May 04, 2021
Longtime Napa Valley vintner Fred Schrader and a former friend, Robert “Randy” Roach Jr., are fighting in state and federal courts over the terms of their involvement in a Cabernet Sauvignon produced with To-Kalon fruit.
A lot of money may be at stake. Fred Schrader in 2017 sold Schrader Cellars to Constellation Brands for about $60 million, according to news reports. Schrader Cellars has no home winery.
The sale did include Schrader RBS, a Cabernet Sauvignon produced with fruit from the Beckstoffer To Kalon vineyard in Oakville. “RBS” stands for Roach Brown Schrader LLC, an entity formed in December 2002.
Roach, an attorney based in Texas, alleges he was an “equity partner” in RBS, according to a lawsuit Roach filed in state court in Houston in 2018 against Fred Schrader and Constellation Brands. Roach, who was a friend of Schrader for about two decades, stressed he and Schrader had a partnership in the RBS project, according to the Texas lawsuit.