|
Do any of you dislike or even hate Rombauer wines? I know there is some talk about their Chardonnay being too oaky and too much alcohol content.
Why am I asking? I was at my wife's high school reunion last weekend. One of her classmates said he is a winemaker. He buys the grapes and makes 100-150 cases per year. He used to be a "wine educator" at one of the wineries in Temecula, CA....a real expert according to him.
When I mentioned that my wife and I are wine club members at Rombauer he literally flipped out. He got red in the face and his voice changed to this pretty scary tone and he started saying negative things about how Rombauer makes its wines. He called their Chardonnay "Cougar Juice". I've heard that before so it was not a surprise.
He was livid that Rombauer dare make wines differently. He explained himself but I don't know anything about wine making so his explanation was lost on me. He hates their zin for being too something or another (wine speak). I told him I loved their zin.
I was not about to ruin my time at the reunion by getting into a pissing contest with this wine snob, but I did have a closing point that I made and then I moved onto another conversation with an actual nice person. I said, "you make really great wine and sell 150 cases per year. Rombauer makes 350,000 cases per year of wine people like to drink and just sold themselves to Gallo for probably $1.5 billion dollars. They must be doing something right."
My question to you wine enthusiasts. Does Rombauer deserve all the hate for choosing to do things a bit differently than other wineries?
|