R.I.P. John Parducci

Great man. We enjoyed many, many of his wines over the years.

John was a great guy. I'm glad I had a chance to work with him several years ago. He was one of the crustiest old farts around, plain and out-spoken, and one hell of a fine winemaker. He put better wines in the bottle than a whole lot of people who charged ten times more.

And he was hard-headed too: fought many a battle with his corporate overlords, and insisted on making good, toothy, chewy reds (especially his Cabernet-Merlot blends, before anyone knew what the hell a merlot was, and his delicious Petite Sirah.)

One of the best John Parducci stories---and true---was when he was making a winemaker tour (and he was hell on his handlers when he did those things) and he asked a woman if she liked his Chardonnay. She gushed about how good it was, and John piped, "Well I'm glad you like it. I think it's mediocre stuff, but the bean counters tell me we have to have one."

Shame in the later years, when John got dumped on by the teacher's union that had purchased the winery for an investment, and turned him out in favor of his son. But John kept right on chooglin' for many years. Made some good wines at McNab Ridge after that.

[Robin Garr]

I met him a couple of times when I was first writing professionally about wine back in the early '80s. I thought he was an old guy then. I liked him, though, and I liked his wines.