Tell us about the coolest wine person you have met

Hands down winner for me is Corrine Mentzelopoulos (owner of Chateau Margaux).

Several years ago, my wife and I were at a reception for those attending the Toronto Symphony Wine Auction and she was that year's patron. I spotted her from across the ballroom at a glitzy Toronto hotel, strode over, said hello and got her to sign my program, which I still have (natch) to this day. I am not sure if she was bemused or annoyed over the experience, but I figured I would never again have another chance.

Steve Edmunds -- no question about it. And if you're reading this, Steve, yes, I could use some more '05 Bassetti.

Mark Lipton

David Schildknecht.....without a doubt. I first met David at Plain Old Pearsons in D.C. back in the early 90's and he very expertly helped me buy 1988 Burgundies and German Rieslings among other wines. He then moved to The Party Source in Newport Ky. as a wine buyer. He was now only 3 hrs. from where I live and so turned me on to Kalin Semillons, Pinot Noirs and Chards. He also talked me into buying a 1988 Dal Forno Amarone for $38, if memory serves, which was at the upper end of my price range. Oh how I wish I had bought a case. The memory of that wine is still vivid. He also agreed to come to and put on a German Riesling tasting in Lancaster Ohio for our wine tasting group on his way back from D. C. His discussion of the different soils and the related terriors was a real eye-opener for all of us. His ability to articulate the nuances of wine, especially German wine, in an altogether down-to-earth way has always been so refreshing to me. I wish he was still in retail but he does add so much to The Wine Advocate. Thanks David for all the wine education you have given me!

[James Roscoe]

Wow, this is an impossible question to answer. I could brown nose and say Robin as he is actually pretty cool. I could brown nose a little more and say Howie as he is pretty much the definition of cool. but that would leave out all the cool people I have met at off lines like JB, Paulo, John Fiola, Bob H. Mike Hughes, and of course Mr. Hayes. Can I say my daughter Renée who is a distributor in Charlston, SC and get a pass?

Alluded to this fellow in my post on German wine regions. His name was Heinrich Noll. One day in 1968 we drove from our home in Sembach over to Oppenheim. We passed a house with wine bottles in the window and stopped and knocked on the door. We were warmly greeted by Heirich and his wife and son (who spoke the best English). They asked us to taste all nine of their wines, which ranged from the almost dry '65 Krotenbrunnen to the "goes with steak" '64 Krotenbrunnen Spatlese natur. He also had wines inbetween from the Golberg, Herrenweiher, Mittlegewann, and Fischerbrucke vineyards.

We asked if all the vineyards were his, and he explained how each vinter in the village owned a row or two or sometime just certain vines in the various vineyards. We loved his wines and returned many times, and each time he insisted that we taste everything, even if we knew what we wanted. Sometimes we brought our kids along for the ride, and they would have been able to taste the wine too, if we hadn't objected (they were all under five). So they got juice.

On one occasion we had just returned from a trip to Oppenheim, and found that we still had a couple of bottles from the previous trip in our cabenet. So we invited some friends over for dinner with wine. They insisted that we take them over there the next day, so we did. You guessed it, we had to taste all the wines again!

That was forty three years ago, and we have never forgotten Henrick and his wonderful wine.

Way too many to pick a single one. Among the most memoriable are the following

Jim Law, Luca Paschina, Dennis Horton, and Doug Flemmer who all took time to discuss with me grape growing and winemaking in VA as I started and continued along my way with my own little vineyard.

Hermann Wiemer who when tasting at his place learned that it was our honeymoon and that we knew Richard Vine decided that we needed to do an impromptu barrel tasting.

Joy Sterling who while meeting with some VIPs kept leaving them to come back and pull barrel samples and every time she did she would stop to give a taste to me and my wife and talk a while. She made us feel as important as whoever it was that was suppose to be getting the special attention.

Joel Peterson because he is and because he gracefully smoothed things over with my wife for a bad visit to Ravenswood that took places years ago but for which he still felt responsible.

There are more but these are the ones that stand out.

Wow, this is an impossible question to answer. I could brown nose and say Robin as he is actually pretty cool. I could brown nose a little more and say Howie as he is pretty much the definition of cool. but that would leave out all the cool people I have met at off lines like JB, Paulo, John Fiola, Bob H. Mike Hughes, and of course Mr. Hayes. Can I say my daughter Renée who is a distributor in Charlston, SC and get a pass?

Wow, you humble me Mr. Roscoe.

There are many wine people I've met that are really cool. Some have become friends that I've met several times and always enjoy their company, so you know who you are, but the ones I've only met one or two times, that I felt honored to be with include Dale, Bob Ross, Paulo, Linda Lindsay, Dave Bueker and Robin. I would like to add Jo Ann Henderson, but she is more of a food person and Bryan Callandrelli and Kurt Guda, the wine makers at Freedom Run winery - I've had lots of fun sipping wine with them.
EDIT: How could I have neglected two icons that I met: Dr. Konstantin Frank and Walter S. Taylor.

Plenty of interesting people.

Possibly my favourite was visiting Lorenzo Accomasso in La Morra. All in Italian and me battling hard to follow (conversation might be stretching it - I managed to get just enough said in Italian to let him know I was still listening!). In many ways hee's utterly uncool - very much an old schooler and came across more as a farmer than a suave winemaker. Certainly my most memorable encounter and all the more so for the sense of simplicity.

Most uncool has to be the South African winemaker who led a tasting in the now defunct Cumberland Hotel in Norwich. He made a joke about Nelson Mandela having a nice 'holiday' on Robin Island. The delivery suggested one who might not have complained if that holiday had continued. Quite a bit of tension in the air after that.

Yikes, Ian, that sounds most unpleasant.

Lots of great wine people - pro and amateur, many from here- but if I had to name a wine personality, maybe Jacques Lardiere (recently retired after 40 years at Jadot) who is equally charming and informative in a large setting or small,

Brian Loring..aside from several terrific dinners, both here in Siberacuse and there, ie , Calfornia and the fun of tasting barrel samples and making up blends of those barrel samples as well, as we had dinner at Disney one year, he also took the time to discuss rock music with my daughters and charm the living daylights out of both of them..He subsequently came out with a blended PN tho not one of the ones we concocted that night..Brian brought bottles filled with barrel samples with him in the event you were wondering how we were doing barrel tasting and blending in a restaurant at the Disney property in Califonia

Like many other people here, I've had lots of great experiences with people in the wine business.

Steve Edmunds is of course a cool giant among men.

I've met some 'cool' producers in Europe as well, but I've spent more time with wine shop people and they are the ones that stand out the most. In the States, I started my journey with some of the great folks at Kermit Lynch who used to walk around the whole shop with me dissecting the wines and offering frank advice on how to spend my miniscule grad-student budget. Of course CSW is another shop filled with giants, which goes without saying.

I've also had many great experiences with wine shop people in France. Especially when they are happy to open impromptu bottles and sit around chatting for hours before we even get to the topic of purchasing.

Steve Edmunds -- no question about it. And if you're reading this, Steve, yes, I could use some more '05 Bassetti.
Mark Lipton

SteveEdmunds??? Cool??? He wishes. Maybe "old" would be more accurate?? Today (Fri) is his BD.
Tom

[David M. Bueker]

Impossible to pick just one. Lots of cool folks - Steve Edmunds, David Schildknecht, Helmut Donnhoff, Richard Arrowood, Johannes Leitz, Hans Selbach (RIP), Johannes Selbach, Nik Weis, Daniel Vollenweider, etc., etc., etc.

But if we are talking cool then it has to be Terry Theise.

In no particular order:

Aurelio Montes. He is the George Washington and the Elvis Presley of Chilean wine. I remember thinking, "Damn, he actually is bigger than life."

Jane Ferrari at Yalumba. She knows what's what, and can be extremely funny when she wants to be.

Jeanne-Marie Du Champs, the great “negociant en chambre” of Beaune. What she doesn't know about the Côte de Beaune isn't worth knowing. And she wears her erudition lightly, lightly.

Greg Moore at Moore Brothers WIne. He is a walking encyclopedia of wine knowledge, and a completely down-to-earth nice guy.

And one bit of blatant brown-nosing: Tom Schmeisser, my old boss at Marty's Fine Wines, Newton, MA. Tom has been everywhere and done everything, but he is not above running the vacuum cleaner or getting out the stepladder to change a lightbulb. For all he taught me about wine, his most valuable teaching was about bringing a good attitude to the job.

[Robin Garr]

Too many to name, just way too many. A random recollection, though, including some named here and some not, would have to include Patrick Campbell, Steve Edmunds, Carole Meredith and Jim Clendenen from California, the frequently mentioned David Schildknecht, and in Europe, Josko Gravner stands mighty high on the coolness meter. I should probably name hundreds more from all over the US, Europe and Down Under, but those names come quickly to mind.

Steve Edmunds is the coolest in the wine business who has a birthday today. Wouldn't begin to try to name all the cool people I've known in the wine business.
A friend Ed Masciana was the general sales manager for HMR winery in the central coast many years ago. I had the great fortune to taste and discuss their wines with Andre Tchelistcheff who was their wine consultant at the time. From that meeting we went on to have dinner with Andre and Dorothy (his wife) and a few other geek friends where great times were had. I don't think Steve would mind that I mention his coolness in the same post as I mention the coolness of Andre Tchelistcheff.

Rick Moshin, who I met at a local wine event some years ago, took an inordinate amount of time to discuss his wines and wine making with me and autograph a few bottles at the height of this event. A very cool, down to earth, guy.

For me it's Peter Weygandt. With his shop just down the street from my apartment in DC, I've spent many Saturday afternoon's talking to him about wine and/or the Phillies.

Too many cool people to mention, but I will give you three guys who really are not that cool:
Nicolas Joly: quite simply, the guy is mad as a hatter.
Frederic Engerer: when I asked him to give me the name of a good QPR Bordeaux, he said Latour 2008. Yeah, a mere thou for a bottle with a 180 000 production...
Paul Pontallier: when some friends of mine had rented a plane for the day with the sole purpose of visiting the chateau, they were not allowed to taste the grand vin, only the Pavillon. (Compare that with the late Conterno giving us a bottle of Monfortino to try out, while he was scouring the cellar looking for something older...)

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

I do not understand what exactly is meant by "cool", so, for my list, it is a combination of passion, friendliness, openness and sincerity. That said, the question is, nonetheless, extremely difficult question as I've met very many. Maybe if I go by region/country and, for obvious reasons, exclude personal friends like the Miailhes (Ch. Siran, Margaux), the Bardinets (Ch. Corbin, St-Emilion), Judy Leissner (Grace Vineyard, China), etc., I could narrow it down a bit.

France:

Alsace - Marc Beyer (Leon Beyer), Valerie Bott-Cartier (Bott-Geyl)

Bdx - J-M Cazes (Lynch Bages), Stephan von Niepperg (Canon la Gaffelière, Mondotte, etc.), Olivier Bernard (Domaine de Chevalier), Frédéric de Luze (Paveil de Luze)

Burgundy - Anne Gros (Dom. Anne Gros) who is an altogether wonderful person - so talented, humble, hard-working, down to earth, sincere and kind.

I would add Jerome François of Tonnellerie François Frères who should easily qualify as a "wine person".

Spain:

Julio Sáenz & Gabriela Rezola (Bodegas La Rioja Alta), Jesús Madrazo (Contino of CVNE), Jose Luis Muguiro & Javier Ybañez (Riscal), Oscar Luis Alegre (Bodegas Alvaro Palacios), Carlos Villar Bada (Bodegas Protos), Rafael Vivanco (Dinastía Vivanco), Alfredo Candela Belda (Bodegas Antonio Candela e Hijos)

USA:

I've met very few, but I cannot imagine meeting many nicer than Ed Kurtzman (Freeman, ROAR, August West, Sandler Wine Company) and Augie Hug (Hug Cellars).

Been thinking a lot about the interesting wine people I've met, but instead of name dropping, I have realized that there is one name that really qualifies to be cool:
Randall Grahm.
/A

Paul Bulas, the most articulate advocate I've met for labruscas and hybrids in the northeastern America continent.

Can't pick just one--Merry Edwards (on several occasions and a female pioneer in the California wine industry), Kevin Zraly of Windows on the World wine course fame, Ken Wright, Oregon vintner, Susie Selby from Sonoma County, David Schildknecht at a tasting in Raleigh, Mac McDonald of Vision Wine Cellars.