Steve Greenbaum and Lawrence ‘Doc’ Cohen Bring Their Business Acumen to this Napa Rising Star Cabernet House
(Napa, Calif.) August 6, 2018—John and Stacy Reinert, founders of Napa Valley’s Brilliant Mistake Wines, today announced that they have entered into a partnership with Steve Greenbaum and Doc Cohen, both longtime wine collectors and avid wine fans. The Reinerts founded Brilliant Mistake in 2013 with their debut 50-case Cabernet Sauvignon release and have since been slowly growing their small-lot Napa wine brand. They added a Sauvignon Blanc with the 2016 vintage, and they will also harvest fruit in 2018 for their first vintage of Brilliant Mistake’s reserve wine, The Poet & The Muse.
Both Greenbaum and Cohen will bring their business and marketing experience to Brilliant Mistake. Greenbaum founded PostNet in 1992 and is currently the CEO of ComForCare Health Care Holding, and Cohen is founder of Cookie Associates, a leading franchisee of Great American Cookies, Pretzelmaker and Coffee Beanery. Greenbaum and Cohen’s investment will allow the Reinerts to source grapes from additional top sites and work to grow the brand to their eventual goal of 1,000 cases. The Reinerts remain the face of the brand and maintain their majority ownership.
The Wines and Winemaking
Brilliant Mistake’s winemaking is led by Maayan Koschitzky, who is the Director of Winemaking at Atelier Melka, Philippe Melka’s eponymous consulting business. In addition to crafting wine for some of Napa’s top Cabernet producers alongside Melka, Koschitzky has also worked with icons Screaming Eagle and Dalla Valle. He has been with the team since their second vintage and aims to produce wines that are powerful and lush, while also reflecting the vintage and vineyard site. Koschitzky’s relationships with top growers allow him to source fruit from noted vineyards in Rutherford and St. Helena.
Brilliant Mistake produces two wines, the 2017 Sauvignon Blanc ($45/bottle, 100 cases) and 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon ($150/bottle, 175 cases). The Reinerts will harvest fruit in 2018 for their debut vintage of The Poet & The Muse, which will become their flagship wine (pricing and case production TBD).
The name Brilliant Mistake resonated with the Reinerts who believe that some of the best things in life are those unexpected “brilliant mistakes.”
Brilliant Mistake Wines—A Modern American Dream Realized
The story of a dream to own a winery is not a new one. However, it’s most often the story of a wealthy few who have made a small fortune in another industry and want to get into the wine business, or second or third generation vintners who want to put their own mark on their family’s winemaking name.
Neither of those scenarios is true for John and Stacy Reinert. After meeting in 2009, the Reinerts built their budding relationship through weekends away in Napa, falling in love with both each other, wine, food and Napa. In 2013, they decided to take the plunge and made just two barrels of wine. Since the brand’s inception, the couple have been involved in every aspect of the business, including grape source selection, blending decisions, label design and sales. The difference is both Reinerts have kept their “day jobs” in the Bay Area, he managing a water utility in the Bay Area and she as a hairstylist, and split their time between their homes in the East Bay and Yountville.
ABOUT BRILLIANT MISTAKE WINES
Founded in 2013 by John and Stacy Reinert, Brilliant Mistake Wines currently produces two wines from the Napa Valley, a Sauvignon Blanc ($45/bottle, 100 c) and a Cabernet Sauvignon ($150/bottle, 175 cases). A reserve wine will join the small portfolio with the 2018 vintage and will be named “The Poet & The Muse.” Winemaker Maayan Koschitzky has been with the team since the second vintage and aims to produce wines that are powerful and lush, while also reflecting the vintage and vineyard site. The wines are distributed in California, Oregon, Nevada, Texas, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, Virginia and Wyoming and sold in restaurants, fine wine stores and through the mailing list. Please visit www.brilliantmistakewines.com for more information.
