Heard about Mondavi?

[stevebody]

It may just be the latent hippie in me but I flinch down to my chromosomes when one of your Constellations or Southcorps buys up a respected winery. I see the spin has already started, with that business about this sale being good for the CA wine industry when someone will pay $1.3B for a company. I think the question should be Who's Paying It? A conglomerate that's made its bones on Wild Irish Rose stands a fair chance of not properly respecting the Mondavi brand. The Mondavi rep up here, Michael Ginder, is a long-time friend of mine and has run up against the same company attitudes about truth-telling as did Guru. But when was truth ever a hallmark of the wine business? The brands manager from Stimson, Dave Strathey, has poured his wines for me at lunch several times over the past five years and solicited my opinion and then goes away pissed when I give it to him. (Not a big fan of Ste. Michelle) I had a twenty minute phone argument with Gary Hogue, once, after he asked what I was doing to sell his wines and I said "Nothing". He asked why and I told him I didn't think much of them, except for a couple of the Genesis things. Bad feelings ensued.

Don't worry: I'm not climbing all the way up on the soapbox but I just think that creative rationalization is as old a tradition in the wine trade as is bottling grape juice. And what a pity that is...