Thomas Duroux, showing us around the vineyards of Palmer.

Thomas Duroux is the pensive, sincere presence behind Chateau Palmer, Bordeaux’s third-growth wine that has captivated the interest and the checkbooks of wine lovers around the world.

Chateau Palmer produces wines that have the elegant charm and silky femininity emblematic of the Margaux appellation, but with a strength and tannic backbone you don’t always find in its neighbors. It’s a wine that gives you immediate pleasure, but also leaves you intrigued and wanting to explore more.

The property, bordered by an impressive castle-like chateau with “witches-hat turrets,” includes 55 hectares and produces an annual 120,000 bottles of Chateau Palmer and 96,000 bottles of its second label, Alter Ego.

Thomas Duroux, described in one word, is a listener. In managing the vineyards, he listens. “You need a strong relationship with the place, the vines, with everything,” he told me during a recent trip to Bordeaux.

Indeed, Chateau Palmer has started managing its blocks of vines more precisely and looks not only at the variety, age, and rootstock, but also at what is happening underground below the vines. Thomas now divides all blocks into pieces or “families” and then makes management and harvest decisions accordingly.

Additionally, when he’s thinking about the future of Bordeaux and the business of Palmer, he also listens. During my visit in March, he took the time to ask our group (four business school students) weighty questions about where we saw en primeur, pricing, and Bordeaux’s popularity heading in the future.

Chateau Palmer is an exciting property and, in my opinion, it’s an exciting and challenging time for Bordeaux as well.

Check out our interview with Thomas below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

Each week, as regular readers know, we pose a series of questions to a winemaker. This week, we’re featuring Blair Pethel of Domaine Dublère in Burgundy. 

Throughout the 1990s, Blair worked as a political journalist in Washington, DC. Every year, however, he’d visit Burgundy to taste wine, learn, and meet with friends. In 1999, he decided to take a sabbatical from journalism to work harvest — and quickly realized that his heart was already in Burgundy.   

So in 2003, he uprooted his family and moved to Beaune, where he enrolled at the Lycée Viticole, the local winemaking school. The very next year, he began making wine.

Check out our interview with Blair below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

Each week, as regular readers know, we pose a series of questions to a winemaker. This week, we’re featuring Tracey Hawkins of Hawk and Horse Vineyards in the Red Hills AVA of Northern California.

A Sonoma County native, wine was always a part of Tracey’s life. So when her stepfather, David Boies, purchased a 1,300-acre ranch in Lower Lake (just north of Napa County) in 1982, she began spending more and more time on the land and envisioning a life there. 

In 1999, Mitch and her husband Mitch took over the operations of the ranch, planting their first vines two years later and renaming the property Hawk and Horse Vineyards. Their first release was in 2004. 

Before founding Hawk and Horse, Tracy spent six years working elsewhere in the industry in wine sales and marketing. She studied winemaking at U.C. Davis and wine marketing at Sonoma State University. 

Check out our interview with Tracey below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

Each week, as regular readers know, we pose a series of questions to a winemaker. This week, we’re featuring Tyler Thomas of Donelan Family Wines in Santa Rosa, California. 

A St. Louis native, Tyler credits his interest in food and wine to his grandmother, who grew up in Nice, France. This interest only grew after graduating from Colorado State University, when he traveled to Bordeaux. Upon returning to the States, Tyler returned to school to study viticulture and enology at U.C. Davis. After completing his studies, a scholarship took Tyler to the Rheingau. He then returned to California and joined the team at Donelan in 2008. 

Check out our interview with Tyler below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

Each week, as regular readers know, we pose a series of questions to a winemaker. This week, we’re featuring winemaker Brian Brown from Round Pond Estate in Rutherford, California.

Brian first became curious about wine while attending high school in Perth, Australia. While there, the local vineyards piqued his interest — so after graduation, he headed to UC Davis to study viticulture and enology.

After college, Brian worked harvests at Iron Horse Vineyards in Sonoma, Salitage in Pemberton, Australia, and Napa Wine Company in Oakville before landing a position as an enologist at Trefethen Vineyards. He then moved to Vineyard 29, where he worked alongside Philippe Melka and Celia Masyczek.

Brian joined the team at Round Pond in 2007 as assistant winemaker, and became the head winemaker in January 2009. In addition to his work at Round Pond, Brian co-owns Emerson Brown Wines with Vineyard 29 winemaker Keith Emerson. (As regular readers know, we interviewed Keith Emerson last May.)

Check out our interview with Brian below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

Each week, as regular readers know, we pose a series of questions to a winemaker. This week, we’re featuring winemaker Julien Fayard from Purlieu in Napa Valley.

A native of Saint-Étienne, France, Julien grew up in the French Riviera and studied agribusiness and winemaking while in university. After school, Julien worked in both Provence and Bordeaux – including stints at Château Lafite-Rothschild and Smith Haut Lafitte. He came to the Napa Valley in 2006, where he landed a job Quintessa and quickly became Phillipe Melka’s right-hand man. 

Check out our interview with Julien below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

Each week, as regular readers know, we pose a series of questions to a winemaker. This week, we’re featuring Giampaolo Venica from Venica & Venica in Fruili, Italy.

Giampaolo Venica.

Venica & Vencia traces its roots to 1930 when Giampaolo’s great grandfather, Daniele, purchased a small house and plot of land in Dolegna del Collio.

After World War II, Daniele started farming on the property — and because he was growing grapes, he also began producing wine. As he began selling his excess wine and fruit to area restaurants, Daniele and his son Adelchi began purchasing abandoned vineyards and expanding their wine production.

A family winery, Daniele passed the winery to his son Adelchi, who passed it along to his two sons, Gianni and Giorgio.

Giampaolo, Gianni’s son, studied both viticulture and enology in school and then headed to California, South Africa, and Bordeaux to hone his craft. Upon his return, he began managing exports for the family winery. Just recently, Giampaolo took over the winery with his sister and cousins. So the family’s winemaking tradition remains quite strong.

Check out our interview with Giampaolo below the fold! Read the rest of this entry »

Lars Carlberg is regarded as one of the foremost writers and scholars on the wines of the Mosel. For several years, he has been involved with importing various producers to the United States – he established the Mosel Wine Merchant portfolio in 2005, though he now only represents – among Mosel growers – Hofgut Falkenstein under his “LCS” label.

Lars Carlberg

For those interested in learning more about Mosel Riesling, Lars also offers an insider’s view of the Mosel from his home in Trier at his website, larscarlberg.com. In his own words, he has “no interest in scoring wines or ranking sites.” Rather he offers subscribers a view into the history, vineyards, and producers of the Mosel, along with tasting notes from bottle and cask samples.

As a sample, non-subscribers can read his two-part essay on Mosel Kabinett: Unlocking the Kabinett, parts one and two.

Lars Carlberg is also one of the sponsors of Rieslingfeier, and will be pouring wines from Hofgut Falkenstein at Chambers St. Wines on Friday February 15th to kick off the Riesling celebrations in New York City. He recently chatted with Terroirist about German Riesling. Check out our interview below the fold.

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Carl Van der Merwe

Each week, as regular readers know, we pose a series of questions to a winemaker. This week, we’re featuring Carl van der Merwe, the winemaker of DeMorgenzon in Stellenbosch.

DeMorgenzon, or “the morning sun,” was purchased by Wendy & Hylton Appelbaum in 2003. The site sees the Stellenboshkloof valley’s  first rays of sun daily, thus the solar-themed moniker. The vines and cellar at DeMorgenzon receive a constant feed of Baroque music in order to energize the plant life (and the human workers as well, I imagine). They have obviously researched the effects of such practices, which you can read all about via their website, or you just just take it from me that their flagship Chenin Blanc truly does sing.

Carl joined DeMorgenzon in July 2010 after an 8 year stint at Quoin Rock Winery in Stellenbosch where he made excellent wines and collected many accolades. Carl received a degree in business management and oenology at Stellenbosch University and is currently a Master of Wine student.

Check out our interview with Carl below the fold! Read the rest of this entry »

Today, Luke Wohlers joins us for an interview from Seattle, a city quickly gaining ground in the sommelier scene.

Luke holds a diploma from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust and is a first year Master of Wine student. He’s at the Advanced level with the Court of Master Sommeliers, and is also currently pursuing the Master of Wine designation.

He began his restaurant career in 1996 and entered the wine industry in 2000, when he began working as a manager and wine educator at Corkscrew Wine Emporium in Urbana, Illinois. He soon moved to Boston, where he worked at Upstairs on the Square, Formaggio Kitchen, and Lower Falls Wine Company. In 2008, Luke he was part of the wine team at Eleven Madison Park when the restaurant earned a James Beard Award for “Outstanding Wine Service.” In 2010, Luke moved to Washington to work at The Herbfarm. And in June 2011, he joined the team at RN74 in Seattle.

When not engrossed in wine, Luke can be found with his cello in hand preparing for an upcoming recital, or clad with his running shoes on a near by running trail. You can follow him on twitter @lukewohlers. Check out our interview with Luke below the fold! Read the rest of this entry »