Full Transcript
Doug
Hey, everybody. Doug Shafer, Welcome back to another episode of The Taste. Today's guest has been making wine here in the Napa Valley since 2001. But I have to admit, our paths really never crossed until just a few weeks ago when we were doing a Zoom presentation together for Premiere Napa Valley. Well, we hit it off instantly, and I am hearing just a little bit of his story. I had to get him on this podcast so I can hear the whole thing. A great winemaker here in Napa. He's involved with over 25 brands. Jean Hoefliger, Jean, welcome.
Jean
Thank you. Thanks for having me, Doug. You know, I think over the years I was just too intimidated to come and talk to such a rock star as you are. So that's probably why our paths didn't didn't cross.
Doug
Oh man. Would you tell my kids that?
Jean
Of course I would. I would. And I'm sure they'd think the same.
Doug
So anyway, you grew up in Switzerland, and so I want to hear about that. You know, where did you live? What was your family like? Give me the, give me the 911 there.
Jean
Yeah, With pleasure. Yeah. I was born and raised in Lausanne, Switzerland, so on the lake of Geneva. And my dad is Swiss. My mom's American from the East Coast, from Boston. And they met when she was doing a foreign exchange program with Smith in Geneva and kind of never left.
And so it was a family of my parents and my two sisters and I. And, you know, it's funny because one of your you know, one of the subject that we're going to approach, obviously in our discussion is wine and win, alcohol in general played a really, really big role in my life, but not at all, as people would expect, in the sense that the first ten years of my life, my mom was a drinking alcoholic and then got sober 40 years ago.
Exactly. To that to the year and decided to run rehab centers for a living. And so, you know, I was really impacted by alcohol fairly fast, not obviously for the right reasons. But then she decided to take me with her on the road to kind of do presentation for the publicly traded company so I could speak to families that are facing addiction.
And so really early on I was made aware of the problem that alcohol can create. And that was fairly interesting. And when you think that now I'm the winemaker, I think there's a lot to say about it.
Doug
That's that's a great story. I mean, and it's a good ending. But you're right. I mean, I don't think I've come across anyone who's kind of came at the wine industry, you know, without that type of background.
Kind of fascinating, actually, growing up in Switzerland, I mean, I've been there. I've traveled selling wine. It's gorgeous. But, you know, it's we think of the Alps, we think of the sheep and the goats and the banks and neutrality. Most Americans don't really know much more about Switzerland than that. Is there anything that it's really that you could share with that whole issue?
Jean
Yeah, with what you look, I think often in life you have the qualities of your faults and the faults of your qualities. And and I think in Switzerland it's exactly that.
Switzerland is a postcard country where the meadows hasn't moved for about 500 years, where protection of nature, of of building, of history is extremely strong, where there's a very strong civic sense, everything, it's a direct democracy where a hundred thousand people can actually ask for a national vote on any given topic. And so that creates that. It is a an ultra democracy if you want, but things don't really change.
So it is beautiful, it is gorgeous, but it's fairly static. And so when you are like me when I was about 25 years old, 23 years old and really start to thinking about going the wine industry, you see a country that was at least at the time, too static. It was not, you know, entrepreneurial. It was not creative enough for me. And that's why I decided to, you know, start traveling and ultimately, you know, settle in California the way I did.
Doug
So you were, you wanted to get out there and do it. You were you're kind of basically more American than Swiss, it sounds like.
Jean
Yeah, because, you know, I started my career in in Switzerland working on Gamay, Pinot and Chasselas, you know, the family friend winery as a as a cellar rat.
And one day he jumped in the cellar and says, Jean, come here and I'm you know, I said, Yes, what's up? I found you a job in California. You take it or you're fired. And I kind of love conflict. So I said, okay, I'm fired and walked away. And then two days later, I called him back, you know, after putting my two brain cells together and said, What is that opportunity about?
And it was about working in Dry Creek, a year in the cellar in six months, and the marketing. And already at that time, that was 1993, I saw a wine industry in the U.S. that were that was so ahead. You were already lining up at any given wine shop to get a chance to pour the buyer and then to compete for a spot in his in his shop, you know, for for him to sell the wine.
And I really, really enjoyed that kind of fairly high energy creative, less static side of the of the business. So I think at the back of me, of course, I traveled in many other different places after that. But I really, in the back of my mind always kept that, you know, that American wine industry, that American way of doing a as something I want to come back to which which I did later in life.
Doug
That's that's amazing. You know but taking a step back because I did some research on you, you know, you know, before the wine thing, you, it sounds like you were in law school. Did you actually become a lawyer?
Jean
No, I actually as a lot of attorneys tell me all the time I was smarter than them because I realized before I was done, you know, it's it's really after two years of law school and playing cards and drinking wine that I realized that, you know, it was not my cup of tea.
Swiss people have the reputation of being slow. I guess it's kind of true because it took me two years to to find that that pattern. And then after law school, I went into wealth management because somebody guaranteed me a six-digit salary if I would if I were if I was to follow their path into the finance world.
And the same theme, after a year and a half or two came back where I'm like, is money really that important? The key to, you know, to happiness? And I decided to not and and understood that the reoccurring theme was constantly wine. And that's when I decided to start, you know, working in a, in a cellar as a cellar rat just to make sure that it was going to be the rest of my life and what I would do for a living.
Doug
So where did the wine thing hit? When did the interest hit? What was the moment or was there a moment or just a series of.
Jean
Yeah, it's it's it's a series of moment because obviously and I think that's still for the most part, the total of the population is slightly different between European countries and the U.S. because obviously of the length of history.
But, but wine in Europe is a daily consumption good. And so it's something that is on on any given table at lunch and dinner as a beverages as you know as part of of cultural habits if you want. And so you know being exposed to different wines at different, you know, events and different dinners and stuff like that, I really started picking up on on the, you know, on the the beverage itself.
And and honestly, it's it's personality. Even today when I blend wines and I'm, you know, I'm in front of a hundred wine that has to become, yeah, let's say five different SKUs. I envision the wine as, as as people or art forms. And so I think I got that from the very beginning of understanding the, the differences in expression, mainly more textural than aromatic, especially at the beginning.
And where I would see almost shapes in wine. And I think that was a big part of the attraction that I that I had for, for wine. And then the second part when I got to learn about wine was really that constant battle between scientific, you know, organic chemistry and all that. The things that you study when you become a winemaker and an art, a pure expression of an emotion ultimately.
And so I really like playing with with both of these factors because I think it's it's a huge part of of making wine.
Doug
And speaking about learning wine the whole education so I think you went to the it's the Swiss Federal School of Winemaking was that after law school and it was that place like?
Jean
Yeah it was it was after law school and so after law school I started in Switzerland. Then I went to Hartford Family, where it where I was making Pinot with Bob Cabral and Dan Goldfield at the time. And then I went to South Africa and to Chateau Carbonnieux in Bordeaux. And something happened at Carbonnieux where where the the winemaker invited me over at his house on the second night. And I was I remember I was sweating bullets.
I was so nervous. And of course, he sits me down and decides that it would be great to blind taste me and out of pure luck, and I said today it was literally pure luck, I found five of the six characters or, you know, answers that that he was expecting. And so he built a pretty good confidence. And he wanted me to help him not only to Carbonnieux on the whites, but gave me kind of the managerial responsibility on one of their satellite chateau.
And at the end of that, that kind of job, I asked him, I said, you know, I said, would you think I should do should I be a self-made winemaker or should I go to school? And he said, look, I think it's always better to have the safety net of a diploma. And so I followed his advice and went back to Switzerland.
And that's cool is it's quite amazing. It's a it's a full campus, only about wine and, you know, and farming. And so it's like a complete university where you have acres and acres of vineyard to play with. You have six different cellars. You can you can really, have five different labs. And it's a complete university based on nothing because it's also the federal research center in addition to being a school.
And so I looked at the time and really started learning about wine and, you know, the first two years we drank and tasted only water, you know, I know, sorry, the first ten months only water, because they wanted us, you know, to have the the differences between acid in sweetness and saltiness and iodine and minerality and so and so on.
And then you build, you build your knowledge and and you know, at the end of it, you're you have a diploma. But I think one of the fortunate things that I did in my career was to actually build my experience prior to having a degree, because after completing the winemaking agriculture degree, I was right away marketable. And so that helped me a lot. You know, when I applied to different, to different places to work because I was already with some type of experience.
Doug
Well, yeah, because you've experienced, you've been doing cellar work. You were at both in Bordeaux and South Africa then. So then when you get to school, you know, it kind of makes sense. It probably you probably learn even more.
But I got a question for us before we get too far away from Switzerland. What's the what's the wine? The grape industry. The wine industry like in Switzerland? I mean, I always assumed it was white wine only because it's got to be too cold. And then I was on a trade marketing trip once and I got taken out to a guy who was making he made this fabulous, fabulous Pinot Noir.
But but fill me in on that. What's the what are the main varietals? What do people drink what do they grow?
Jean
Well, yeah, Switzerland. Switzerland, you know, a lot of people don't realize that Switzerland is actually a very big wine drinking society and community. And Switzerland is a country that is divided in three different languages. There's four, but but mainly three, which is the French, the German and the Italian speaking.
And every region has its wine culture on the Italian part. It is more Merlot based on the French part, it is more Pinot, Gamay, Chasselas, you know Pinot, Pinot, obviously with Burgundy, everybody knows that Gamay as well, but Chasselas is a white high acidity varietal that gives a really wine that is not extremely expressive. And so it took a while for me for the wine industry to progress because it is a fairly wealthy country.
And so they ended up you're consuming 95% of their wines, their entire, you know, history throughout throughout history. And it's when they started to have problems selling their wine within their, you know, their frontiers in a way, because they open their, you know, the free trade to to cheaper wine, to less expensive wine that that producers really started to be obligated of improving the quality of their product.
And that's when the school attendance went up. That's when a lot of producers went back to to really working hard at at improving their product. They're building the quality of their product. And so now you have Chasselas that are that are much more subtle, that are, you know, much more expressive than they used to be. So I think over the last, I would say 25 years or so, there was really, really big progress as far as the the Chasselas world and how to make these wines.
And something that a lot of people don't know is the fact that the Rhone Valley, the Rhone actually starts in Switzerland. It's in the part of Switzerland called the Valais. And so then the Rhone becomes the lake of Geneva and then passes in France and goes back to that to to the sea of obviously the Mediterranean Sea. But but on on the birth of the Rhone, there's a lot of Syrah as well. And so, so, so really, depending on what region of Switzerland you visit, you'll have a different a different varietal to to taste and enjoy.
Doug
All right. I need to go back. I need to get out of France and go into Switzerland part of Rhone. So then after school, working in Bordeaux, South Africa in 2001 Jean, you make this move to Napa Valley. I mean, that's made your I'm just dying to hear this story. How did that happen? How'd you get to Napa Valley?
Jean
Well, after after school, you know, I decided to to go and take a little break, actually. And enjoy life. So I went to party with some friends, you know, along the Atlantic Ocean. At a little town called Arcachon South of Bordeaux, and my girlfriend at the time who was going to become my wife a year later and asked me, did you send all the resumes, you know, and and looking for a job.
She was an attorney, so she was on top of things much more than I was. And and so I decided to to, you know, to kind of say yes, yes, yes, and lie to her. And she showed up for the weekend and all the letters were still on my nightstand, you know, and so she actually grabbed the pile, went straight to the post office, sent themnd five days later, I received a phone call from Lynch Bages. And Lynch Bages says, would you would be interested in interviewing with you. And so I spent a little bit of time at Lynch Bages but fast I saw that the Bordeaux aristocracy, the Bordeaux system was was too static, was too was just too rigid in a way for me at the time.
And I decided to go back to the U.S. And so I sent 320 resumes, you know, across across the state of California. And I received answers from Lodi to the Napa Valley. And I'll never forget, because at the time, it's you know, I received an answer from Lodi. It was 85,000 bucks, you know, to be to be a winemaker there.
And then I received an answer from Newton Vineyard at 38,000 bucks. And so I'm like, do I go for money or do I go for quality? And I made the commitment, you know, to work in the premium world. And so I accepted the Newton offer and and moved to the U.S. My, my, my wife was transferred by her law firm to San Francisco.
And and I showed up, obviously, unfortunately, end of August 2001. And the harvest already had started on certain Merlots, but but I was there and, and I was the winemaker at Newton for about five years working with Su Hua & Peter Newton and on the on the Spring Mountain Appellation and really learning how it was to make wine you know in a warmer climate and in Napa Valley because I've never worked I worked on the other side obviously in Sonoma but never in Napa and that was that was absolutely amazing because if you look at the pedigree of this estate, you know, winemakers like obviously John Konnsgard and Foreman and Aaron Pott and Andy Erickson and you know we all went and Luc Morlet we all went through Newton at one point in our career. And so I think it was a really, really great training ground for for Napa winemakers.
Doug
Of course, they had a great bunch of winemakers there. You know, I you know, you and I both know them all, but man, August 2001, right? You know, harvest had already started and you show up. That must have been like a three-ring circus.
Jean
It was a difficult circus, you know, especially, you know, after right after it's 9/11. And so I'll never forget because on on 9/11, Paul Pontallier, who's used to be the, you know, the winemaker and CEO of Chateau Margaux, was visiting because he was one of the friends of Mrs. Newton that would come in and give us advice and taste with us.
And, you know, nobody could think straight and on that terrible day. And so, yeah, it was it was a rough it was for sure, a rough, rough beginning. And you had to jump fairly fast and to and to, you know, hard work and making sure that you focus extremely, you know, well on what's going on because it was complicated.
Doug
It was it was a tough time. And the thing that you know it's the quality of the vintage as I recall, was just fantastic. I loved our 2001’s. But I mean, it was just overshadowed by 911, which was unfortunate. But those wines have held up very, very well. You must said they must have been wild for you to walk into harvest with some of the ripeness that was coming in compared to what you.
Yes. With grapes compared to what you'd worked with before. You know, cooler regions, not this, you know, sugars and ripeness going just crazy sometimes when it gets hot.
Jean
Yeah, that was that was a big, you know, it's a it was a big, a big challenge for me because as you know better than me, you know, in a warmer vintage like this you have sugar accumulation that is farther faster than you phenolic ripeness.
And so you also have an impact on the pH and if you have a little bit higher pH, you have you know, more risks of micro-deviances. And I remember one of the really difficult thing was in 2001 we had a tank where lactobacillus took over and we were losing two and a half to three brix a day on fermentation.
And at the same time we're increasing. VA At 0.5 per day. And so that was a nice way to start your journey.
Doug
You know, I got to tell you, and I need to take a moment to explain what Jean and I were talking about because I had one of those one year too. It was kind of crazy. I forget what year, thank goodness.
So basically, ladies and gentlemen, you've got wine fermenting. It's it's a yeast fermentation. It's know it's yeast basically turning sugar into alcohol, giving off carbon dioxide and heat. And with the red wines, we like them to go through malolactic fermentation, which is a secondary fermentation. Basically takes malic acid and changes in the lactic acid and makes the wine more stable.
However, once in a while, especially with lower acid which is higher pH, which is comes from riper grapes, you could have a something called lactobacillus start and that's actually it goes after the malic acid, just like a ML bug would. But the results are something you get a lot of what's called VA, volatile acidity, which kind of smells like nail polish, doesn't smell much like wine and it happens really fast and it's almost like it's out of control.
You can't control it and you don't necessarily lose that whole tank, but it's definitely affected, at least in my experience. But as Jean was saying, when it's happened and right during harvest and the thing is like, you know, going so fast, you know, in four or five hours, it's turning in five hours more. And the next day it's like, my God, It's just a pretty helpless feeling, right? Jean
Jean
Yeah, it was. I mean, I was I was literally spending all my weekends and nights running all the gas still, you know, and making sure that I would run this on a very, very tight schedule to to make sure nothing else was moving. Yeah, it was a it was a stressful, stressful vintage, that's for sure.
Doug
I'm glad we kind of touched on this one. I mean, a lot of times, you know, we travel around and we talk about making wine, how wonderful it is, and we love it. And it is. We do. But, you know, there's a lot of things going on behind the scenes and especially at harvest with fermentations and that whole process, things can get a little crazy and wild and you've got to keep, you know, your eyes and ears and nose and taste buds on every tank, watching it all the time.
So Newton, for five years after that on to Alpha Omega in 2006. Tell me about that. The birth of Alpha.
Jean
Yeah, you know, it's it's really funny. And one of the things that that Newton or my, my wine career you know history and path taught me is don't ever count people out and things always happen for a reason and through my career you know in different places I always found people to reappear at a different time later in life.
And in the case of when I was at Newton, for example, Mrs. Newton couldn't come, you know, to to a to a tasting and asked me to host a tasting with a German family. I tasted, you know, for 2 hours with them. We hit it pretty well. They came back a year and a half later when I was up, you know, still at Newton with a great bottle of Bordeaux to thank me.
And they ended up hiring me to consult for them in Tuscany. You know, the same thing I was helping a really good friend of a of Peter Newton, a son, Eric Sklar making his merlot in his garage, giving him advice about fermentation, etc. And when Eric Sklar and Robin Baggett decided to, you know, to start Alpha Omega, they actually came out, talked to Peter Newton.
And at the time, Peter was selling 80% of his company to LVMH and knew that that I was not, you know, the happiest of of guys for that transition and said, take him away. He'll be he'll be great for you guys. And so I ended up starting Alpha Omega with Robin and Eric back in that can actually 2005 already and then we opened in 2006 And so it was kind of kind of nice because it's also the first time that I was given the responsibility of of the winemaking of a new brand.
When you end up, you know, as a as one of the winemaker in a winery like Newton that has a legacy, you're not going to dramatically change the style of of something has as well known as the unfiltered chardonnay of Newton, for example. But when you start a new brand like, like Alpha Omega, you can really determine and define the identity of the product.
And so it's something that I enjoyed doing a lot because it was really up to me to decide what I wanted to do. And because they asked me fairly fast to run the business and the winemaking together, I could also make sure that the direction of the business was the same and was aligned with the winemaking side of the business.
So yeah, I learned a lot because Robin also had that amazing concept that it would be the first winery that would be completed with a model that would be completely direct to consumer, where we make a high-end product but highly accessible versus scarce. And so it's a we built at the time the model to make sure that we would have high quality grapes, high quality product if I did my job right, you know, accessible for people to come and taste.
And that was something at the time that was quite, quite new and not so so popular in Napa.
Doug
Definitely. That was way ahead of the curve with going DTC direct to consumer. So. Well, I know Robin, I know Robin very well. I he and I served on the Napa Valley Board of Directors, the Vintner Board of Directors for many years together and one of the nicest guys I've met and also just smart as anything he is and wise his his advice to the board is always spot on and very thoughtful.
So I can imagine working with him with him for him was was a real was a real great experience for you.
Jean
It was. It was I learned a lot. He's he's extremely smart and you're so lucky. He also trusted me. He put he put trust like I was from the beginning. He said, you're in charge of the product.
I'm not. It's not my job. You're in charge of the product. And so it really gave me an amazing way, you know, to grow and to try and to experiment, to define. And and he trusted me all through that process, which is which is pretty amazing. And I was very, very fortunate. And I always say that it is like giving a full spectrum of color to a painter.
You're given everything to paint the masterpiece, then it's up to you. If you fail, you're gone, obviously. But if you do it the right way, you know the sky is the limit.
Doug
And he had more than just the Alpha Omega winery, right? Weren't there other properties that he was involved with and you were involved. Yeah. Is that.
Jean
Yes, you're correct. So so originally Robin was from down south and he had a, a winery and a custom crush facility called Tolosa down in San Luis Obispo. And so after Alpha Omega installed and it was installed and, and was on good rails and business sustainability, he actually brought in the portfolio with Tolosa which where he was from, and they produce mainly Pinot and Chard.
And then Perinet, Perinet was obviously in Priorat Spain. And the reason for for Perinet is actually my sister because my sister is is lives in Barcelona. We used to live in Barcelona Spain and so she heard about this winery and I brought Robin into it, you know and we visited Perinet and, and we decided to acquire the, the winery and, and I was, you know, making or helping, making the wines for all three wineries at the same time. And that was, that was also an amazing experience.
Doug
So you're Spain, you're Edna Valley, you're Napa Valley. How were you doing this? You know what I mean. Yeah, but you played like Superman with a cape fly all over the world.
Jean
Well, yeah, you know, you know that. That we have to be fairly versatile and be able to move quite a bit. And because I've been, you know, traveling, you know, since Newton to, to Italy, you know, for consulting as well. You actually I reached luckily a point where I don't have jetlag so so so I can literally sleep at any given point. And that helps a lot because that means that you can do these trips and have very little, if no impact on your ability to perform.
And the way I love it. And when people ask, you know, why did you consult? Why did you decide to do that? My answer is fairly simple. As we are winemakers. And so we we actually follow a vegetatative cycle. It's not like writing an essay in your trash, you know, the paper and you can start all over.
It's one per year. If you go to the southern hemisphere as well, it's two per year. But but as a winemaker, you have to learn very precisely every single time. And so when you are exposed to more equations, you learn exponentially faster. And so by having Tolosa, Perinet, and Alpha Omega and all these different varietals, these different terroir, it really allowed me to to learn faster and take some things from regions, to apply them to other regions.
And ultimately I think to be a better winemaker faster.
Doug
Definitely a better winemaker. Just the experience you've had from all these different, you know, regions and wines you've made, you know, just makes you and also really makes you ready for anything that when harvest comes and Mother Nature does her thing.
Okay. All right, All right. Now, new subject. I want to hear about Michel Roland, because I know you have a great relationship with him. I want to hear how did you guys meet and tell? And also tell us about Michel Roland and what he does. Some people know about him. Some people have heard the name, don't really know what he's all about. He's a he's a pretty important guy.
Jean
Yeah. I always say he's probably the most important winemaker in the world. Michel Roland was born and raised in Bordeaux and and started making wine early on with the family.
And then opened a lab and started consulting. And today he's probably the guy that consults in the most wineries and countries, you know, around the globe. And the way we encountered is he was consulting for Newton, which was his second client after Simi, you know, early, early eighties. And so when I came in 2001, actually in August and listen to that, Doug, how stupid was I?
So I arrived two weeks earlier. Michel also comes to blend the wines. And the first question I asked Michel all the way before Mondavino is, Don't you think you and Parker are homogenizing the wine of the world and he and I need to. We actually talked for a good hour and a half about that, you know, and, and and he convinced me that he doesn't have the power really to raise terroir.
And then because I'm who I am, I doubted him and I actually organized a blind tasting at home with some of the Michel on wine some of not some highly rated, some not, and tried to find a pattern with a with a tasting panel of ten people, industry sommeliers, collectors and the bar and nobody could. So, you know, I kind of I kind of understood that that he was telling me the truth.
And and since then, we not only worked at Newton together, but then, you know, I took him with with with us at Alpha Omega and and, and I took him with me at that in Tuscany as well, where I work with him. And so we grew now our friendship for, you know, for roughly 20 some years where where it's it's not only about wine it's about a humans and and becoming, you know, a great friend.
And so yeah I'm very fortunate to have been, you know, mentored in a way by, by Michel, but also I'm really happy that today every time we sit together, like for a premiere, we did a lot with Aaron Pott and Michel Roland and I call these type of projects legacy projects, but it's just laughter. We sit, we blend for an hour and all we do is laugh.
And so when you can bring that much happiness into your life, into your work, it usually translates in pretty good results.
Doug
That's great. And did you do a project with him or is that still ongoing?
Jean
Yes, it's called –
Doug
Tell us about that one.
Jean
It's again, we went to Morimoto for dinner and just the two of us, you know, in 20, 2009 or something like that.
And I looked at him and I said, Well, you know, I would I would really want to make a wine with you. And you looked at he says, Don't we already make enough? And I said, No, no, your wine together. Like like a wine that I can enjoy when you're not with me or later in life and remember you and remember our relationship.
And so he said, okay, let's do it. And so we started, Michel Rolland Napa Valley, his daughter actually designed the label. And, you know, it's a brand that now is 750, 800 cases and and that has been existing for for quite a long time, ten years. And we enjoyed just sitting together and criticizing because I don't think as a winemaker, you know, you grow a lot from praise I am much more value Michel for for his criticism and I always called him the doubter because so many times I've been exposed to people that says, the wine is great or the wine is great.
And Doug, you have made so many great wines, you know how you know it is when consistently you’re at high quality people expect independently of the year that you just deliver. But but you always grow so much more when people see what can be done to increase quality. And so with Michel, it's always that. It's always not how good the product is, is what can we do better? And I really, really value that.
Doug
All that's true. That's how you make better wine. You got to be your your toughest critic at all times. Well, thanks for that, because that's it's good to hear about Michel and have people hear about what he's all about because you guys have a great relationship. But another curiosity I have is about AXR, this new winery brand that's start up a new winery that you're involved with.
Tell us about that. How did that start up? Who you working with and what's that all about?
Jean
Well, you know, as I said, as I said previously, you never know where you're going to cross paths with people again. So AXR was started by a partner in Alpha Omega, and a guy that was working in the tasting room at Alpha Omega, and a third guy and me, they came to me one day, you know, the partner at Alpha Omega, he says I want to start a new brand.
And I looked at him, says, I'll do it, but not with you alone because you're too busy, you're too crazy. And we need people to stabilize the equation. And so we decided to bring, you know, on board Mark and Don. And so we started a brand in 2013. And then seven years ago, we actually purchased a winery, a property next to next to Brasswood, the old St. Helena outlets, you know, a ten-acre property with with a very old winery and permits and, you know, and a few acres of cab and grew the brand from there. And it's really cool because I call it my feel -good project because every time that I, I walk on property my blood pressure drops by about 50 points because it's all about kindness, respect of opinions.
We have meetings where we disagree and we argue, but we all respect highly one another. And so that makes that the entire vibe of the business is made in a playful way. And so it's a it's a brand that has, as you know, encountered a fairly fast success in growth overall because of it, because it's a little bit different than the other wineries.
Right. In the and the nineties 2000 2010, the tasting rooms were populated by people coming at a bar and asking for a glass of wine. When we started AXR, we decided to reverse that model and let the consumers dictate the experience. So we, we actually do tastings that all tasting lasts for an hour and a half.
And so we really, really want almost a different experience. And, and I think that that the response is fairly good with that.
Doug
It's good. It's good. But, you know, you've been asked this before. I've got to ask it here, because I guess part of the deal when you bought that old winery, where AXR is now, you guys had to sign a quote, spiritual entity clause quote. Now what's that mean?
Jean
That means that there were so many sightings, so many surpernatural events, unexplainable events that they have they had to disclose in the selling document that it was happening. And so what we found out is we actually found glasses moving across a table on a flat surface, you know, with no liquid under all by themselves.
The latest one, Doug, was was four days ago when the last person to leave the winery started hearing voices and went, you know, on the part of the winery and saw nobody turn all the lights off, you know, and started hearing music, came back and very strange Polish music that is doesn't is a none of the playlist or anything and you could argue that maybe it's a you know it's a an electronical bug you know on our Sono system or something like that.
But she actually unplugged the device and the music was still playing. And so. Yes. So you believe it or not, you know, how many times do the people close all the doors and they come back the next morning and all the doors are open. How many times did people feel their shoulder tap? Two times. They turn around. There's nothing.
We even have a picture of a tasting under the previous owner where you see the silhouette of somebody standing behind them. I mean, it's it's it's clear and we used to, we have two little cottages on property because it used to be a hotel. It used to be St Helena's, you know, favorite restaurant. It has been a brothel. It's been a lot of different things over there over the years since it since 1850, roughly. And so one of the one of the cottages was rented long term to a to a family and the kids of the family had the regular visits of what they called the old lady that would they said, you know, the lady sits at the top at the top of our bed there. And she she stares at us and and the night and and that happens fairly often. And so, yeah, that's, that's I guess that's why it had to be, you know, in the document.
Doug
Okay, well, I want to come to this wine there but I'm going to do during the daytime, is that cool? All right. Okay. Well that's fantastic. And so you've got there's something I came across is called the Unfiltered Collection. What's that?
Jean
Wow. Look, when you when you are involved with smaller brands and you know that because your family created that brand from scratch, you have very little leverage on the wholesale market. And so when I had a bunch of clients that make 500 cases here and 700 cases, a thousand cases, etc., and they want to be also represented in sold in the wholesale side of things, I thought that I would create a sales arm of the consulting where all these brands could be in a portfolio and we would have more leverage when we would go see you know, the big distributors and the big players, because you have not only more cases, but you always have one brand that is very the hot brand and popular and you get can help all the other brands because of it.
So about, you know, six, seven, ten years ago I created the Unfiltered Collection, which is just a portfolio of the brands that I, some of the brands that I that I work with that have an interest in being represented and sold through the Unfiltered Collection on the wholesale market.
Doug
Wow. That's a good idea because yeah, there's a lot of smoke. Yeah, you're working with a lot of small producers.
Jean
Yeah.
Doug
And when you're have a small production, four or 500 cases and you want go out to a distributor in another state, the distributor usually isn't that interested because they need they need more, more cases or more diversity.
So you put that together with the Unfiltered Collection. Good idea. I like it. You're, you know, from my count, you're involved over 25 brands between Napa, Paso Robles, Texas, Italy, Spain, on and on and on. I mean, can I, how do you do it?
Jean
I work hard, but as I like to say, I somebody asked me is really cool question during a winemaker dinner in Sacramento a few months ago it's just how are you not tired of seeing the same thing over and over again.
And I looked at them, I looked at them and I said, You get tired when it's marketing, not when it's belief. And so for me, you know, when you wake up to go play every day, it doesn't get tiring. It's actually fun leaving on Wednesday for ten days in Europe and then ten days I'm doing Spain, France, Switzerland and Italy and and I'm super excited because I'm I'm there to taste wines, to blend wines to be exposed to to problems that ultimately will make me grow anyways. So it's I'm like a kid in a candy store. I'm still extremely excited about every single wine that I make.
Doug
That's great. That's going to love to hear it. And I was going to ask you, what do you do for fun when you're not making wine or working? But I don't I don't think you do anything for fun because you're fun Is your work. What did I ask you to answer the question? I probably answered it.
Jean
Yeah. You kind of did. But for two major things. You know, I'm a huge family guy, so I have, I have three boys that I love dearly. And and I read a stat that really kind of almost traumatized me in a way, is parents spend 72% of their entire life, their entire time with their kids before the kids age is 12.
So I think it's really important to grasp every moment that you can with family. So outside of family, it's tennis. I play a lot of tennis, you know, with a lot of different people because it's also my pressure valve. It's that how I let the steam out. And so family and tennis is really what I do the most.
Doug
Good, good. Anything new coming up. And you know, I'm sure there is anything. Do you okay?
Jean
Sure. Yeah, for sure. I was I started a bakery, you know, for example, and we're already at three location, one in Santa Rosa, one at the Barlow and opening Petaluma soon and Healdsburg beginning of next year called Sarmentine. And that was amazing because I'm not the baker you know in the company org chart and they're for biz dev and strategy decisions but it was really just a baker and her husband that needed capital to have a commercial kitchen when they were already selling their bread to the big names in Napa and just needed help.
And and again, it's, curiosity is for me it's something that is really important. I really enjoy learning. And so that new industry through that new in that new field, I just learn and I love it.
Doug
So Jean, I missed that name. What was the name of the bakery again?
Jean
It's it's called Sarmentine, S A R M E N T I N E. It's actually a baguette with two heads at the end. And that's a type of French baguette.
Doug
Cool. I got to go chase that down and before we part company here, if people are curious, more curious about your story, your wines, who you consult with, is there like a website or somewhere they can go to to get more info?
Jean
Yeah, it would be JH my initial JH wine consulting dot com.
Doug
JH Wine consulting dot com. Bread and wine, baby. That's all we need. Jean, thanks so much for taking the time because you are a busy guy and really appreciate hearing your story and getting, you know, not just for everyone on the taste here but for myself. So I look forward to running into you again soon and I'll buy you a glass of wine. How's that sound?
Jean
I think last time you actually bought. So next time I see you.
Doug
Yeah, you're.
Jean
It is my turn to buy.
Doug
But you're right. Yes. It'll be an expensive Bordeaux or Burgundy. We'll do that. Yeah. All right, man. Thanks so much. You take care. Safe travels.
Jean
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
Doug
All right, See you. Bye bye. Bye.