Who Forbes Thinks Make The Best Wine

I had to chuckle the other day when my friend Jack over at Fork & Bottle sent me this link to an article in Forbes magazine which has the subtitle: "Lift your glasses to the ten individuals who craft the finest wines in the U.S."

Now I won't tell you the various expletives and emoticons that Jack used to convey how flabbergast he was at this article, but I will encourage you to note that after the name of the individual and the wineries they work at, the next piece of data which Forbes chooses to show is their gross revenue in millions of dollars.

Now, it's hard to argue with some of their choices, like Heidi Peterson Barrett, who, even if you're not a fan of the style of wines she makes (I happen to like many of them) certainly makes some of the most sought after wines in the U.S. But there are other folks on the list who seem like they're there because they just happen to make a bazillion dollars making wine. Now I certainly don't hold that against them, but in my book that doesn't qualify you as the maker of the best wine around. Maybe I just don't share Forbes' definition of "fine wine"

Anyhow, the list was:

Heidi Barrett -- La Sirena
Chris Camarda -- Andrew Will Winery
Merry Edwards -- Merry Edwards
Randall Graham -- Bonny Doon
Jess Jackson -- Kendall-Jackson
Celia Maysczek -- D.R. Stephens
Joel Peterson -- Ravenswood
David Ramey -- Ramey Wine Cellars
Tony Soter -- Etude
Warren Winiarski -- Stag's Leap Wine Cellars

Check out the profiles of these folks at Forbes.

Posted by: Alder on December 2, 2005 10:11 PM: Tweet; Share this post elsewhere: Digg it! - Add to del.icio.us - Add to Stumbleupon - Add to Reddit; Filed under: Ramblings and Rants

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Comments (6)

Steve-o wrote:

12.03.05 at 4:19 AM

I don't see anything in that article that actually indicates that Forbes thinks these folks make the best wine. The word "best" isn't even used in the article. Nor do I see the subtitle to which you refer in your post. Their criteria appears to be success (measured in dollars) and influence in the industry (measured by a not-very-clear set of subjective metrics).

Jack wrote:

12.03.05 at 8:50 AM

It does say this, "...the leading Tastemakers in the U.S. wine industry."

I sent this article to Alder because I just couldn't figure out why this article existed. What benefit would a reader get from reading it? Perhaps this is just some kind of reward to wineries who advertise in Forbes (sort of like WS Top 100)? I just don't know.

I think this is more meaningful:
http://www.forbes.com/2005/11/29/forbes-fictional-rich_cx_mn_de_05fict15land.html

Jack wrote:

12.03.05 at 9:30 AM

Two more thoughts:

Maybe Forbes is infected with CLD (compulsive listmania disorder)?

Maybe they did an online survey and most everyone checked the "I love Lists" under Favorite Article type?

Alder wrote:

12.03.05 at 9:34 AM

I just went back and checked on that subtitle -- it only appears on the RSS feed for the article.

Alder

Tana wrote:

12.03.05 at 1:39 PM