The Brilliance of Roshambo Winery

Roshambus
Is it just me or does anyone else have a hard time imagining Silver Oak Winery inhabiting the Roshambo Winery facility on Westside Road in Healdsburg? In fact, I can’t imagine any other winery successfully occupying this amazing facility.

News broke today that Roshambo Winery sold its facility to Silver Oak Winery. This is the first time in a long time that I’ve found myself lamenting a sale in the wine industry. The brand is still owned by Naomi Brilliant and will continue on until a new facility is finished. That’s good news because the Roshambo wines are terrific and the Roshambo style of presenting wine and wine country is important. Still,Roshwinery_1
this was a case of a facility and a personality (Naomi Brilliant’s) matching perfectly and in a rather spectacular way.

Over at the Roshambo Blog Brilliant has put up a post
  that explains the future of Roshambo Winery. The post itself is vintage "Brilliant/Roshambo" and worth a read. (how is it that, upon reading Naomi’s post and discovering that the winery will operate out of a bus just down the road from their original facility until the new winery is finished, that this seems a perfectly logical interim housing option for their tasting room?)

I worked with Roshambo in the past. The highlight of that entire experience was getting to face an approach to selling wine that I’d not encountered before. Being ogled and flirted with by one of the longest-legged, foxiest guys I’ve ever seen at the winery’s "Drag Brunch" wasn’t bad either. But at Roshambo it was the fight against the oppressing pomposity of the "wine culture" with an irreverent attitude and real reverence for progressivism that kept me enthralled (and slightly confused) while working with them.

I guess the take away from todays news is: You can take the Brilliance out of the winery, but you can’t take the Brilliant out of Roshambo Winery.


One Response

  1. tom merle - December 25, 2006

    Tom W wrote: “Is it just me or does anyone else have a hard time imagining Silver Oak Winery inhabiting the Roshambo Winery facility on Westside Road in Healdsburg? In fact, I can’t imagine any other winery successfully occupying this amazing facility.”
    Tom M responds: The real misfit was between this notable piece of architecture and its initial inhabitants, particularly the pierced and tattoed tasting room crew. Having also worked for this excellent if zany winery, I (and many others) always pondered the disconnect between their irreverence and the winery structure, which is elegant and sophisticated–everything that Roshambo would be the first to acknowledge it is not. So my countervailing statement would be: I can imagine ANY other winery BUT roshambo occupying this amazing building (and site).


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