Page 51 - Forbes - USA (March 2020)

ner has caused him to miss
the ten-year anniversary of
his marriage to Gina Gallo,
the third-generation face
of the family behind the
world’s largest wine pro-
ducer by volume, E. & J.
Gallo. During their engage-
ment, they made a wine of
the same origins togeth-
er—blending, bottling and
corking by hand—and then
served it at their wedding
as a symbol of her histor-
ic California roots becoming intertwined with his Vine Dining wine division, described Boisset as “the wine
family’s own Burgundian heritage. The elegant tasting equivalent to Ringling Brothers—he’s an enter-
rooms at two of

“Half of it is made in Burgundy, so that’s 49% Boisset’s vineyards, tainer with flair and flash. He’s also a great busi-
of the blend,” Boisset says in a thick French ac- Buena Vista (left) nessperson‚ able to take a tarnished penny and

and Yountville
cent before pausing dramatically. “I need to con- shine it up.”
fess. I will tell you something very personal. My Along with his older sister, Nathalie, Boisset pre-
love likes to be on top. So 51% is California.” sides over close to 30 wineries worldwide, includ-
Sex is clearly the theme of this Boisset soirée, ing a good portion of Burgundy’s vineyards. Annual
where the innuendo-filled jokes flow as freely as sales are about $200 million; Forbes conservative-

the wine. Leopard-print silk napkins sit on a red ly estimates the company to be worth some $450
velvet tablecloth, and a mirror has replaced the million. If the collection were divided up at auc-
ceiling (“Ladies, be careful, because I can see ev- tion, many assets would likely sell for more than as
erything!”). Dates never sit together, and Boisset part of the package. “Buyers are looking for a tro-
encourages touching (“You could still caress the phy purchase,” says Michael Baynes, executive part-
person next to you. I see a lot of that is already ner at Vineyards-Bordeaux Christie’s International
happening, which I’m delighted to see!”). Real Estate. “There’s a lack of supply. The Boisset
The 50-year-old Boisset is blithely oblivious to Collection would get a very premium price.”
the #MeToo era, and his guests seem to appreci- Back at Boisset’s Last Supper, he introduces
ate the single entendres. A few months earlier, JCB No. 81, a chardonnay inspired by the mo-

Rob McMillan, founder of Silicon Valley Bank’s ment in 1981 when he first became fixated on Cal-
ifornia wines. As the story goes, it was during a
trip to Sonoma with his grandparents when he
Little Big Picture was 11 years old. After visiting Buena Vista win-
ery, founded in 1857, Boisset turned to his sister
GRAPE EXPECTATIONS
and prophesied, “One day we will make wine to-
Napa makes up 4% of California’s wine production, but gether in California.”
its grapes command the highest prices. Over the past few
decades, the median price of Napa grapes has surpassed Nearly a decade later, Boisset’s parents ac-
the steady rise of other California regions. “In Napa, quired a patchwork of properties throughout
they are willing to pay an awful lot for cabernet,” says
John Aguirre, president of the California Association of some of the most valuable parts of Burgundy
Winegrape Growers. As demand has exploded, so has the through a combination of local bank loans and
grape supply. In fact, there’s a surplus—so drink up.
sheer luck. Because it was so hard to combine
$6,000 Napa parcels, few others even tried.
BUBBLE LOUNGE BY SCOTT CHEBEGIA $4,000 MEDIAN GRAPE PRICE PER TON Sonoma ly import business in San Francisco and search-
He brought that maverick philosophy to Amer-
$5,000
ica. In 1991, Boisset started leading the fami-
Mendocino
ing for family-owned wineries with history to
acquire. Buena Vista, after retreating from na-
$3,000
tional distribution, looked promising, but the

owners rebuked Boisset’s offer. “It was very in-
$2,000
novative at the time, very iconoclast[ic] from a
$1,000

1992 1996 2000 2006 2012 2016 strategy standpoint. No one looked at California
F O R B E S . C O M
USDA NASS Grape Crush Report
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