Thomas Rivers Brown

The only American in our lineup of winemakers, Thomas stands out for his soft-spoken humility and down-to-earth work ethic. With an enviable résumé that includes winemaking positions at top producers such as Turley and Schrader, Thomas is today considered to be Napa’s “Top Gun,” the maestro behind highly prized wines notable for their signature fleshy, opulent, hedonistic style.

In the first chapter of his famous work, The Zhuangzi, Chinese Taoist philosopher Zhuang Tzu describes a gigantic sea creature so vast in size that its body is an unknown number of miles long. In a passage entitled “The Carefree Excursion,” Zhuang chronicles the transformation of this sea creature, K’un, into an equally immense bird, Peng:

When it rouses itself and flies, its wings obscure the sky like clouds.

A symbol of incredible strength and magnitude, K’un represents Thomas’s wine, Perihelios.