Whither Rosenblum wines?
Posted on February 12th, 2008 – 9:27 AMBy Bill Ward
Less than a week after our profile of St. Paul native Kent Rosenblum ran in the Taste section, the announcement came: Rosenblum Cellars had been sold to booze-industry giant Diageo.
When I had interviewed Kent in late November, I asked him about the consolidation unfolding in the wine industry, with behemoths such as Constellation buying up wineries of all sizes. His response: “We have conversations every now and again with folks, kincking at the tires. But we’re kinda liking where we’re at.”
Perhaps his use of “kinda” instead of “very” should have been a tipoff that something was up, but (a) That’s the way the man talks, and (b) It would have been folly to expect him to reveal the process that almost certainly was unfolding at the time.
The key question, at least for consumers, is how this purchase will affect the quality of Rosenblum wines. There have been plenty of instances of corporate pressure to buy cheaper grapes from lesser sites, and the quality of the grapes is still the foremost factor in the quality of the wine.
But the guess here is that this won’t happen with Rosenblum, at least for now. Among the reasons:
*Kent Rosenblum is staying on as winemaker, and his name, and thus his reputaion, remain on the label.
*Most of Rosenblum’s wines come from single vineyards. That’s also unlikely to change; if we start seeing Harris Kratka and Eagle Point Vineyards disappearing from Rosenblum labels, replaced by more generic names, then it might be time to worry.
*In general, Diageo has a reputation for not interfering with the winemaking process at the properties it buys. (The same holds for the now-ginormous Jackson Family Wines, by the way.)
Anything can happen, of course, to affect a winery’s performance: the death of a major player, the departure of a gifted winemaker, a vineyard owner deciding to sell his grapes to another winery. Silver Oak cabs, in my view, fell off several notches a few years back when the winemaker/owner fell ill and sold the company. There’s no way of truly knowing until the juice hits the retail shelves.
One response to "Whither Rosenblum wines?"
Sadly, there is no hope that Rosenblum will the same wine. There is equally little hope that Kent will remain at the helm for more than a year or two. Don’t kid yourself, his presence is merely window dressing; designed to retain an unwitting customer base. It is the nature of the sell agreement that Diagio would offer a “generous” package if Mr Rosenblum were to remain and “assist” with the transition; stick around long enough for everyone to forget who is in control. Now that Diagio owns the winery, every aspect of his ability to make great wine is out of his control; not all at once…but most certainly and irrevocably. All monetary decisions are handled by people well up the food chain… people who live for the bottom line not great grapes. Kent is locked in a situation that insures that he be marginalized, remain only as a figure head. When he can no longer standby as witness to the corporitization of his former personal inspiration, he’ll be gone and the consumer won’t have a clue. To witt…Chalone, Edna Valley, Dynamite, Matanzas Creek, and most painfully, but already forgotten, Brice Jones founder and spiritual jaugernaut of Sonoma-Cutrer. None of the original talents that built those great properties remain long after the sale, and why should they? There are no share values in common. And the wines, quantity vs quality, anyone care to guess how that turns out? Buy the brand and leverage the heck out of the label for as long as the consumer will tolerate it…then move on and buy another one. We have seen this movie again and again from the the likes of Diagio and Brown Foreman. It’s not that I have a fundamental problem with these companies..its just that the wines cease to be what the consumer thinks they are, and nobody seems to be aware.
