2001 Beau Verall Merlot (Russian River Valley)

[Thomas]

I get it.

A lot of times the sales rep for the distributor gives out either bad or confused information. It's likely the wine is not the same, but the grapes may have come from the same vineyard, or the winemaker at Toad might be moonlighting, or the stars were in alignment with the Toad when this wine was made and so it took on the Toad's characteristics, or the sales rep was just babbling.

The only other alternative is that your retailer is correct, and that would make me angry if I were to have dropped $20 on a bottle of the "named" brand that I could get for $11 under another name. You know, the way you feel about paying for Tylenol as opposed to a twin generic...