Page 50 - Forbes - USA (March 2020)

CONTRARIAN LIFE

By Chloe Sorvino Photograph by Tim Pannell for Forbes

The James Bond of Burgundy

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E Winemaker Jean-Charles Boisset has stealthily built a $450 million
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L oenological empire in France and California one struggling vineyard at a time—

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and uncorked a lascivious secret-agent persona.
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inspired meal for the French-born winemaker,
A Glass by Himself
part of his multicity tour to promote a $395 cof-
Jean-Charles Boisset,
in the Raymond
fee table book called The Alchemy of the Senses.
Vineyards’ Red Room,
As saumon à l’oseille arrives with a rich pinot has a boutique that
sells jewelry and
noir, Boisset begins to explain his selection, an a bobblehead of
unusual blend of grapes from Burgundy and Cal- himself that sings.
Jean-Charles Boisset quiets a ifornia called JCB No. 3.
long table of 50-plus guests in New York’s Meat- After inhaling deeply from a particularly wide
packing District as gold magnums of Champagne crystal goblet that’s part of his new collabora-
clink in the background. It’s a Last Supper– tion with Baccarat, Boisset admits that this din-

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