Best Winemaker

[Eric_Ifune]

Dirk Niepoort.

[Fred_Vogel]

Helen Keplinger

[Todd_Hamina]

Dead or alive?

either?

Jean-Bernard Delmas

[Dan_Sch]

Me…before I quit to pursue my real passion at the Home Depot customer service desk.

[Jeff_M1]

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

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

MJ makes wine too?

[Brian_Tuite]

Whichever one has been on this BB the most.

So we’re in agreement?

https://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3425247#p3425247

[John_Glas]

Cameron Diaz

Jon Bon Jovi is up there!

[Marcus_Goodfellow]

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

See Chris Seiber’s post above…

She definitely spares no expense, not unlike Helen Turley, Von Winning, etc. So how is she different from those winemakers?

But ultimately the vineyards she works with are among the most elite of the most elite vineyards in the world.

…and Rousseau is Rousseau. From my experience, and for my palate, I would choose GC Rousseau wines as better(because I wouldn’t pick a best). Which is funny coming from a person as committed to whole cluster as I am.

…and “best” is a placeholder for “my favorite” 100% of the time. There’s no intelligent way to actually measure/divine whom the best might be. Whether sports or winemaking.

[Marcus_Goodfellow]

A great winemaker can’t be a one trick pony, they have to have many skillz. Its much easier to make a 100 point wine when you have 100 point fruit. The true warriors are able to fix broken wines and bring them back from the dead.

Agreed.

I also can’t comprehend how there are no winemakers from Champagne named so far?

[Br1an_Th0rne]

Philip Togni

[Matthew_King]

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

Do you think she makes the wine anymore? I kinda doubt it. But what do I know?

[GregT]

Some winemakers are good at finding amazing vineyards… Ken Rosenblum comes to mind. Y’all keep leaving out the tractor drivers.

And don’t forget his daughter. Tannat, Petite Sirah, Syrah, Zins - if anything she is even better, pulled back a bit and let the vineyards show. But who knows her?

Or a guy like Steve Matthiason. Never had a bad wine from him. And I’d put guys like Bryan Harrington on this list too - he found oddball vineyards all over, imported some cuttings to see what they would do, and never failed to make interesting wine. And there are plenty of people in places that have never been mentioned on this board - Judit Bott for example, or Attila Homonna, who only works with Furmint and Hárslevelű and makes outstanding wine. Similar to Paul Gordon - work their own vineyards and make stellar wine from those. And I never had a bad wine from any of them.

Then you can switch over to Mariano Garcia - he made what, 30 vintages of Vega Sicilia?

But what’s the point?

One literally works out of a garage, another out of a barn, another has a few hundred million dollars behind him.

So are you a great winemaker if you have access to all the technology you want, all the labs you need, all the consultants you ask for, and a brilliant vineyard that’s maintained by a full-time crew? Or are you a better winemaker if you maintain your own small vineyard yourself and make the wine yourself. Or are you a better winemaker if you find vineyards that are managed by people who know those vineyards better than you ever will?

Maybe what matters more is whether the winemaker got a lot of points from a critic you like. Or a lot of mentions on this board. Or sells really expensive wine.

[alan_weinberg]

Andre Noblet, now retired, DRC vigneron for decades.

[Marcus_Goodfellow]

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.

Indisputable, objective criteria for the GOAT in the NFL:

Tom Brady is the only elite QB in the modern era(basically his career now that I think about it) who understands the hard salary cap, and the over focus of dollars on the QB position. He realized that if he always signed for 70% of what the other elite QBs were signing for that his team would have significant advantages in depth at other positions(particularly defense). His team would also be able to keep defensive players fresh, and therefore able to load the dice in games against other high quality teams.

He has more Superbowl wins than anyone else, and the only time in his career that the Patriots/Bucs weren’t competitive was when he signed his first big contract.

He stated himself that he took less money in his next contract because he “just wanted to be competitive”. And that worked…to say the least.

[Lee_Short]

…and “best” is a placeholder for “my favorite” 100% of the time. There’s no intelligent way to actually measure/divine whom the best might be. Whether sports or winemaking.

This, times ten thousand.

There are just too many variables that go into a wine, to separate out what is winemaker and what is other factors.

[Scott_Brunson]

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.

Indisputable, objective criteria for the GOAT in the NFL:

Tom Brady is the only elite QB in the modern era(basically his career now that I think about it) who understands the hard salary cap, and the over focus of dollars on the QB position. He realized that if he always signed for 70% of what the other elite QBs were signing for that his team would have significant advantages in depth at other positions(particularly defense). His team would also be able to keep defensive players fresh, and therefore able to load the dice in games against other high quality teams.

He has more Superbowl wins than anyone else, and the only time in his career that the Patriots/Bucs weren’t competitive was when he signed his first big contract.

He stated himself that he took less money in his next contract because he “just wanted to be competitive”. And that worked…to say the least.

That does not make him GOAT.
But the stats, the wins, the longevity, the fact that he makes every teammate better (well, maybe except AB )…

[David_Bu3ker]

Maybe SOAT - Smartest of All Time

[Ben_M_a_n_d_l_e_r]

Obviously there’s no right answer to this question but, because I haven’t seen his name yet, if we’re talking U.S. I think there’s a pretty compelling argument to be made for Jim Clendenen. RIP.

[Marcus_Goodfellow]

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.

Indisputable, objective criteria for the GOAT in the NFL:

Tom Brady is the only elite QB in the modern era(basically his career now that I think about it) who understands the hard salary cap, and the over focus of dollars on the QB position. He realized that if he always signed for 70% of what the other elite QBs were signing for that his team would have significant advantages in depth at other positions(particularly defense). His team would also be able to keep defensive players fresh, and therefore able to load the dice in games against other high quality teams.

He has more Superbowl wins than anyone else, and the only time in his career that the Patriots/Bucs weren’t competitive was when he signed his first big contract.

He stated himself that he took less money in his next contract because he “just wanted to be competitive”. And that worked…to say the least.

That does not make him GOAT.
But the stats, the wins, the longevity, the fact that he makes every teammate better (well, maybe except AB )…

He makes his teammates better by getting them a larger paycheck(as in the Pats sign better players than they would have). And they made him the SOAT. The wins come from deeper teams. The stats are no different than Manning, Rogers, Brees(who all had wins, stats, longevity, and made their teammates better too).

But the rings are different from everybody else.

[Jim_Cowan]

Me.
‘Cause I made the wines I like best.