Stupid Winemaker Choices...(short/boring/trolly)

We had a Syrah this week, a very unusual rendition of a Calif Syrah, that I totally got, but most did not. But it caused me to ponder a bit (dangerous thing, I know):
1. Suppose you have a good/primo Syrah vnyd in the heart of the SantaYnezVlly. You are are a very competent winemaker. You can harvest your grapes later and make a big/extracted/ripe Syrah, give it some toasty/oak, and make a wine that is sure to garner at least a 95 out of Monktown. Instead, you harvest early, make a lightly colored almost rose Syrah, easy-drinking w/ little extract or tannin, and a lovely perfumed/aromatic nose that reminds more of Langhe Nebbiolo w/o the tannic bite. Will only achieve an 86 from Laube if you're lucky.
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2. You have some primo land in the south end of the NapaVlly, down on the valley floor, well-drained. All around you are vnyds planted to Cabernet and Chardonnay, many selling for big $$'s, many very highly regarded by the critics. Instead of doing the obvious, you go in and plant...get this...RibollaGialla and Refosk. Wines, even if they're competently made, will only get you, if you're lucky and have a pretty label, maybe $25-$30/btl.

It's beyond me why any winemaker in his right mind would make such a bizaarre choice...it makes no sense.
Tom

Your right Tom, you are trolling. Of course it makes no business sense. That is until it becomes a BB darling for being so non-commercial that it sells out every year. Not sure with all the wine being made these days in Cali if it makes more business sense to be yet another producer in a sea of sameness or attempt to be different knowing that your target market is smaller but probably easier to find than getting noticed as yet another producer of big Syrah or Napa Cab.

[David M. Bueker]

The AFWE is becoming a pretty good sized customer base these days.

And the Monktown strawman does not review Santa Ynez Syrah anymore. Why not find some new straw? Your trolls are stale.

As others note, differentiation rules. Some strive for mainstream media appeal, others try for "standing out."
Sure, pretty much the "stupid" choices you describe match well with my tastes. But while I'd like to try the wines, I'm hesitant to annoint your chosen winemakers as heroes, they might just be making a calculated economic choice to appeal to the geek crowd.
Sure, Ribolla Boy could have planted CS. But lots of that neighboring CS is being sold at huge discounts on flash sites, just too much of it.
And of course for consumer gives you opportunity to point out you "get it" even if others don't- you're the cool kid!

I think Dale hit the nail on the head- “differentiation rules”. It’s these “stupid “ winemakers choices (both in the vineyard and cellar) that allows winemakers to diversify their portfolio and produce wines to appeal to almost all the segments of the market. Sometimes it might work others might not. Being an amateur home winemaker I find these choices fascinating in the sense that I could produce “several” wines from a single batch of grapes.

Salute

Also, is it axiomatic that "well drained, valley floor" land in Napa is best suited to Cab S and Chardonnay? I thought that Chardonnay did best in well drained hillside vineyards on Kimmeridgian limestone. Maybe Ribolla is actually better suited to the landscape/soil? I'll bet that plenty of people derided Karl Benz's efforts as misguided, too.

Mark Lipton