Page 81 - Montecito Journal Glossy Edition Winter/Spring 2013/14

Basic HTML Version

up the Southern Italy speakeasy with really great wines.”
Jessica reports her training is informed and inspired by her
working in restaurants for all of her adult life and then in the
wholesale side of the wine industry for the better part of the last
decade. “I was a sales manager for The Henry Wine Group here in
Santa Barbara, and had about four years of training with a Master
Sommelier,” she says. “I’m kind of a wine geek.” Even so, she won’t
be pursuing any wine certification. “I really believe wine is
subjective; it’s all about how we experience it, who we are
experiencing it with, and what mood we are in at the
time,” she says. “All those things really make more
difference than any of the things we can measure it
by objectively, and the experience I want to provide
people with is a context for enjoying theses wines
that are born out of tradition.”
THE BUSINESS OFWINE
Richard’s been in the wine trade since
1980, and Clarets has been at its downtown
Santa Barbara location since 1992. “In that
time, of course, we’ve developed a relationship
where we’re known through the trade and
with individuals,” he says. “It is a very well
known business. We sell to collectors, dealers,
traders, and trading establishments. We sell to
20 countries around the world, but the nexus
of our business is Asia. Hong Kong is very
interesting at the moment, because it is the
gateway to the Chinese market. There’s new
money there – less than there was – and they’ve
become restrictive, but it is still the largest fine
wine market in the world.”
Richard reports he made his way to Santa
Barbara from England, where he was originally
in the scotch and whiskey business. “I was
offered a job in Los Angeles as a rep, and I
beat the streets of Los Angeles, then returned
to England to import an expensive California
wine. I returned here in 1992, already
traveling to Asia to sell fine wines and to build
on the American domestic market, which at
that time was thriving.”
Richard says he unearths cellars and buys and sells the
greatest wines in the world. “I found a bottle of 1961 Château
Latour à Pomerol in a cellar in St. Louis, which sells for about
$7,000,” he recalls about an especially cherished find. “The
owner had it since 1961, and it had a price tag on the bottle
of $3.75. I asked him if I could have a picture of me holding
the bottle. When I finished clearing his cellar – he was
quite an elderly guy – he came out and said, ‘here’s
the bottle,’ and I said, ‘well let’s take the picture.’
He said, ‘there’s no need for a picture,’ and I
said, ‘what do you mean?’ He told me, ‘if you
promise me you’ll never sell it, it’s yours.’ So
in my cellar, I have a 1961 Pomerol, and I
will never ever sell it. I will drink it with my
son Alex on his 21st birthday.
“We’re looking as much to buy as we
are to sell and create interest,” Richard says,
“because it is a lovely business, and wine is
something ultimately that should be drunk.
Even though we buy and sell for profit, they
put the stuff in the bottles to drink it.”
THE IDEAL
CELLAR AND CLIENT
As for wines Richard believes would
make a well rounded cellar, he says that
would be the “desert island wines” and
lists the following: “You would have to
have a bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-
Conti; a bottle of Pétrus, which is the
top Pomerol; a bottle of Château Lafite,
just because it is the most famous wine
in the world; a bottle of Screaming
Eagle, because it is the most expensive
California wine; and a bottle of Harlan
Estate, because I think it is the best in
ratio value of quality to dollars, even
though it is very expensive. You would
have to have some white Burgundies – a
couple of Corton-Charlemagne – and if
Behind the Bottle
winter
|
spr ing
81