Peter Posert has a knack for creating popular, drinkable wines at reasonable prices

From The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat:

By VIRGINIE BOONE
FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Peter Posert sits down at a table in front of 50 bottles of red wine of various sizes. None are adorned with the usual labels but instead with generic, lab-like descriptor stickers listing the varietal, appellation and amount available along the lines of “Cabernet Sauvignon,” “Red Hills,” “32,372 cases.” The name of the winery that may have provided each of these is cleverly blacked out, for discretion is key here. These are all samples of bulk wine for sale and it’s time for Posert to taste.

Posert is a negociant, someone who assesses and buys wine that’s already made, blends it into his own concoction, then bottles and sells it under his own label. The practice can work in good times and bad as a way of repackaging wine deemed perhaps not worthy of its pedigree, or simply made in excess, and then made available at reasonable prices by entrepreneurs like Posert, who are unburdened by overhead costs.

“I have this enormous freedom because I can just go make wine,” Posert said. “If I was tied to an estate winery or estate block of grapes I would be locked into what I could make that year. And if I can’t produce 2,000 cases it’ll only be 1,000 cases; four to six months later there’ll be a whole new set of samples available.”

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