Lunches and dinners with wine people that I remember

The other threads about wine people you’d like to have dinner with — or not — got me thinking about the lunches and dinners I’ve had with people in the trade over the years that stand out in my mind. Many of the encounters I owe to my friend Claude Kolm.

In no particular order:

Steve Edmunds (Edmunds St. John) - dinner once at Claude’s in San Francisco and at two dinners in NYC sponsored by Chambers Street. Always thoughtful, soft-spoken and modest. His wry account of being locked out of the Wylie vineyard due to some EST connection sticks in my memory, along with his consternation when the old mourvedre vines on Mt. Veeder he tapped in the 80s were grafted to merlot. Still waiting for him to play his banjo at dinner.

Enrico Dellapiano (Rizzi, Barbaresco) - dinner twice at my apartment. Good company and extremely conscientious. Like so many great young winemakers, it’s clear he’s always learning and trying to understand his mistakes as well as his successes.

Luis Pato and Filipa Pato (Luis Pato, Bairrada, Portugal) - separate dinners at my apartment after a visit to the winery. When God doled out the charm, both father and daughter were blessed with more than their share. Lovely people and I’m a big fan of the wines.

Aubert de Villaine (DRC) - a makeshift lunch on a visit with Claude Kolm in 1998, with a baquette from our car and a bit of ham and cheese from the domaine’s refrigerator. As I recall, it was a '68 Echezeaux that was pulled out. I was struck by de Villaine’s modesty, and the dowdiness of the offices. (The opposite of an LVMH-owned winery.) I was left feeling that he seems himself as a trustee.

Michel Delon (Leoville Las Cases) - lunch at Ch. Lagrange, where Delon was advising, on a visit with Claude Kolm in the 90s. No wonder they called him The Lion. Imposing, lording over the Lagrange people, ignoring the representative of the Japanese owners, with all the haughtiness you’d expect of a Frenchman of his status and vintage (sic).

Louis de Vallouit of Domaine de Vallouit (later purchased by Guigal) - dinner in a restaurant near Tain circa 1988. Lovely company, wonderful meal and de Vallouit, a former Monte Carlo rally driver, insisted in driving me to the restaurant in his Porshe at very high speed.

Wells Guthrie (Copain) - at an offline in NYC. Again, his modesty and thoughtfulness are what struck me. The impression was reinforced on a visit to the winery four years or so ago, where he led us from barrel to barrel. When I told him I’d liked a 2000 syrah of his I’d had recently, he looked shocked and said he had no idea of what he was doing then.

Kermit Lynch - restaurant in Beaune with Claude Kolm in 1998. Memorable for the unscheduled intrusion of a drunk Pierre Rovani, who came over and said something sarcastic to Kermit. And for Kermit’s response to me when I said I thought I understood Maume’s wines, which we’d tasted that day. “You think you understand those wines?” he said in an incredulous tone.

Ted Lemon (now of Littorai) - lunch with the owners of Domaine Woltner, where he then worked, with Claude Kolm, in the early 90s. Interesting, thoughtful – and in those days one of the few California winemakers who had spent time in France.

Paul Draper (Ridge) - lunch at the winery and with a tasting group in San Francisco. Lively, engaging, passionate.

Unnamed proprietor of a major Barolo producer - dinner with friends in Bra in the early 2000s. The owner’s somewhat tipsy and plainly unhappy wife, who spoke excellent English, kept draping herself over me in an awkward way at dinner. My friends told me later that she did that to all other single men. Her husband didn’t seem to notice or care.

John, very cool memories, thanks for sharing. I think it’s fascinating that M. de Villaine is so humble; if ever there was anyone who had the opportunity not to be…

Re: Wells, when he said he didn’t know what he was doing, did he mean that he couldn’t recall where he was at the time? Or that he had know idea what he was doing making wine (which I don’t intend to sound so negative; we all start somewhere…).

He said it was only his second vintage and, of course, by the time we chatted, he had moved in a different direction stylistically, to less ripe wines. I think he was just surprised that the 2000 syrah had aged well for 10+ years. The wine was not hedonistic fruit bomb, though.

Nice note John. I think I may have been at one of those dinners with Luis - he is certainly a charming guy.

A few I’ve had would include dinner with Jesus Barquin at a mutual friend’s house, drinking sherry and old Rioja;

dinner with Maria Jose and four other people on several occasions, once where she thoroughly enjoyed a bottle of Tokaj-aszu;

dinner with Jesus Madrazo at his apartment in Haro with his wonderful wife and kids;

a really late dinner in Valladolid after having been tasting wine for over 12 hours straight and groaning with dismay when they brought out some of the best from the locals that under normal circumstances I would have been ecstatic to see but on this occasion I was unable to stop myself from asking for a beer;

lunch at a small winery in Beaujolais where the entire lunch was pretty much picked from the garden, except for the cheese and butter, which came from the cows down the street - I remember thinking that while the wine was not necessarily something to write TNs about or even remember weeks later, it was exactly how wine is best enjoyed;

and a few wonderful dinners in Tokaj and in Budapest drinking my favorite wines with wonderful friends and winemakers and eating seemingly unlimited amounts of foie gras, because after all, what is a better match?

I had dinner with George Chadwick the other night.

By the way, has anyone seen my wallet?

Paul Lato - Dinner at Paul’s house along with a couple from Japan.

Wonderful conversation; everything from Wine to Politics to Leonard Cohen.

Great food; In addition to his skills as a Winemaker, Paul is an accomplished guy in the kitchen - Rack of Lamb cooked in a Toaster Oven!!

and of course…great wines!

Indeed, you were.