Mine is easy; Alexis Lichine. The Bordeaux impresario, and apparently one of the most charming men ever to hawk a bottle of claret.
He died just before I got into the business, but there are plenty of wonderful stories about him.
Thomas Jefferson
Jesus.
In addition to being a fascinating historical figure, you’re never going to run out of wine.
Fictional characters are allowed?
If so maybe Sebastian Flyte.
It would be hard to beat Lichine. Although I did attend a large dinner for him in the early 80s, featuring his ‘Lichine’ line of French wines and a few vintages of Prieure-Lichine.
I would probably also pick one of the great British Icons, Michael Broadbent, Harry Waugh or Hugh Johnson.
Henri Jayer
Baron Phillipe
A super-cool figure in the history of wine and this wondrous Chateau. The dinner would be a whirlwind and engaged evening with arts, politics, history, war, gossip, business, and wine, of course.
We would start with a 1924, the first art label by Carlu, then progress to the next art label and the first post-war vintage, 1945. From there, who knows, but certainly a 59, 61, 82 and 86.
I would have loved to taste (better: dine) with Henri Bonneau … sadly too late.
Robert Mondavi.
That was my immediate answer.
Beyond that, another that came quickly to mind was Serge Hochar. I only met him briefly on a couple of occasions, but it was obvious he’s make a great dinner companion…
I very much doubt he would have served a 86 ! ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
Did this. It was OK.
Probably the man I’d be most interested in talking to would be Andre Tchelistcheff.
“God made Cabernet Sauvignon, whereas the Devil made Pinot Noir.”
this is easy, didier dagueneau.
Our very own Bob Wood
Rudy Kurniawan, to ask him a lot of questions… 
For me, it would totally depend on whether they’d bring wines…and what. Can’t think of anyone I’d just like to talk to. (Henri Jayer made great wines, but wasn’t the most fascinating guy I ever met, and spoke no English.)
Rudy would be as fascinating as anyone, frankly. Not sure I’d trust him to bring the wines, though. I’d love to hear what he thought of the people he duped, particularly “experts” like Burghound (Alan Meadows)…and whether it took any skill to do so.
I had dinner with Rudy on a number of occasions. You would most likely be disappointed, as he didn’t have a big personality. He did buy some really nice wines off the wine list, though.
Ray Walker… just so I could not show up
Rudy did something that duped some people who shouldn’t have been duped. It wasn’t an accident. He had a plan.
Frankly, I wouldn’t really be that interested in hearing about it from him; but, likewise, I’m not sure I’d particularly like to hear from any other wine figure , either.
Bruno Giacosa. I am still hopeful.