Ladies and gentlemen, bonjour from the heart of Burgundy. Today, we're going to be tasting, dear friends, Shannon, Barb and Greg. Listen. Oh la la. Voila, voila. This is the great sound. So we're starting with bubbles. And why bubbles? Because any breakfast, any lunch, any aperitif, any evening transition needs to happen with the divine bubbles of JCB21 from Burgundy. So what you're having in your glass is the essence of what Burgundy has to offer. This is a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. So this is the perfect alchemy balance of a méthode champenoise, sparkling wine. This is Radian, mysterious and luminous. Look at that gorgeous foam, attracting you and wanting you. Greg, feel the bubbles, Shannon, Barb, dancing on your tongue, getting into the umami moment, trickling down horizontally and giving you the pleasure of finesse and elegance. So much pleasure. And do you see, as they come through your throat, you have one of your chakras totally awakened and giving you your root chakra, the envy to stick to the earth, and then the third eye being fully inspired. Indeed. Don't we feel cosmic? Yes. Or even biodynamic. And you could tell, a Vardy, Greg, and I know you want to speak, Greg, it's not easy today. We are following the cycle of the moon to make this wine. And can you believe Chardonnay Burgundy, Pinot Noir Burgundy, blended together to create this amazing Meiteau Champenoise wine that you promote in your beautiful store as JCB 21? Yeah, it's pretty good. Thank you for that overstatement. Don't get carried away with your exciting exclamation. Ladies and gentlemen, you're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. As you have already witnessed, we have a flamboyant Frenchman in the room with us today, Jean-Charles Boisset. Woo hoo hoo. Woo ha ha ha. John, thanks for coming today. Also, we're joined by Shannon. I'm Shannon. And Barb. Hello. Thanks for lending your wine expertise on this. So call him out when he says something kooky. I absolutely will. All right, cool. And you listeners cannot see them, but Shannon and Barb have beautiful eyes. Hold on a second. John Charles, we'll get these eyes. You're very sexy too, Greg. These are the money makers. The rest of me not so great, but the eyes. Greg, don't be jealous. Window to the soul. And I like your really well manicured beard. Oh yeah, for sure. You know, the Royal Navy of the UK just allowed the beard now, so you can enter the Royal Navy. Big news in the United Kidnam. They don't have a requirement for number of pushups you could do. That's the only thing that's been holding Greg back from the Royal Navy. Exactly. So we have in our in our glass, JCB number 21 Brute. Indeed, indeed. It's delicious. It's so fresh. So why 21? Because the code of Burgundy is 21. Some of you may know the expression that we've always used in Europe, we're going to 21, meaning the department is coded as 21. So it's a secret code to say we're going to collect Burgundies. So I thought the name was so good that I named it after the code of Burgundy. And the idea of this alchemy is to bring the opulence of Chardonnay with the terroir approach of Pinot. So you have a blend of Chablis, Côte Chalonnay's and Mollem, Northern Burgundy, blended with nuit-saint-georges and Bonn, those two iconic Pinot Noir villages. And this is in your glass right now. Like I said, it's pretty good. What the cold climate lends Chardonnay, some cutting acidity that really gives this life? Well, exactly. Think 260 kilometers away south of Champagne. Burgundy was the first place obviously we planted Chardonnay and Pinot. So you go back 18 centuries ago. And obviously Champagne is much more recent. So why couldn't Burgundy do amazing sparkling wine named Crement? So when you go to our cellars in Burgundy, which I hope you'll come soon, we have a cellar which dates 17th century, was built in 1640. And it's an amazing cellar where you have a lot of historical sparkling. Claude Vougeot, Morceau, Chassane Montrachet, Jeuvret Chambertin, Nuit saint-georges. The tradition in the 19th century in Burgundy was to produce spectacular sparkling. After the war, the second, it disappeared because the trend of still wine. So you know the trend is back and a lot of us producers in Burgundy love bubbles. And we very nationalistic, at least for Burgundy. Being different, a Chardonnay Pinot alone could make a Tête de Cuvée as you have it. So that's what I'm excited about, Barb, is the fact, as I'm looking right in your eyes, the fact that you don't need any of this. It's Chardonnay Pinot blended. Here it is in your glass. And it's as good or sometimes much better than any other sparkling you can find on the planet. And let's also talk about how much of a value it presents too, coming from Burgundy versus Champagne, where this would be two, maybe three times the price. Is that right? Exactly. So, you know, as I see your original Kellogg's Corn Flakes for breakfast, this is actually how I start my day. Before I brush my teeth, I have a little glass of bubble. After I brush my teeth, I have a bigger glass of bubble. And then I continue my day as such because this is really, not only the breakfast of Champagne, but this is as well when you do wine tasting, a great transitional wine. When you move from Chardonnay or white wine to red wine. So based on what we have in front of us on the table, we're going to have to have this like six times. Of course. And we have more bottles for you. We'll run in Binny's stores and we'll get it. It is a fantastic start. Just a technical question, detecting a hint of residual sugar in those? A little bit, but all natural. Couple grams. And the whole idea here is to obviously keep the natural richness. Here we're very lucky, Barb, to have a 2017 vintage, which as you know, was extremely great vintage, was sparkling specifically. So you have a lot of the richness coming from the Chardonnay, specifically the Chablis region and the Côte chalonnais. So you're looking at Ruy, Mercuret Blanc, that whole area, which brings that great volume. So whether you're an expert in sparkling or not, you would love this wine, and that's what I love. Outstanding. Thank you. Hey, can you believe too, we are two ladies, two men on this podcast. The team is two ladies, two men in our sparkling wine side. I personally love, on anyone we're going to try today, a lot of women are involved in wine making as well. Because I think the complementarity of both of us tasting bubbles gives us a little more honesty and sometimes a little less volume. Women like refined bubbles, very gentle, very thin, very soft, really dancing on the palate, where men could go with a more carbonation feel. So I love tasting with women, specifically sparkling wine, because they really bring that level of elegance that we always look for. To you, ladies. Thank you. That's refreshing to hear too. So Jean-Charles Boisset, you sound pretty French. A little French? Your portfolio really spans the globe. You've got a lot of different French producers you work with, the French Estates, and then also many places from California, that's loading some past year winery of their year, Raymond. That's right. Well, Greg, I was very fortunate and I'm going to tell you a brief story. My grandparents were school teachers in the heart of Burgundy and were resistant during the Second World War. Always loved the US, obviously escaped with American soldiers. We're right on the day where they were supposed to be, and always loved the US. We were raised with the American love, American feel, and obviously the American admiration as well. When I was 11, my grandparents and parents took us to California on purely a cultural trip to see Monterey all the way to Sonoma and to discover, you know, that beautiful California state, sense of entrepreneurship lifestyle. My sister and I fell in love with it. So having been born making wine, my dream at that time was I will be back and making wine in California. And I want to be in the US. This is my dream. So you ask why both sides of the world, we've been very focused, Burgundy to the south of France and California. Those have been my love of life forever. Cool. It's the American dream, right? Yeah. Very few of us in Burgundy has ever come to California and making wine. I believe we are the only one. And I've loved California since I came at the age of 11. I came back, undergraduate school and graduate school in the US and love the US, frankly, as much as France, if not more. I love France without the French people. But I love the US with the American people. I wish that sentiment was expressed throughout the world. Yes. Well, I think you hear the news, but I really would tell you, I'm a huge promoter of American wineries around the world. We sell them in over 45 countries today. And America is loved. Pockets, because of the news, obviously could be challenged or maybe people are saying it's a challenge, but it's not as much. People love the US, what the US stands for. And I think you're the best place in the planet. Can we try one of your examples of a California wine? Absolutely. So now, I suggest we try a winery that I adore. I met the two brothers, Raymond brothers, in 1998, as I came to Napa Valley, tour their winery, love the boys, and they are sixth generation of family winemakers. So I could not resist having the absolute temptation to want to buy Raymond one day. Luckily, they wanted to sell, we bought it. And over the last 10 years, because it is our 10 year anniversary as we speak, we bought it literally September 1, 2009. We bought it in an amazing team to create and craft incredible wines. So the wine you're having, and ladies, I'm looking at you, we have two lady winemakers. So it's over 460 acres, Sanlina Rutherford-Stagsley-Pokeville. Can you believe in the heart of Napa Valley? Two woman winemaker, Stephanie Patnam, Cathy George are the two head winemakers of the winery, Philip Melka consults, and myself. But as you know, when you say to a lady what to do, she does what she wants to do. And luckily the wine have received insane accolades from wineries of the year, from Wine and Spirits Magazine, Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast. And the wines are being extremely highly accoladed. And I owe it thanks to the great ladies we have in the team, leading the team. Way to go, ladies. And Stephanie, I know especially, has been around quite some time in Napa Valley. She knows her stuff for sure, right? She was at Farniente. And when she heard we bought Raymond, she sent me a letter which I framed as a love note saying, I want to work with you to make this winery as one of the most prominent in the art of Napa. Are you sure she wasn't under duress when she wrote that letter? Maybe. Maybe you should have it next time on the podcast. I'll ask. But it was a great honor because we converted all the vineyards into organic, certified, and biodynamic. So it makes it the biggest winery in Napa Valley organically and biodynamically certified. Number two, it's the largest bioclimatic winery in Napa Valley in a way that water management, recycling, and solar panel. We have over half a mile of roof, which are solar paneled, so we're totally energy independent. So it's very exciting because it's the model, I think, of the future. When you make wine, you're going to be responsible with mother nature. I think that really has been our focus besides obviously making phenomenal, sexy, charismatic wines. We met one time before. Yes. You were super kind. We had a Binny's group at Raymond. I remember. We were walking around the Biodynamic Preparations Garden. Yes. And I have to say, I totally applaud everything you're doing in terms of being a steward of the land. Can't you do it without cutting off a cow's horns and burying them in the ground? Can't you do it without the witchcraft? Maybe it lends a sense of magic or a sense of wonder, but that already exists in wine. That's right. No, you're exactly right. And we've built that theater of nature where we met, which is a two-acre demonstration field, where you could take someone from Chicago who lived in the city of their life, a New York City or Dallas, and they suddenly dive into the world of nature, look at tomatoes, look at totally organic soil and non-organic soil, and they see a huge difference. So I think our goal, as you said, is to open people's eyes into listening to Mother Nature. And I think really allowing Mother Nature's rhythm to guide us within the principles of farming. So at the winery, we do everything according to the lunar cycle, which is very cool, and you said full moon tonight, and we do harvest according to that. So we are harvesting tomorrow as the moon is going to start to descend, and we do all the things in the winery as well, from treatment of barrels to racking to batonage, and of course, to light filtration when the moon tells us to do it. And I think the tranquility of Mother Nature, if you listen to her, gives you back tenfold as long as you respect her. And I think that has been really a mantra, and my big push with the Napa Valley Vintners and Gro's Association that we are a big part of, is to try to convert everybody into an organic vision and an organic mission. Because even though we do it in Burgundy, it's much harder because of the climate, which is similar to yours here. You know, Burgundy equals Chicago, pretty much in climate. Cold and wet. Maybe not as cold, but almost. So it's harder. You know, you have mildew push and all kinds of illness that transpired in the vineyards, and you wonder, okay, how am I going to approach it organically? It's feasible because all our estates in Burgundy, ours well, organically farmed. So when are you going to open a vineyard here in Chicago? Well, right in your backyard. Give me half an acre on your parking lot outside and we'll do it. All right, you got it. Let's do it together. It's becoming more and more viable over the years, certainly. Well, look, we've done with Steven Spurier, an amazing estate in the Dorset in England. So we really believe it's absolutely possible with the global warming, which is not even a question, it's a fact. The region we know today will be different than the region tomorrow. And that allows us in many ways to produce as well, spectacular wines in regions we didn't believe we could. So let's look at the positive sides in many ways, because the melting of the planet and looking at 100 meters of melting in the Mont Blanc and the Alps is happening. I mean, it's factually visible. So we know it's happening. So let's take advantage of it and see what we could do from it. So we've had a couple of other really good wine makers in this podcast. We had Michael Mondavi, who expressed a similar sentiment. It's definitely happening and we need to be as good a steward as we can in the future. We had Dave Finney in and he said that so far so good, it's making his wine better. Michael and I share a very similar philosophy that terroir is the queen and the king. I come from Burgundy, terroir speaks. In Napa Valley with Raymond, every district we produce, which is 12 out of the 17, speaks. So when you taste Sanlina, you taste Sanlina. David has a philosophy which I really respect and he makes great wine. And I know him obviously very well. He wants to have a certain style that really overpowers the terroir and brings a vision from a label to a package, which I love. It's similar to what we do with Secret Blend and Secret Indulgence as well in chronology. So I respect both sides, but I really believe that as Michael agrees, we neighbors, we live literally 200 yards from one another. Tom, I say hi. I will. It's very important, I think, that we all are stewards of the land. And I need to say even more stewards, leaders of the land, listen to her and anticipate and respect her. So for me, where I live, I live on a 70-acre hill. It's all biodynamic. I have the animals. We create our own compost. It takes a lot of work. It's a lot of energy. My daughters or twins of eight years old love it because they're totally part of this philosophy. They don't even know what Roundup is and they don't even understand what pesticides could be because we've treated everything through the plants. So it's intense. It requires, of course, a lot of knowledge. Then running to the hardware store and buying pesticides and just killing whatever you want to kill. But it's like, I think, an observation. You see a fly, you see a bee. Don't be afraid of her. She participates to the theater of nature that surrounds us. I really believe we need to listen to nature. For me, I had two options in my life. One, I was going into a route which would have been finance and maybe private equity and hedge fund. Always going into my true calling, which is wine and the love of the land. Obviously, I was born in a vineyard in Burgundy. That has been my life forever. I believe being a listener, a student, and obviously a lover of Mother Nature, who happens to be my best friend. She is Mother Nature, was really what I wanted to do and I'm so grateful I did it. Financial sector really missed out. Can we talk about this Chardonnay? Absolutely. Guys, don't tell him, he should be charging much more than what he's charging for this Chardonnay. I know, this is crazy, right? We should say, this is Raymond, Napa Valley Chardonnay, 2017. So what do you think, Barb, tell us? I think it's lovely. The balance is very nice. The texture is fantastic. I get some malolactic, but it's not overpowering. That's right. And there's, I would assume a kiss of oak here, but again, it feels very imbalanced. And the flavor profile is traditional California Chardonnay. I think it's well done. From like really ripe fruit instead of from wood or from too much like lees creaminess. Yeah, agree. Yeah, well said. I think you said a kiss of wood. We have 25, 30% of it. The whole idea of wood is to accompany the adolescence of the wine, never to give a taste or flavor. We often use wood to give a flavor profile. Then you might as well just put pears and apples, essences or tannic essences in your wine. Wood is meant to accompany and help age the wine. Why I'm a fan of this wine, long pressing time, two and a half hours to an attic press, so you release the juice very gently, and then it goes directly into Barrel. Three quarters, second year and third year, 25% new oak, so you have what Barbara said, which is so cool, is that kiss. You want that really gentle influence without having overwhelming influence of it, and this is really a Burgundy background. You know, Burgundy is obviously or Chardonnay, so this is why I'm a fan of this wine, and it's true, it's what, $22, $25 on the shelf. Yeah, it's like, it's 15 bucks this month. Wow. Regularly $16.99 on the shelf. Give me five cases. I will grab a bottle a day. Shannon, what do you think? Do you like the Chardonnay? I absolutely love it. It's very velvety on the palate, and then that like hint of toast or oak, like it's really wonderful, elegant, magical. I'll follow the magic. I like what these ladies are doing. Well, and thank you for saying that, because the impression of a Napa Valley Chardonnay often could be too rich, too oaky, too cougary. You've heard the cougar wine trend. This one, I think, is a lot more refined, very balanced, and you have that minerality still, you feel, from the hillside of our Jameson Canyon Napa Valley vineyard. So when I taste a lot of Chardonnay from Napa, often I want to go to the Russian River with the Deloach Estate or obviously what you have in the store, the Buena Vista Winery, which is the oldest winery and one of my favorite Sonomaco Chardonnay. But I love this one because I think it has that opulence, and at the same time, it has that minerality. So really combines both. I think most people who shop in our stores also are coming around to the notion that there are many different kinds and styles of Chardonnay. To say that Chardonnay from California is one thing, is to say that Chardonnay from Burgundy is one thing, when we know Chablis has one style and Rouille maybe another one. I love that. It's like saying Greg and I just look alike. Oh, you're both men, so you're the same. You know, some wines make you thoughtful, some wine makes you vivacious, some wine makes you feel very powerful and engaged, some wine makes you contemplative, and some wine makes you romantic, and some wines make you, you know, hedonistic or maybe elegant or inspired. So I really think it's important for all the listeners as well to think that the terms of wine could be daunting. The key is to love and to be frank with what you feel and use your own jargon, your own word, and your own expression. And that will make the experience even more fun. You know what my grandmother used to have me do when I was six and seven years old and tasting wine? She would do three circles. You know, I was born and raised in the countryside, obviously, in the middle of Bergen, in the vineyards and the garden. So you had a vegetable garden, a flower garden and an orchard. She would say, Jean-Charles, you've been in the garden with me for the last two hours. Not really taste the wine, but smell the wine. And she would do on a white page three circles, flowers, vegetables, and fruit. Which one of the three in each other circle can you place? And I got to tell you it was a fun exercise because I would think, what did I see as flowers, as plants, as fruits? And then I would think, okay, it makes me think of a pear, makes me think of an apple, makes me think of an asparagus, makes me think of a white tomato or yellow tomato, it makes me think of a radish, it makes me think of this and that. And it really allows you to engage yourself into your surrounding and not making wine so complicated with terms which were too high profile, but more importantly, what you see every day. I have a running argument with Roger especially. There's a certain lingo and I'm not arguing against using descriptors, but there are certain kind of lazy shorthands that we develop instead of describing authentic experiences. And we all have different authentic experiences. And when you hear everyone using the same words to describe things, I think sometimes they're selling short the final product. They're selling short the actual lived experience of trying something. Totally agree. So I'm going to show you a spectrum of style we developed in our latest book, Passion for Wine. So Marnie Old and I, who is a great song and she has great visuals, teamed up to develop a book named Passion for Wine. Chapter four is about the spectrum of style. And I talk about that throughout the nation everywhere. And people love it because it's five words that triggers a certain style. And I adapted a picture of a beautiful woman next to it. So vivacious is for Brigitte Bardot. So wine is vivacious. It would be Sauvignon Blanc, a Zesty Chardonnay. A wine is powerful. So it would be maybe Elizabeth Taylor. A wine is elegant. It would be Audrey Hepburn. Or a wine is sensual. It would be Sophia aloraine. And you think of that character and that person, and you say to yourself, I get it. This is what he or she means by a descriptor. So I think people in general enjoying wine should feel very comfortable using any terms they want that fits. Jean-Charles, how does Gina feel about that chapter? She loves it. What's her descriptor? Hers is, you know which one it is? It's the hedonistic personality. Maybe we went too far. You have to update that for the millennials. So it has like J.Lo and Beyoncé in it. I don't know if the kids are living these days. Well, that's it. Exactly. Maybe the actors are our generation, or at least mine. I just turned 50 a few days ago. Happy birthday. Thank you. Thank you. I think it's very important for all of you within your podcast and in general to make wine so approachable in the sense that everybody can describe it the way they want. We give them guidelines. This is why I did The Spectrum of Style. Wine is all about style. It's not necessarily about a complex way of making wine, but it's about how wine makes you feel. Can we try the next wine? Of course. As we pass it around. I was going to ask you about this book. I was hoping you would bring it with you because it looked pretty cool. Well, I'm going to send you a copy for sure. Autographed, I hope. All over the book, every page. Can you do a doodle of Greg and I? I will do. Well, I will do his beautiful profile with his nice beer. Terrific. The next wine over you have is a wine that speaks when you look at the bottle. Scott is so sweet and generous to use his beautiful arms. Thank you, Scott. Look at the muscles holding that bottle. Knocking it out of the park, Scott. Scott, Scott. Scott, you went to college for this, right? Scott's today's corporate suit. So Scott is, Scott, you cannot forget me here. So the label is Velvet. So Stephanie and I, as well as a whole marketing team, said, everybody, everybody needs to feel. You can rub this bottle. It's terrific. So the Velvet label, we were the first one in the United States and in the world to launch a Velvet label, that was supposed to be telling you what the wine tastes like. So when you see this label, you obviously feel of what is inside. It must be velvety, of course. And as you touch it, you have exactly what comes on your palette. 100% Napa Valley Cab, phenomenal wine. That is the Reserve Cabernet. This is the actual 2016 Vintage. So very famous Vintage in Napa Valley. And this is, you know, that very cherry, peppery, raspberry flavor that Napa has to offer. I'm in love with this wine. And this is actually the wine I take in every country, including France. And that's selling very well in all the French steakhouses because people love the taste profile. They love the package, but they love what is in the bottle. What do you guys think? I think it's wonderful. It's got that beautiful peppery finish and just bursting with red fruit in the front. Well, and thank you, Shannon, because this is what is not always as easy. It's a three-year-old wine only. And you said bursting with fruit. And we just opened the bottle. We've noticed Scott kindly with this powerful muscle, literally pulled out of the cork with his own finger. He's amazing. Voila, voila. And you have what you said bursting out of flavor. Often a two and a half, three-year-old Cabernet Napa Valley, age in French oak, could be closed. And the flavor would come an hour and a half after being opened, as you very nicely have noticed bursting. And that's really what we want is we want phenomenal satisfaction. We want fruit, we want flavor, we want that incredible mouthfeel that you become addicted. This is the velvet addiction. Hey, what's your dress code? Velvet, of course. We do a little of a cold soak for three or four days, and then it's long extended maceration, which we do for cab. So I think in cab, the technique for the listeners, it's like when you make a sauce, you want a very slow evolution. A wine sauce, if you could reduce it over 24 hours or 48, it's amazing, right? Same with wine. So we close to 60 days extended maceration, which is one of the longest process in cab. So the slow conversion of the sugar into alcohol, literally 0.25 to half a percent of alcohol per day. To get to 37 percent of Celsius degrees, which is the body temperature, that's when fermentation is over. So at a density of 11, 10, and I don't mean to be technical, but I think what is so cool is when fruit ferment, they reach the body temperature, is when the fermentation is finished. Same in the summer right now, leave a melon, leave a pear, or leave grapes in your dining room table, and forget about them and taste them as they ferment. It has that obviously conversion of the sugar into alcohol. This is what you call fermentation. This is the same thing. So we capture it, we control it, and we let it happen very slowly. So we call it slow fermentation, and that's what we believe is the best for Napa Valley Cab. A big gun, huh? So maybe if we stay on the Raymond route, so this is now the Generation Napa Valley Cabernet. So this would be probably one of our highest rank wine in every magazine of the world. This is what Stephanie and Philip Melka and Kathy George makes as a claim to fame. We're not 100 points, we're 99 plus. So we almost have... Oh, we're too bad. I know we deserve 100, don't you think? So this is a silkscreen bottle. This is only $125 retail. We give a little allocation to every market. So Binny's is obviously our favorite friend. So you have some available. And this is one of the wines, which I believe is Napa Valley flagship. We produce only 20,000 bottles, you know, on-premise, key restaurant collectors and you. And I love this wine because I think it represents the essence of Napa. And what do I mean by this? A wine that has power but in a velvet glove. So feminine touch, power, velvet glove. So it's a wine with a lasting impression without being too ripe and too alcoholic. So Greg, you mentioned a trend in Napa. You mentioned two great wine makers, Michael Mondavi, David Finney. You know, I believe in being in between in a sense of the alcoholic level needs to be very well managed because we want to drink wine. We don't want to have to wine glass to feel dizzy. Right. Or to feel that we have so much in our mouth that we don't want to eat. So I think wine has to be treated as an ingredient with food. I've always been raised enjoying a little glass of wine with food. Wine should not overpower the other. They should really work in synergy. And I really believe what Stephanie and all our team here has done with the 2016 is insanely unbelievable. again, extended maturation, 100% cab, 100% Napa, valley floor, hillside. And the hillside is from the Mykamas Valley mountain, which is the Western mountain. The more open end, the more gentle, the one which gets away from the sunset. So it gets a very generous, very rich wine. So the grapes stay longer, warmer, longer throughout the evening. That's right. More like opportunity for the sugars to ripen, acidity to dial down a little. Very well said. So you get the morning sun, but not as much the afternoon sun. The Vacas mountain on the other side get the afternoon sun. So powerful, overly right wines, whereas where we are, which is that very refined side of the valley, where some of the most very high-profile Napa Valley wine comes from, is getting that gentle mid-afternoon sun only. So the grapes gets the sun and then converts slowly but surely into alcohol as they evolve. I mean, this really does seem like the big brother of this other one, the Napa Cab. They both have like a sanguine quality. Thank you. Yeah, it just gives it like a peak as well as the breath along with the fruit. Well, and specifically here in the Midwest, you have a great palate which I would really bring you closer to European side. You have a lot of Italian wines here, you have a lot of French wines in the Midwest in general. That's all Barb Herman, right? That's right. I love it because a lot of the consumer, when I taste with them and I do a lot of wine maker dinners in your area, people love this because it has that European quality to it, of being very elegant at the same time. There's power, but there's elegance. I think it's like anything in life, you want balance. Even though I love excess, when you enjoy food and wine, you want a certain level of balance. I have to say, at first sight, this wine is impressive. The color of it is very opaque. Just as Scott poured it, there's just a wow quality about it. So it definitely is highly impressive, like right out of the gate. I agree with the European sense, definitely more finessed and polished, is a word Greg used that I like a lot. But I do wonder as someone who consistently works with consumers who are looking for that big powerhouse, they don't care about finesse and they don't care about elegance and they don't care about restraint. They want power, they want a fruit bomb. Yes. This isn't a fruit bomb. So how do I sell them this wine instead of... Well, I think the consumer going over $100, if I may say, may probably not look for that basic fruit bomb. We're going to have it later on chronology. Oh, good. So I saved one wine from Napa Valley as well that you're going to try after, which is bigger, powerful and timeless. It's going to leave an everlasting impression. Hence the name, the chronology of time, with obviously that send time on it. I believe here you have a lot of power though. I don't know what you think, but this leaves a powerful impression. The only thing which we've done and Stephanie has done I think very well, is manage the ripeness. So the key for all of you listeners is to pick at the right time. When the moon tells you to. What if it was like rainy that morning? You're going to wait? What if you see a forecast coming and it says, it's going to be rainy, then are you going to pick a little ahead? We typically pick ahead and we typically pick at night. Those vineyards that pick between 11 PM and 4 AM, when the temperature cools down because right now, granted we have a beautiful day today here in Chicago, but the temperature will be 98 to 100 today in Napa Valley. You always want to harvest cool, bring the grapes into the winery and first thing in the morning, have them access the sorting table and do a destemming program. Because here we're talking cap, so we destem. A lot of the Pinot will taste another podcast together as we obviously do whole cluster as well, fermentation, which is very, very cool. I think here, for me, I feel a lot of power. I mean, this is a wine which, you know, moves me in many ways. The other one was soft and elegant, still a lot of power, but here I have a major jab. So now the next wine is a wine that is gonna, ooh, the weight of the bottle. This is the label on this wine, right? This is this occult kind of, a little bit of alchemy, a little bit of camp and a little bit of class all at the same time. That's your book. That's... Yeah, so we just released a book named The Alchemy of the Senses. And the book is all about your senses, Greg, is a discovery of who you are as a person. And we go through all your five senses plus more, plus the senses that you know you don't know exist within you. The ones you can't talk about during the day. So this wine, we really wanted to portray what Barbarella was talking about. Which is really power. I think here you have, and Greg used a beautiful term, the alchemist, this is really the alchemy of five great varieties together. And we here blended a wine which you want to be bold, you want it to be powerful, you want it to be imposing, you want it to be timeless, and you want it to be rich and intense. So this wine, I really believe, would fit your guest coming to your store and who says, I'm looking for a fruit balm. I've been very, very excited to make this wine. We make 2,000 cases only. And we really were waiting for extended ripeness on the vines, you know, predominantly in the Napa Valley, extended ripeness on the vines. And then we do extended long maceration and a lot of oak. It's a ripe wine. That's a big one. It's very juicy. How many years have you been making it? Is it new? This is the third year. Okay. And this is Chronology 2017. And feel the bottle. I mean, here we went big all the way. It's a big bottle. This is 850 gram bottle. So if you don't want to open it and hold both of them as you buy 2, it will be great in the morning when you do your workout. It is sizable. Hey, you know, folks, when you taste wine, we talk about verticality and horizontality, which is of course, what Barbara is referring to. So horizontality is when the wine gets on your tongue and goes on the side rather than straight in. And you get that bitterness, that acidity, the sugar and the salt, all of them combined. And I think this wine embraces all that. By the way, there's only 2,000 cases made, it's a very ripe wine, and it's only 30 bucks. Nice. We actually sell it for $26.99. What? A bargain. What a bargain. This is a bargain. Yeah. I think this is very cool that you as well give such value to all your guests and consumers and lovers here with Binny's because it's a great price. And I could tell you, I would buy it by the case. Jean-Charles Boisset, Jean-Charles Boisset. Jean-Charles? Your pronunciation, by the way, is just very good. Did you take French in high school? No, man. Look at him. He's from Iowa. Yeah, I am. You may have a French girlfriend somewhere. Somewhere? Don't tell my other girlfriends. Do you have time to stick around for a Q&A segment? Always, as long as Barrella stays with us. I'm staying with you. Folks, that brings us to the Q&A portion of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast, where we answer your question for a $20 Binny's gift card. email your question to commentsbinnys.com or hit us up on social media, at Binny'sBev on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, where the lovely Shannon will answer your question and hand it to us. Our question this week comes from William. This is real. After several trips to the Mexican wine country, my wife and I have become obsessed with Baja California, Valley de Guadalupe. We're looking for these wines in Chicago. First of all, Barb, we have these wines in Chicago? We have a couple wines from Valley de Guadalupe. Hey. Sad to say, I haven't yet visited myself. I have family in San Diego and the last time I went, I wanted to take a day trip and wasn't able to do so. But I do understand it's about 100 kilometers south of the border, so seems like an easy drive, just not sure whom I know there or how safe it is. The hardest part is getting out of San Diego, right? Absolutely. But we do have a couple different brands from there, but only a couple because unlike William, not everyone is clamoring for wines from Mexico yet. Well, does that mean that are they being introduced to the market or are they just not importing them to the United States? I think very slowly as more and more people with pedigree and reputation go down there and start making wine. Henri Lartone, whose family is from Bordeaux, generations of people in his family, and they have projects all over the world. So I know he has established himself down there, and I'm sure a lot of other people are interested. I think it's going to take time the same way wines from Finger Lakes have taken six, seven, eight years to establish themselves here. But I've tasted great Sauvignon Blanc from down there, and they're doing other, I'd say Bordeaux varietals. I know Monsieur Lartone has some Nebiolo planted there. So that could be cool. But I'd say seek them out, William and others. Next time you're in Binny's, ask our wine managers or wine consultants. They will get super geeked out to talk to you about Mexican wine. But what I'd really like to ask Jean-Charles along those lines is, do you have other projects either there or in other new frontier places in the world? I know you set up shop at Bride Valley, which is a relatively new excursion for us. What's on your mind for the future? Well, you just mentioned it, Baja California is so interesting. I agree with you. I was there July 4th. I was invited by the Hotel Pedugral, which is now the world of Astoria, to present our spirits and to present Raymond and to present JCB. Three days of amazing fests, which I pushed to Barrel California. California used to be one place. We cut it in half, California Norte, California South. I'm a big fan of it and you know why I love it. It makes me think a little bit of France. The North, which is where I'm from, obviously Burgundy and the beaujolais region, and the South, which would be more Grenache, Mourvedrois, saint-saôs, Syrah, Petite Syrah. So those great varieties that can really sustain a lot of sun, a lot of intensity and really powerful soil. So that would be a region I would love to branch out. But I've been very focused, to be perfectly honest, into Napa Valley and Sonoma, specifically the Russian River, which I think is little Burgundy. Everybody wants me to come to Oregon. I've been really focused in Sonoma, which I love. So in France, we've been really branching out in a lot of region. And the latest one, I think for both of you, specifically who love wine, and I know you're fanatic of discoveries, is the Jura. The Jura region is in all the sommelier radar around the world today. You know, very mineral wine, similar soil. Obviously, years ago, it used to be one region. I talked six million years ago, the Son River came in the middle. But it's amazing. So you have incredible savannia and unbelievable trousseau and vin jaune, of course, that people love with cheese and foie gras and so forth. So I think our latest, a few years ago, we own today over 700 acres in the Jura, which makes us one of the largest owners of great vineyards in the Jura. So when you talk about branching out into history, the oldest vineyard we own is from Pasteur, the man who invented, of course, the famous pasteurization and many, many phenomenal cure. His vineyard was planted in the 1600s. So I'm a big fan of the Jura as well. And specifically, both of you, very much into wine, you would love it. So that's our latest, besides Bright Valley, of course, in the UK intrusion into an original region that you may not think of. Thanks, William. $20 Binny's gift card coming to you, everybody else. Can you email your questions to comments at binnys.com or hit us up on social media, at Binny's Bev on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest. Can I have my $20 card? No, it's for them. I'm running to the store. For 20 bucks, you could get yourself almost, or you could get yourself the 21 Brute, the JCB number 21 Brute. You could get half of a bottle of the Napa Reserve Cabernet, which is terrific. And you could get almost Chronology, that big fruit balm we talked about. Two-thirds of the way to Chronology. You could get a bottle of Raymond Chardonnay. Jean-Charles Boisset, thank you so much for coming. You're a delightful person. It's an honor. Your winery, heavyweight and gadabout. It's easy to pick up the infectious love and passion that you have. Thank you. That's great. You're a great ambassador for your brands and wine across the world. It's so fun having you here. As long as I have Barbarella in my eyesight and Greg's profile. He has a very sexy profile. That's true. I've been looking the other direction for most of the recording of this podcast. So he has only seen me on profile. I'm drawing it, ladies and gentlemen. I'll have him on his desk very soon. We'll put it on the episode art. So everybody, thank you for listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. We'll be back with another great episode next week. Until next time, I'm Greg. I'm Barb. I'm Shannon. And I'm JCB. Keep tasting.

All right, so folks, we heard that Jean-Charles Boisset was coming into the market, and we wanted to jump at the opportunity to do a podcast with him, but we told them to leave the vodka at home, and he showed up with the vodka anyway. Aw, man. So I guess we're gonna taste some vodka, whatever. Thank you so much. Let's taste it. So for everyone, we'd love for you to know that this bottle is in a decanter, which your servant and speaker here designed with love and passion, reminiscent of an 18th century bottle. Pineapple urn. I'll give you that if you love it that way. It's terrific. And we use it at home. My daughters use it as a water bottle, as a lemonade bottle. They put their orange juice, peach juice, infused water. They use it as... To come for water. To really welcome every liquid. So for the listeners, when you think about vodka, you're always thinking about potato distillation, beets, wheats, rye, or anything, corn, even of that nature. For me, I love all that, but I'd rather have it in my muesli, or I'd rather have a potato as french fries. I don't want to drink potato juice. Or as they're called in France, just fries. That's it, freedom fries. So here, I embarked our distillation team into an insane project that took us 15 years to see the light and 17 years to actually see your glass. So it was a 17 year project and for all the listeners who are entrepreneurs or do things on their own or work in an environment where they're meant to create something, it was the hardest thing for me to ever create. What did I want to achieve? The ultimate flavor profile. Richness, roundness, length, and a palate that was like a wine, so dense and enveloping that it was like, it's not meant to be harsh and we don't want to feel the alcohol. So you know what we did? What does Burgundy do best? Which is where I'm from. Wine. So we made Chardonnay, we made Pinot Noir, four months later, we blended it together and then distilled it. Small pot distillation, so the vat, six feet tall, roughly three feet wide, and we slowly pot distilled it, very slowly, seven times. Then we filtered it and then produced the wine you have in your glass, which is the classic. So the wine we tasting now, and I'd love your comments, ladies and gentlemen, we're cheering, because with vodka, you meant to cheer as well. This is called Vodka even, because it is made from the vines. Vodka. So on the nose, it's more present than vodka usually is. I get like an anise licorice, confectionary quality. Yeah, almost like candied licorice. Yeah. And then it's a surprise on the palate, because it's so round and plush, and it has such body, and it's delightful and not challenging in the slightest. Love it. Luckily, we're recording, so I'm going to get Greg on my own podcast, because this is the perfect dream description that we wanted to achieve when we made it. There's something, I can't quite place it, but there's something almost like tasting a good sake about it, about if it's the weight or the structure or the it's clean. You just said it, the weight. So tell me more about this. Well, there's a richness and it's a word I use in WineSpeak a lot that some people don't like is lithe, and I just mean sort of soft and elegant and creamy, without any harsh, fierce corners. So that's what it is. It's sort of this effortless weightiness, almost like a great olive oil, like a very, very fine, extra virgin olive oil. So you know, Barbara, why I love it is what you just described took us 15 years to achieve. So I go... Congratulations. Well, thank you. But our goal was exactly. And when you go to look at some of our descriptors we attempt to use, it's exactly what you said. You use the word density. And, you know, when you taste alcohol, and I'm not a big spirit drinker for that reason, is I don't like the alcohol smell. I think it's offensive and it attacks. It kills my palate. So you just said it. Density, richness, that viscosity that we have in it really invites you and prepares your palate for more. And we have it even half warm. Imagine when it's very cold. It has that, you know, beautiful richness to it that is like a wine. Yeah, I believe that. And we love it pure. So why we work very well with chefs in general is they love to serve oyster shooters with this. Or of course, gazpacho with this. Why are we still in the office with this? Amuse-bouche with shrimps. Can you imagine shrimp cocktail with this? I like that idea. Something sort of horseradish-y spicy. I'd like to go back to the oyster. That, come on. Well, again, I had a Tabasco on it. And like some of that shaved vinegar ice. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, of course. If our spirits guys were in the room, I'm sure they'd be talking about how we'd want to hit this with just a touch of some kind of citrus to kind of lift them. That's right. So not only do you have a fabulous vodka, but you also offer flavor varieties including frosting and pink lemonade. And Swedish fish. Yeah. Oh, I love all that. Salted caramel. Let's go to dinner. Frappuccino flavored. Well, seven times distilled. So we all love food obviously around this table, which is so great. So my dream, how much of you love caviar? I've only had caviar one time. So we'll have it a second time together. Greg, is that okay with you? What do you think of caviar, Barbara? I've only really had caviar two or three times and it wasn't as luminous an experience as I expected. Well, I'll make it limitless and I'll make it radiant and I'll make it eloquent next time we have it together. So my dream was always with oysters to have caviar and I love vodka and caviar. You know, it's something that I love that flavor profile and I love what comes out of the ocean. So my dream was to actually make the first ever infused, not flavored, infused. And I fought with the TTB in America, not to have to call it infused, because we actually put 60 kilos, 120 grams of real Beluga caviar from the southwest of France into the tank. So we patented a new process here, which sits in a box and the infused liquid goes through it. And it gives that insane flavor you have in this glass. So you could smell it. You feel a little bit of the iod from the ocean. You feel that incredible flavor that the caviar eggs give. So imagine as a conclusion, we float the caviar in the tank, you lightly filter and you end up with this result. JCB caviar infused vodka. Never been done in history. The most expensive vodka to make on the planet. What do you think? Greg, tell me. Maybe because my lack of experience with caviar, I don't know what flavors I'm looking for. Well what flavor do you feel here? Like a peppery quality. It's spicy and there is certainly a touch of something of the sea. Like that minerality and saltiness. A briny quality maybe. I mean it's subtle. It's graceful. Thank you. That's the word I love. Graceful. Which happens to be the name of my daughter, Grace. No, no, but I love graceful because we want it to really paramount elegance. We want it to, I mean, fish eggs obviously very refined. Hence, they're very rare. Hence, they cost so much. So we wanted that oily characteristics that comes with a fish and that great feel of an explosion in the mouth and that very graceful luminous experience. So thank you for that great description. I don't know what that is why I keep this one even more so. My mind keeps going to Saki. It's like, I don't know if it's that oceanic or there's something floral about it. Well, Saki sometimes has like a powdery mildewy quality that comes off as like a little bit funky, like a little bit umami. Umami, I guess. Thank you. You know, all the friends I have are in love with the caviar. And even my sister, who does not really like caviar at all, adores this. She loves the next one we're going to try, which is black truffle, because you know, that's the product of the earth. But when you love the ocean and you like sea urchin, when you like oyster, when you like shrimps, when you like caviar, this is really what you're going to dream for. I'm a big fan of this. It's very unique and definitely interesting. Thank you for sharing that. It's a pleasure. Truffle happens to be a big time favorite though. Yeah, so what would be the next most high end, high profile we should obviously have? So we went on the earth, we went in the ocean with a caviar, now you're going into the soil. We had two options, dear friends. The black truffle claim of fame from France is Perigord, you know, the Southwest. This is where the history of the most expensive black truffle on the planet come from. The Italians love in the Piedmont region, the white truffles, much more flavorful, very flamboyant, extremely charismatic as well. We wanted to remain French. Yeah, I remember a champagne tasting we did at a high end Chicago hotel, and they served an appetizer with white truffle, and it trounced the champagne. They had exceptional aged vintage champagnes, and all I could taste was truffle. Yeah. It's very dominant. We indeed tried with a white truffle from Italy, just for the fun of it. We knew we wanted to remain French, because I think the French truffle have that amazing earthy, mushroom, foresty characteristics. We wanted to really exemplify this in this amazing presentation. You know what we do? Come the harvest of the truffle. We bring the truffle to Burgundy. We very lightly shave them. We don't take the skin out, we just clean them, and we throw them in the tank, as is, as if you would do a maceration. But we put them in a container that is very unique to us, so the liquid goes through it without disintegrating the mushroom, because alcohol kills everything. It's so powerful, specifically at 96, 98 proof. I'm sure if you put a banana at your house, put it in a bottle of vodka or it's going to eat it alive. The mushroom is a very delicate one, so we put it in a container, so it goes through a system that really infuse that amazing mushroom feel that you feel here. So this is black truffle, Perigord. We bring 60 kilos. It's a fortune when harvest comes. What do you do with all the vodka eat truffles? Well, luckily through the system we have, we don't reuse the truffle, but at least we could do a nice egg omelet with the truffle. So if you come at the distillery when we do this, it's a lot of fun because you eat very well. It's all our eggs because we are a biodynamic farm for our wines, and we do all the collage of the barrel with white egg. So it's very, very cool. It ends up to be a big feast. But smell the nose. So I'd love to get your feedback on the nose. As you notice, very different obviously than the caviar. Yeah. It seems more higher toned and more citric. Yep. Absolutely. God, you, you, you're very good in spirits. Greg is very humble, but he has, Wow, what a palette. generally one of the best palates in the company. Very impressive on the spirits. You were on the wine, of course, but here right on. That's subtle. Very elegant. It's not as earthy as I thought it would be, not as pronounced on the nose especially, but it comes through, yeah, as this just gentle sort of wave of earthiness. Yeah, and the wave you're referring to, it's what we call in wine tasting retroalfaction. So retroalfaction is when basically you swallow and a portion of it through goes behind your sinus and back into your nose, into your brain, and register what you just said. Very, very important. So when you all taste, dear friends listening, take your time to move your mouth around, to move your tongue, and to push the aromatic up to your nose again, and it does it through the back of your mouth. It's again what we call in French retroalfaction. Same in English. So this is what Barbara was just talking about. To give a little bit of a technical background on this. You make such elegant, subtle spirits for a guy who lays it on so thick. And you see what I could tell you what I love personally here is, I get offended by alcohol fumes, and I say, and I don't like it, and I'm not interested. Here, I want to sip more. And this is what we want is the purity of it. We want the elegance of it. We want you to have pasta and truffle. We want you to have even a salad. If you're in a bar and you just want a salad, ask for this, you're going to love it because it's really complimenting that oily, gentle, dense character to it. Totally agree. You just want something light and graceful. And it's just like, just keep it easy and keep it elegant. You know, I'm recently in a great bar, the Ritz Carlton in Dallas. Unbelievable bar and they feature those and they have a sampler, which is a martini with the JCB black truffle and truffle oiled French fries. Okay. To die as just for fun at the bar. Scott, get on that, will you? I'm hungry. Let's go to the bar. Right. Let's get out of this recording room. Right. Jean-Charles Boisset. Thank you for coming and sharing the stuff with us. Great honor. Sticking around for a bonus episode of Barrel, Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm honored and thank you so much for having me and I cannot wait when we do that in the wine country. You have how many wineries do you have in your portfolio? At this stage, 28 wineries between France and California. You have to come back at least 12 or 15 more times. I'm in. Just say when I'm in. One podcast just for English sparkling wine. As long as beautiful Barbarella is with us and Shannon. You can't keep me away. We are in the circle together. A big hug after this truffle vodka.