Roshambo Winery: Circus with a Side of Wine?
Posted by Samantha Evans on February 25th 2008 in Wine
Charlene wrote a glorious article on wine and hiking last week. Although mixing strenuous activity with my imbibement isn’t my cup of tea (or glass of pinot noir, as the case may be), her mention of Roshambo winery out of Healdsburg, California piqued my interest.
Roshambo injects a playful hipness into their whole operation - from their industrially-decorated tasting room/art gallery (now at Cornerstone Gardens) to their Roshambus (a tour bus cum-wine-tasting mobile), decorated by local artists, which will bring their wine to the masses. But is it all style and no substance?
Roshambo (slang for rock+paper+scissors) was crafted by former twisted food photographer and conceptual artist Naomi Brilliant on her grandfather Frank Johnson’s Sonoma land.
Most of the reviews I have read on Roshambo are 75% “Roshambo experience” and 25% wine. Ms. Brilliant is BRILLIANT in her marketing and promotion…how many wineries do you know that:
- have their own MySpace page
- host the world’s biggest Rock Paper Scissors tournament
- have drag brunches
- hold a Pirate Prom?
I even found this video made by an Australian crew to pitch the Roshambo story as a reality show to the Discovery Network. Think the movie “Reality Bites” when Ben Stiller’s character took Winona Ryder’s earnest film and cut the hell out of it to make it all “MTV-ey.”
Ok, so they’ve got the hip posturing down, but how’s the wine? Here are some reviews:
- The Wine Enthusiast’s March Buying Guide rated three Roshambo red wines at 90 points or higher. (FJV Syrah - 93 points; Reverend Zinfandel - 92 points; Rock - 90 points). P.S. Roshambo – I’ll try any wine that’s described as having a note of “old baseball mitt.”
- Napa Valley Register rated Roshambo highly at the Copia “Taste of Sonoma County” wine tasting
- Roshamo wines from GoodWineUnder20.blogspot.com.
- three cheers for the little guy
- Roshambo wines on wine.woot.com
But there were also reviews on yelp.com that liken the wine to Two buck chuck (a.k.a. Charles Shaw, inexpensive wine from Trader Joe’s) and (less charitably) swill. I applaud Ms. Brilliant’s fervor in bringing fun to the oft stuffy wine world, but can she do it without turning her winery into a circus?
