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Notice: This is not an actor. This is the real Gustavo Brambila who did not make the award winning wine. (Mike Grgich did.) Today Brambila is co-owner of GustavoThrace Winery in Napa.

Napa Valley (AVA)

Bottle Shocked:
Uncorking the Real Gustavo Brambila

What's the difference between real life and the way Hollywood sees it? With the feature "Bottle Shock", quite a bit.

by Alan Goldfarb
August 27, 2008

For the official record:

Freddy Rodriguez looks nothing like Gustavo Brambila. (What a shock.)

Gustavo Brambila had nothing to do with the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay that was one of two California wines which won the Paris Tasting of 1976. (What a shock.)

Gustavo Brambila wasn’t making his own red wine in the years he worked for the Calistoga winery. (What a shock.)

Gustavo Brambila never gave to Jim and Bo Barrett that impassioned speech that they never could make great wine unless they understood the earth from where their grapes came. (What a shock, eh?)

onetheless Freddy Rodriguez, the actor in “Bottle Shock”, who portrays Gustavo Brambila, serendipitously uttered what was in the mind of the actual man. I tracked down the real Gustavo Brambila one recent afternoon where he was filtering wine for his GustavoThrace Winery, and it became evident that the winemaker has his roots deep in the Napa Valley soil.

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