K Vintners apparently suing anonymous blog commenters

W. Blak Gray’s blog post on Charles Smith got some play here a while back. Well, the plot has thickened. Smith is filing a law suit for libel against anonymous commenters on Gray’s blog. Looking at the images of the suit, it appears it singles out the first handful of anonymous quotes. Dan Posner made a comment further down under his own name, and while to me it is the most damning statement on Smith, it appears that it’s true and can be verified by quite a few witnesses.

Can’t say that I blame K/Smith for going after a cowardly person who hides behind anonymity. Not sure that the instigation justified the reaction, though.

The attorney that signed the suit is a “Michael Reynvaan” at Perkins Coie law firm.

Isn’t Reynvaan a family vineyard as well?

this looks like some friends got together at a BBQ, and the lawyer in the group said, that comment is BS, let’s sue.

good luck getting google to comply. Especially with a five page complaint. Lol!

Yes, that family does have a winery.

I’ve never met the plaintiff, so I’m certainly not going to comment on the specifics of this litigation. I’ll just make the general observation that, at least sometimes, plaintiffs who sue for defamation/damage to their reputation end up opening up a much worse can of worms in front of the trier of fact…

Bruce

Well I’ve met Mike Reynvaan, and he is a very nice guy, very understated.

I’d be really hesitant to put that in front of a jury. Whatever the merits of the suit, you’d think a winemaker would have to have thick skin, like a writer, so you can take the inevitable criticism. The you’re-not-actually-making-it tag is an easy one for people to toss around in this age of “jet set” winemakers.

Tom,

I can see the ‘he’s not the winemaker’ being technically libel (NOT a lawyer) and I can certainly see why it would toch a nerve with CS, but I’m kind of interested that they feel it’s worth filing a lawsuit over. Unless that post was linked to and discussed a LOT more than I think it was, it seems the lawsuit’s going to attract attention just because it touches on the privacy/anonymity issue. Unless they’re getting feedback from buyers that people won’t buy from K, I’d have thought it was best to let it die. Most people write off comments like that as silly sour grapes (er…) anyway.

What exactly was in the comment?

Just doesn’t seem to be a whole lot to be gained in filing the suit. Unless there’s more to the story than we know. Or that’s there in the complaint.

berry - you can see the post and comments on Blake’s blog (he has images of the complaint too). There were several anonymous comments to the effect that Charles doesn’t actually make the wines and is just the marketing guy. I can totally get why things like that would annoy someone. If they were being said all over the net in prominent places and someone felt certain people were behind all of those comments, I can see going after them. It’s just odd to see Blake’s blog comments attract that much attention.

Hmmm. The anonymous bit is cowardly but do any of those comments make it to the level of libel? What a waste of time.

I mean, suppose someone writes “Coach John Doe gets all the credit but in reality he just stands on the sidelines and lets Asst Coach Bear Bryant do all the real coaching.” Libel? I don’t think so.

Wonder how, or if, this will affect his sales at all.

After the “does not make the wine” comments people were laying into him for his (IMHO) comedic aside at HdR this past year where he spoke in frustration toward one of his “people” and how she had messed up his critically timed slideshow. He commented to all of us (some thing like) “She could f8ck-up a BJ”
In the moment it seemed exactly what the character on stage would say in that situation Yes, it was crude & insensitive but certainly just part of the act.

As far as the messed up slideshow goes, it was poorly produced and I’m not surprised that it did not work as planned. They needed a more robust presentation SW package to have that multi-media show run the way Charles was presenting

Here’s a shot of Charles just prior to his comments…

not that I matter much as I just got on his mailing list, but I dropped off it due to this issue. not going to support a guy who is a blowhard and sues every person who dares not take his view (or annoys him). The more I read, the more it appears he is a true a#s. No wine is good enough to support someone that thinks they are god. If you are a big, brash personality, you are going to have people come after you. Be a big boy and take the high road. And don’t make cracks about BJs to women. Idiot. Uh oh, now I might get sued.

Maybe he’ll get sued by The Simpsons for plagiarism?

Very interesting story . . . not sure it will go anywhere but will be fun to watch from the sidelines . . .

The Gray Report: Attention readers: Charles Smith may be suing you" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cheers.

K Vintners apparently suing anonymous blog commenters - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Larry,

Would you like me to merge or delete your thread? Your choice.