Best Winemaker

Who do you think is the best winemaker? What do they make? And why?

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Gotta go with Luca Maroni

Yep, this one is going to be good! Love opinionated topics

This is about as impossible as “best” grape or “best” vineyard.

While we’re at it, please provide indisputable, objective criteria for MVP in any sports league. :wink:

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I’ve read a lot about a guy named Michel Rolland on this board. pileon

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Much too many great wine-makers worldwide … and who really knows all …?

So a very subjective personal list of producers I enjoy very much … and where I think they are at the very top
of their region (alphabetically):

Jean-Louis CHAVE (Hermitage)
Jean-François & Raphaël COCHE-DURY (Bg)
Laurence FERAUD (CdP)
Louis-Michel LIGER-BELAIR (Bg)
Sepp & Maria MUSTER (Styria-Austria)
Emmanuel REYNAUD (CdP)
Pierre & René ROSTAING (CR)
…
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It’s basically impossible to separate the winemaker from the vineyard sources and wineries. Do DRC and Haut Brion have the best winemakers in the world? What if Joe Davis or Marcus Goodfellow became the winemakers at those estates? What if the DRC and Haut Brion winemakers (whoever they are) started wineries in Santa Barbara and Willamette Valley, how much better or worse would they do than others who are there already?

Having said that, we all know many excellent winemakers through our journey. I wouldn’t know where to begin listing names, and I’d certainly leave many off.

Maybe one way to think of it is this: what winemakers do I know of, where I’d be certain or almost certain to want to dive into a brand new project of theirs in a new (good quality) region? If Russell Bevan (again sort of randomly selecting the name of well-regarded winemakers on this board) moved to Puente Alto, Columbia River Valley or Margaret River and started over making cabernets from there, would you say “I’m totally in on that?” If Jean-Louis Chave packed up and moved to Paso Robles or Barossa Valley and started making syrah/shiraz, would you be first in line to buy it? Making reasonable assumptions about price and vineyard sites and all.

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Larry Schaffer
Rhone Varieties
No TCA
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rudy kurniawan tops the list for me. he was able to make magic given what he had access to.

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There is a small winery in Sonoma called Amphora. They were one of the first wineries I tasted at and joined back in 2012. Of probably 10-12 other wineries in Sonoma it was also the last I dropped. Even though my tastes changed more to old-world and Oregon, I found their wines delicious.

The thing is the winemaker was a total geek and made wine from any grape he could get his hands on. His Pinot and Zins were fantastic. But so was his Cab Franc, Petite Sirah, Barbera. Mourvèdre, Carignan, and Alicante Bouschet

I think he bottler a Petit Verdot that I found interesting. The only wine I didn’t like was his Can Sauv. This was across 5-6 different vintages. He was was so versatile. Not to say he belongs in the conversation for great winemakers but I often wonder what he could have done with better sources (not to say his sources sucked - he got Zin from Teldeschi for example).

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I don’t think it would be controversial to say Lalou Bize-Leroy, but let’s hear why I’m wrong.

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Best at what?

Serious question.

Cameron Diaz

it is of course not meant to be a scientific or definitive answer. But MJ is better than LeBron scientifically and definitively!

Yet you didn’t answer the question…

Don’t we have such examples of winemakers leaving or joining different or varied vineyards? At least enough to make our own subjective assumptions of their impact?

Sometimes people ask questions because they don’t think they know the answer. I think that occasionally happens still even today!

When I first joined this forum some people told me about certain producers and sometimes said a given producer is not as good since the winemaker left and so on. I assume some people know many winemakers. I know only a few. I am curious if anyone thinks some given winemaker or winemakers are really the best at their field.

No, no, no…You’re thinking about Michael Jordan in the sports section of this forum. An understandable mistake.

Whichever one has been on this BB the most.