owners and what they want and isn’t necessarily all the winemakers decision.
Wish I could get some MacDonald! Since you like Dunn and Forman. Have you had Tom Eddy Cabernet before?
Anybody buy/drink? Just curious . I ended up with an email offer today for 2021 -not buying .
I tasted the '19 a year and half ago while at a Riverain/Flint Knoll tasting. '18 and '19 were made by Mike Smith and it is very much in that style. My wife liked it enough that we ended up buying a couple bottles but I was more curious to see what TRB would do with it.
Fast forward to today and I wasn’t originally planning on buying however Jeb stated it was the best vintage yet (97 vs 95/96 for what its worth) and they kept the price the same as the '19 (shocking for Napa) so now I’m on the fence.
Will is Will Seguí, who works with TRB but also has his own label William & Mary…
1 Like