February 18, 2025 • 34 mins
In episode thirty-three of the Industry Insider Podcast, Andrew sits down with Chris Hoel, CEO and founder of Harper’s Club, a premier concierge wine advisory firm. Chris shares his journey from catching the wine bug in a Midwest poker game to working at The French Laundry and ultimately curating world-class wine collections for Hollywood elites and top-tier collectors. He offers a behind-the-scenes look at the high-stakes world of rare wines, the evolving wine industry, and what it takes to build a successful advisory business in Napa Valley.
Episode Highlights:
- From Poker to Premier Wine Curation: How a single sip of wine changed Chris’s life and set him on a path from finance to fine wine.
- The French Laundry Years: Inside stories from working at one of the most prestigious restaurants in the world and how attention to detail got him the job.
- Building Harper’s Club: How Chris carved out a niche advising A-list clients like Mark Wahlberg and Jimmy Butler on their personal wine collections.
- The Future of Wine Collecting: The challenges facing the wine industry today, from shifting consumer trends to the impact of global markets.
- Mastering the Art of Curation: Why Harper’s Club is more than a wine retailer—it’s a gateway to exclusive experiences, rare bottles, and bespoke service.
Chris’s story is a masterclass in perseverance, expertise, and navigating the intersection of luxury and hospitality. Whether you're a wine enthusiast, collector, or just curious about the hidden world of elite wine advisory, this episode is packed with fascinating insights.
This episode is brought to you by Cuvée, the go-to app for planning your Napa Valley experience. Follow @IndustryInsiderPodcast for updates and behind-the-scenes content.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is the industry insider podcast brought to you by cuvee, the Napa winery guide powered
(00:07):
by preferably with your host Andrew Allison.
All right, all right, all right.
Welcome back to another episode of Napa Valley insider.
I'm Andrew Allison.
I'm the CEO at cuvee.
We make Napa Valley's winery guide app.
We make this podcast in partnership with highway 29 media.
I am so excited to welcome today's guest, who are you and what do you do?
(00:31):
My name is Chris Howell.
I'm the CEO and founder of Harper's Club, which is a concierge winery advisory firm
based here in Napa Valley.
I have been waiting to have you on for more than a few months.
I'm so excited to ask you questions.
I have been following your work for a little bit, but before we dive into current things,
(00:53):
let's rewind the clocks.
How did Chris Howell become Chris Howell, CEO of Harper's Club?
That's a great question.
I caught my wine bug fairly early.
I think I was 21, 22.
I call it an epiphany wine, but I had that wine and it was like a light switch and it
changed my life.
(01:14):
I was graduating at that time out of Missouri State with a finance degree.
I said to myself, it sounds really boring sitting behind a computer and staring at spreadsheets
all day in a cubicle.
While I'm not in a cubicle, it is what I do most of my days, which is ironic.
(01:35):
I had that wine.
It was Sterling Vineyards, Three Palm Vineyard Merlot, 1991, in the middle of a poker game
in St. Louis on a cold night.
I never made it back to the next shot after I had one sip.
I needed to know absolutely everything I could about wine.
This is pre-internet.
This is 1995, 1996.
(01:58):
I would read Wine Spectator cover to cover.
I remember, and I think they still do it, there was a section for the trade and it was
called the Grapevine.
It had a picture of Joe Spellman who had passed his Master Sommelier exam and he was working
at Charlie Trotters.
I was like, a Midwest boy like myself, that was the Mecca.
(02:20):
That was the high point.
I said, that's what I want to do.
I want to become Master Sommelier and I want to work at the best restaurant in the country.
Take us through your early career because you have had some hell of a cool set of jobs.
Oh, yeah.
I've opened several restaurants, which are not for the faint of heart.
(02:43):
I've been in wholesale.
I've been in retail.
I've been in restaurants, bars, you name it.
I've carried a bag for a little while when I worked for a wholesaler.
It's been one series.
It started in restaurants and then I got off into wholesale for a little bit.
(03:04):
But then in pursuit of my Master Sommelier, I wanted to get back on the floor and I wanted
to hone that craft of service and worked at several different places in St. Louis.
On a dare, I applied for a Sommelier position at the French Laundry because I was like,
(03:26):
oh, Midwest boy, I'm never going to get this job.
My body's like, absolutely, you should do it.
You should do it.
Just do it.
So I did it.
Two, three, four weeks go by and didn't hear anything.
So I was like, oh, whatever.
That was kind of cool.
That's the story that I tell.
And then they called.
And I remember when I was speaking with the general manager who called me, who's very
(03:49):
French and had a very thick accent.
I had to pull off the side of the road to try to understand him because I just could
not understand this guy.
So when the French Laundry calls you, do you remember who called you?
Yes.
Nicola Finucci.
And he was famously the GM for a long time there.
(04:10):
He was a, yes, he was, I don't know how long he was there.
I feel like it was a decade, but he's old school French.
And whenever I saw him work the floor, I mean, he just runs circles around everybody.
Even the best captains at the Laundry, he could just smoke them.
(04:31):
And he ran Le Bec Fin in Philadelphia for a long time.
He's one of the true hospitalians in the industry.
We had a great interview and I was like, okay, that'll be cool.
Now that's my story.
And then two weeks later, we want you to come out to the French Laundry.
We want you to interview in person.
And I was like, oh my gosh, this is starting to get real.
(04:54):
And I had passed my advanced by that point.
And so I remember coming out.
Advanced is not for the faint of heart.
Yeah, it took me a couple of tries on that one.
There's a big leap from the first to the second.
In fact, they didn't even have certified at that point.
(05:14):
It was entry level and then a huge galactic jump to advance and then another big jump
to master sommelier.
And I interviewed with everybody.
Thomas was the last one that interviewed me and then I got to watch the pass.
I got to spend a whole night watching them plate food and watch that buzz and that energy
(05:37):
and that precision.
And I was blown away.
And you're like, that's the big leaps.
I'm like, this is my story.
My story was going to keep getting better, but I still never thought I was going to get
the job.
And I did this crazy thing.
I later find out it's how I got the job or why I got the job.
But I printed off the whitelist and I started finding some errors on it.
(06:00):
Maybe it was a mixing and accent here or there was too many spaces here or this section that
says Rhone Valley after the end of it.
And this one didn't, but there are Rhone Valley.
So I found like over 120 errors, literally with a red pen.
And I had it in this Manila folder.
And on the last day, the GM said, you've been carrying that around all day.
(06:23):
What is that?
And I've been debating on whether I was going to give this to you or not.
But if I were you, I would want me to give it to you.
And so I gave it to him and he starts opening it.
I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, you can't open this right now.
You have to open this after I leave.
And lo and behold, like two days later, he said, we're going to send you an offer letter
(06:44):
in the mail, oddly enough.
And two months later, May of 08, I moved out to Napa Valley.
So you actually just answered my next question.
But what was it like interviewing with Chef Keller?
It was intense.
I mean, how long was it?
Was it one minute, five minutes, an hour?
(07:05):
It was probably, no, it was probably 20 minutes.
And I remember him saying, and this is why I didn't think I was going to get a job.
He remember saying, do you ever want to open up your own restaurant?
And I had already opened up restaurants for other people and I know how hard it is.
And I said, no.
And I was like, did I just insult him?
(07:28):
But because he wants ambitious people, right?
Everybody is an alpha at the French Laundry.
You have to be.
You have to be the best at your craft.
Most people.
His reputation is perfectionism.
It is.
It's the pursuit of perfection.
Understanding that you're never going to get it perfect, but the pursuit is something that
you can never lose sight of.
(07:50):
And I had been in the military prior.
I did the GI Bill to push myself through college.
So I was already part of that ethos, right?
It has to be perfect.
I mean, the military will ingrain that into you, whether you like it or not.
How and so my natural next question was going to be, and I think it was 06 or 07, but were
(08:11):
you at the French Laundry when somebody broke in and robbed their wine cellar?
But it sounds like it was just after.
That happened after I'd left.
That was actually in the Christmas time of what would have been 2012.
And I remember hearing the stories because I could not believe the brazen, what these
(08:36):
guys did.
You know, Thomas was entertaining in his house at that time.
Well, for those that don't know, it's on the same property.
It's on the same property from the cellar door to his back door is 50 feet.
So while he had people in his house and feeding them, someone took a crowbar to the cellar
(08:58):
door and broke in.
That's crazy.
That is crazy.
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Cheers.
There's so many stories that have come to light over the last decade of, you know, wine
(09:42):
crime because people maybe have not realized how much money is in the asset class of wine.
But if somebody's going to talk about the asset class of wine, I think you're the perfect
person.
So for those that don't know about Harper's Club, what is the business?
So the business, I assumed at a certain wealth demographic, you probably don't walk into
(10:07):
a store anymore, right?
You got a guy.
You got someone that you call when you want to go on vacation.
You got someone that you call when you've got a legal problem.
You got someone that you call that, you know, always does, you know, your tailoring.
And for the experience that you get in a three-star Michelin restaurant where you can speak with
(10:28):
a knowledgeable sommelier and within minutes they can learn your preferences and really
craft an amazing experience for you, there's a need for that.
There's a niche for that.
And I thought it was vastly underserved.
So Harper's Club is about access almost more than anything else, access to wines, access
to knowledge, access to my experience.
(10:50):
You know, when I'm selling or talking about a 1945 Mouton, right, one of the most venerable
wines of the world, I've had it, right?
I've had it about five times.
I've had it enough times that I think I could spot a fake if I ever come across one.
And that is one of the most counterfeited wines on the planet.
(11:11):
And so the business day today, if I was going to describe you to somebody who didn't know
the industry, didn't know exactly what a somm was other than their local restaurant might
have a somm.
You are the somm, you're the wine advisor to Hollywood.
You have the US's A-listers and many people from overseas calling you to either buy wine,
(11:39):
curate wine, or help them put together a wine portfolio for their seller.
Right.
So as a concierge wine advisory firm, we're almost like a lifestyle company because we
take care of as much as possible as we can for the clients in the way of wine and spirits
and events and gifting and travel and hard to get reservations.
(12:01):
We want to be the go-to guy for everything in their life that surrounds food, spirits
and wine.
And by working with a company like us, we can get the very best, the absolutely very
best wines that you'll never see on a retail wine shelf.
They just never do.
(12:22):
They go to private clients like this.
And there's probably only about a dozen guys in the country that do what I do at the level
that we do it at.
We touch six liters of Latache and $350,000 bottles of Scotch.
The really, really thin air at the top.
How comfortable are you sharing some of your clients?
(12:45):
I'm familiar with some of your work and I don't know if you don't feel like you have
to but can you maybe share some of the guests that you or the clients that you curate for?
Yeah, I've been really lucky to have been in some of the most amazing homes around this
country whether they're VC or tech guys out of Silicon Valley.
(13:09):
But I moved to LA because I really found that market to be underserved.
There's not a lot of people in that town despite the massive amount of discretionary wealth.
So I moved down there.
I joined this organization called EMC, State Managers Coalition.
(13:29):
And I did that so I could maybe get access to some of these ultra high net worth individuals.
And I did a master class and Mark Wahlberg's, a state manager was there and she was like,
oh my gosh, you've got to help me out.
His cellar is a mess.
It's unorganized and he's always looking for protrudes and this, that and the other.
(13:53):
So I said, sure, no problem.
And I did a protrude dinner with him and the winemaker in his house.
Gosh, when was that?
It was back in maybe 2013.
And so that was really cool.
And then I just, you know, I started buying Sosakaya and all kinds of Bordeaux for him.
(14:14):
And he became really good friends with Jimmy Butler.
And at one of Mark's birthday parties, I met Jimmy Butler and I think he had two bottles
of wine to his name at the time.
And he was in Tuscany and he was trying to go visit Sosakaya because that was his epiphany
wine.
And my buddy, who was a director at Cobrand who imports that into the US, I gave him a
(14:36):
call.
I'm like, dude, help me out here.
Like, if you can pull this rabbit out of your hat, you'll make me look great.
And he did.
And, you know, Jimmy Butler landed his helicopter on the lawn of Sosakaya, had an amazing time
and visit there.
They pulled out the legendary vintages like 1985 and did a lunch for him.
He actually made a whole cool YouTube video on it.
(14:58):
And from then on, I was his guy.
And we just got done installing a five-year project of building up his collection in a
new cellar that he built that took about two years to build.
That's so funny that you brought up Jimmy Butler because the other day I'm reading Architecture
Digest and I'm looking at this wine cellar.
(15:20):
I'm like, God, I wonder what saw him help Jimmy put this together.
And then literally the next week, you and I were having lunch and you're like, oh, I
just got done working on this.
And so I think it was before the mag had come out or the mag had just come out.
And I...
Yeah, it is an exceptional cellar.
It was done by Tom Warner Cellars out of Marin.
(15:41):
And we had no limitations.
Jimmy wanted the absolute best on every turn and every corner.
You look at the picture on the cover there and those are three liters and six liters
and nine liters.
Someone the other day was saying, wow, look at all those magnums.
I'm like, none of those are magnums.
(16:01):
It is impressive, impressive stuff.
And he's really interested to it.
He's not just collecting to have trophies.
I went to Bordeaux with him and we got to tour all around.
And this last summer we did the same thing in Burgundy.
He really wants to learn more about the people and the culture.
And he has got a phenomenal palate.
(16:23):
We did a couple of blind tastings together and he did better than I did.
He's really good at wine tasting.
Yeah, that's amazing.
So when you think about your business, what are some of the things that have been really
important to help you find your footing and establish Harpers Club?
Because you don't just show up in LA and start for...
(16:45):
No, you know, the background of French Laundry opens a lot of doors.
And it did when I lived up here in Napa for seven years.
And I've been to most every winery.
In fact, I went to one today that I'd never been to.
I don't know why.
But man, that's a beautiful place.
But you know, Harpers Club is about really...
(17:11):
Sometimes I say I'm the wine sherpa, right?
I'm here to take people on a journey.
And if they just want to collect DRC, that's fine.
But if they really want to understand their collection, not only from an investment standpoint,
because most of my clients don't buy wines for investment, even though that's their profession,
they want to have this because they enjoy it.
And so I tell all of my team all the time, we don't sell wine.
(17:36):
We sell experiences.
We create experiences for our clients.
Because when you open a $5,000 bottle of wine, you're not drinking wine, right?
You are going through an experience of what happened that year in that vineyard by that
winemaker.
These are monumental wines.
They're not just expensive.
If you've had a really, really expensive, older, fully mature, perfectly mature wine,
(18:01):
it will change your life.
I think that's so interesting, especially our work with the Cuvée business.
We spend a lot of time thinking about the customer experience at the time of curation.
When you describe it, it's almost as if I hear...
And you didn't say this, and tell me if I'm off, but it's almost as if I hear you say,
(18:25):
these people have enough money to do anything that they want.
And they have chosen or trusted within you to help them based on the taste preferences
that they have pick and choose their experience.
A hundred percent.
And I actually had a client say that to me once.
He's probably 65, and he doesn't drink every day.
(18:50):
But when he does drink, he wants to be blown away.
And he has the money to buy anything that he wants and can.
It doesn't matter if it's 100 or 1,000 or 10,000.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
I'm only drinking once in a while.
They lean to me because I tell them the right temperature and how long to decant it and
what's the proper glassware.
(19:11):
And so it's not just about putting bottles in their cellar.
It's much more than that.
And helping them find the moment.
It is.
And my background and education, I built the whole wine education program at the French
Laundry for all 11 of the outlets at that time.
And so I love sharing what I know.
(19:31):
I don't hold back.
I'm not one of those guys that tries to be the smartest guy in the room.
I want to share everything, absolutely everything that I know about wine that I can and empower
my clients to be very knowledgeable about the bottles of wine that are in their cellar.
They owe it.
I owe it to them.
If they're going to entrust all of that with me, I owe it to make sure that they always
(19:56):
look good and they always have the best wines in the cellar.
So if it's not a good vintage or it's a B-plus producer, it's not going to end up in my client's
cellar.
We're a demand-driven company.
So I don't go out and buy wine and then sell it to my clients.
I find out exactly what they're interested in, what vintage is, what producers, what
(20:16):
format.
What are their short-term goals?
What are their long-term goals?
What are they drinking right now?
What are they not like anymore?
Let's divest in that and get the things that they are liking.
So I'm constantly monitoring their collections to make sure nothing is going old.
And if you're not drinking a certain region anymore because you've moved on to something
(20:37):
else, then we stop putting those wines in the cellar.
I wonder what you see in the industry as a headwind.
What are some of the things you're worried about in the US wine industry?
Well, I'd be lying if I didn't say we're all nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking
(20:59):
chairs about wine tariffs.
They happened during the last Trump administration.
And it's something that will, given where the wine industry is right now, it's a little
bit on life support.
It would really cripple and hobble the industry.
(21:19):
So everyone is on bated breath.
Nothing has come out as of yet.
Hopefully nothing will.
But that is something that makes everyone very cautious, including myself, because about
75% of what we source is directly out of Europe.
So I will be directly affected by such things.
(21:40):
Other headwinds that I see are the wine consumption globally is dropping.
And it doesn't help when you've got people telling you that wine's not good for you anymore.
That's a bunch of baloney.
(22:01):
The French paradox proves this.
You look at the places that have the most centenarians.
They're usually in Europe.
The blue zones of Europe.
Yeah, the blue zones of Europe where they drink every day.
So I find that to be unfortunate, but it is happening.
(22:21):
And this new generation, Gen Z and Gen X, they're drinking less.
They're drinking ready to make cocktails.
They're getting into cannabis.
They're not really following in their father's footsteps.
So the wine industry has a little correction coming.
(22:42):
People are tired of paying $18 for a glass of wine when they can just get a cool beer
for six, seven bucks.
People are cognizant of that.
So I think the wine industry had a great time and made a lot of hay in the 90s and the 2000s.
But everyone's kind of dancing for their dinner now, especially at the lower levels.
(23:08):
It's a fierce competition.
And you've got large retailers like Costco that can just dominate the market.
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(23:31):
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Yeah, that's so interesting.
We've had a few guests on recently talking about the retail industry.
And I think when you think about these grocery stores or Amazon in some sense now owning
Whole Foods, these people have become the one stop shop, whether it be online or in
(23:55):
person.
You see Target moving into grocery.
You see Amazon moving via Whole Foods or Instacart into other places, or Deliveroo rather.
So I just think these retailers are sprawling and moving into the other categories.
They are.
It's tough.
And you layer upon that.
(24:17):
Next to pharmaceuticals, it's the most regulated industry that exists in the US, the alcohol
industry.
So shipping is really arduous and tenuous.
And there's a lot of places you can't even ship to still to the state, which is unfortunate
because at the end of the day, the consumer loses.
(24:38):
Retail is going to look different in 10 years.
And we hope that we're starting to lead that charge in a more honest advisory capacity.
We're a little insulated because we're at the top end of the consumer market.
So our average bottle price is over $600.
So we're very fortunate for that.
There is some insulation.
(25:00):
But the industry as a whole is going to look a lot different.
And you're right, people are going to be buying premium wines at gas stations or wherever
they can get them.
Wine stores could be a thing of the past, to be quite honest.
And a lot has gone online.
Wow.
When you, for Harper's Club, are sourcing, it sounds like you wait till you have a client
(25:23):
that would like to go pursue a certain brand or a specific taste profile.
But when you meet a winery owner, what are some of the ways that you work with a brand
to build a long-term relationship?
Well, I just go back to access, right?
So all the great wineries of the world, you can't just knock on the door like you can
(25:45):
most of the places in Napa Valley and go into the tasting room.
It just doesn't exist, right?
So how else are they going to get those experiences?
And they don't want someone who can't afford a $300 bottle of wine to show up at their
winery that sells $300 bottles of wine.
They want true buyers.
They want collectors.
(26:06):
We have some wineries that we work direct with that want to know where these are going,
like literally who is buying this wine.
It's not totally, we're going to sell out anyway.
We want to make sure it's a customer that's a good long-term customer.
And a lot of them, like DRC, these bottles are numbered and they watch the auction market.
(26:27):
They don't like these wines being flipped.
And if you sell your wines, if you get your wines directly from DRC, if you're on the
private client for Wilson Daniels, and you sell it, I think it's inside of 10 years,
and they find it at auction, you're off the list.
You lose your allocation.
Same thing with a restaurant.
So it's a real tough thing.
(26:49):
Is that similar to how car brands like Ferrari kind of work to buy a new Ferrari?
You have to have a Ferrari, which means you have to find a used Ferrari.
Right.
Exactly.
I don't think it's to that level.
But to your point, they can sell all the wines, especially at the high end, multiple times.
(27:10):
And that's what drives wine cost.
So a $5,000 bottle of wine doesn't incur 500 times more production costs or marketing costs.
It's simply...
Is that the brand equity?
Yes, the brand equity, it's supply and demand.
It's that simple curve that you saw in high school economics class.
So when the demand outstrips the supply, the price goes up.
(27:35):
How do you think about advising clients on old world, new world, and the age of some
of Napa Valley's cabs?
How do you suggest one looking to build a well-rounded portfolio think about Napa Valley's
high price point cabs?
Well, Napa wine has gotten expensive.
(28:00):
Is it justified?
Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?
So you're talking to someone who sells very expensive wine.
So I would say yes.
Again, it's the demand that's outstripping the supply.
Do I think that it's unfortunate that you almost have to spend over $100 to get a great
(28:26):
Napa Cabernet?
Yes.
Because if you go to Spain, or you go to France, or you go to Italy, you can find amazing wines
for 10 euros.
And it's because the land is so expensive here that a new winery, your kids might make
money, but you're not going to make money if you have to buy the land.
(28:51):
But in Europe, they're usually passed down from one generation to another.
The house is paid off.
The winery is paid off.
They own the land, right?
Everything's...
Labor is cheaper.
So you factor all that in, that's how they're able to make great wines at a significantly
lower price point.
I wonder what you, given where you are in the industry and what you've achieved and
(29:16):
who your clients are, what would you tell somebody just starting their journey who has
the aspirations to be a Somme, what would you tell them to do or how to spend their
time?
Go into another field.
I'm just kidding.
If you're wanting to be a Somme, find a mentor.
(29:38):
It's one of those professions that's still based on apprenticeship.
You can read all the books that you want, but until you have somebody that helps guide
you through a wine and helps you learn how to taste a wine and understand geography and
landscape and climate and soils, it's really, really complicated.
(30:06):
You have about a new million wines made in the world globally every year.
So you're never going to tackle it in short form.
It takes...
It's the 10,000-hour rule, and that's just to become slightly proficient.
I think you probably need to put in about 20,000 hours to become a Master Somme.
But the fastest track to becoming a good Somme is working and finding a great mentor.
(30:32):
I had one in St. Louis.
His name was Bob Cable.
Every night when I was doing the paperwork, he would open up a new wine and, oh, Chris,
here, this is a Condrieu.
It comes from the Northern Rhone Valley.
It's very unique because it's the only white wine appellation for still wine in the Northern
Rhone.
(30:54):
It has this oily texture, and it's because of these attributes that Viognier possesses.
It tastes like this, but domestic Viognier will taste different because it's sunnier
and it's riper.
You don't really find that in the books.
You need a good mentor.
I have been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with some Master Sommes, Masters of
(31:19):
Wine.
Many of them have hospitality experience where they ran a wine program or a food and bev
program where they had a lot of reps.
Something I loved about my undergrad in wine at Sonoma was the amount of time you would
spend in the field, like seeing as believing, at least for me.
How important is finding a good food and bev program in the reps to becoming a Somme?
(31:46):
You know, that's a good point.
I think that if you're going to establish a good food and beverage program, you should
kind of be using a little bit of everybody and not kind of solely leaning into one or
(32:06):
two different vendors because everyone has a little bit something different to offer,
whether it's regional or price point-wise.
But good programs are the best programs that I come across are based on not what the Somme
(32:27):
likes in particular, but what is the restaurant about?
What's the soul of this restaurant?
What are they trying to telegraph to their client base?
When I see champagnes at a Spanish restaurant, it just doesn't make sense to me.
It's one of the great things about press restaurant up in St. Alina, right?
(32:49):
It's all wines from California and mostly all from Napa Valley.
And that's amazing.
And that's why that restaurant is so great to visit.
I mean, it's a museum of wine.
They have some of the most rarest California wines on that list that you won't see anywhere
else in the world.
And truly is.
I think the last question I would love to close with is those that would like to follow
(33:13):
your work or if you haven't seen any of Chris's work, you can grab the Jimmy Butler issue
of Architectures Digest.
But where can people follow you on the internet?
Where can they see some of your work?
You can see our work on Instagram.
We do a lot of social media, kind of inspirational posts and reels about what we do.
(33:34):
What's that handle?
It's at Harper's Club.
And if you wanted to get a hold of me, it's chris at harpersclub.com.
Chris, thank you so much for coming on.
It's always great to hang out with you.
You always are up to something super interesting.
I can't wait to see where Harper's Club goes over the next years.
But again, I'm Andrew Allison.
I'm the CEO of Kuve.
(33:55):
We make this podcast in partnership with Highway 29 Media.
Cheers.
Cheers.
The industry insider podcast has been brought to you by Kuve, the Napa winery guide.
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Find out more at kuveapp.com.
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This is the industry insider podcast brought to you by cuvee, the Napa winery guide powered
(00:07):
by preferably with your host Andrew Allison.
All right, all right, all right.
Welcome back to another episode of Napa Valley insider.
I'm Andrew Allison.
I'm the CEO at cuvee.
We make Napa Valley's winery guide app.
We make this podcast in partnership with highway 29 media.
I am so excited to welcome today's guest, who are you and what do you do?
(00:31):
My name is Chris Howell.
I'm the CEO and founder of Harper's Club, which is a concierge winery advisory firm
based here in Napa Valley.
I have been waiting to have you on for more than a few months.
I'm so excited to ask you questions.
I have been following your work for a little bit, but before we dive into current things,
(00:53):
let's rewind the clocks.
How did Chris Howell become Chris Howell, CEO of Harper's Club?
That's a great question.
I caught my wine bug fairly early.
I think I was 21, 22.
I call it an epiphany wine, but I had that wine and it was like a light switch and it
changed my life.
(01:14):
I was graduating at that time out of Missouri State with a finance degree.
I said to myself, it sounds really boring sitting behind a computer and staring at spreadsheets
all day in a cubicle.
While I'm not in a cubicle, it is what I do most of my days, which is ironic.
(01:35):
I had that wine.
It was Sterling Vineyards, Three Palm Vineyard Merlot, 1991, in the middle of a poker game
in St. Louis on a cold night.
I never made it back to the next shot after I had one sip.
I needed to know absolutely everything I could about wine.
This is pre-internet.
This is 1995, 1996.
(01:58):
I would read Wine Spectator cover to cover.
I remember, and I think they still do it, there was a section for the trade and it was
called the Grapevine.
It had a picture of Joe Spellman who had passed his Master Sommelier exam and he was working
at Charlie Trotters.
I was like, a Midwest boy like myself, that was the Mecca.
(02:20):
That was the high point.
I said, that's what I want to do.
I want to become Master Sommelier and I want to work at the best restaurant in the country.
Take us through your early career because you have had some hell of a cool set of jobs.
Oh, yeah.
I've opened several restaurants, which are not for the faint of heart.
(02:43):
I've been in wholesale.
I've been in retail.
I've been in restaurants, bars, you name it.
I've carried a bag for a little while when I worked for a wholesaler.
It's been one series.
It started in restaurants and then I got off into wholesale for a little bit.
(03:04):
But then in pursuit of my Master Sommelier, I wanted to get back on the floor and I wanted
to hone that craft of service and worked at several different places in St. Louis.
On a dare, I applied for a Sommelier position at the French Laundry because I was like,
(03:26):
oh, Midwest boy, I'm never going to get this job.
My body's like, absolutely, you should do it.
You should do it.
Just do it.
So I did it.
Two, three, four weeks go by and didn't hear anything.
So I was like, oh, whatever.
That was kind of cool.
That's the story that I tell.
And then they called.
And I remember when I was speaking with the general manager who called me, who's very
(03:49):
French and had a very thick accent.
I had to pull off the side of the road to try to understand him because I just could
not understand this guy.
So when the French Laundry calls you, do you remember who called you?
Yes.
Nicola Finucci.
And he was famously the GM for a long time there.
(04:10):
He was a, yes, he was, I don't know how long he was there.
I feel like it was a decade, but he's old school French.
And whenever I saw him work the floor, I mean, he just runs circles around everybody.
Even the best captains at the Laundry, he could just smoke them.
(04:31):
And he ran Le Bec Fin in Philadelphia for a long time.
He's one of the true hospitalians in the industry.
We had a great interview and I was like, okay, that'll be cool.
Now that's my story.
And then two weeks later, we want you to come out to the French Laundry.
We want you to interview in person.
And I was like, oh my gosh, this is starting to get real.
(04:54):
And I had passed my advanced by that point.
And so I remember coming out.
Advanced is not for the faint of heart.
Yeah, it took me a couple of tries on that one.
There's a big leap from the first to the second.
In fact, they didn't even have certified at that point.
(05:14):
It was entry level and then a huge galactic jump to advance and then another big jump
to master sommelier.
And I interviewed with everybody.
Thomas was the last one that interviewed me and then I got to watch the pass.
I got to spend a whole night watching them plate food and watch that buzz and that energy
(05:37):
and that precision.
And I was blown away.
And you're like, that's the big leaps.
I'm like, this is my story.
My story was going to keep getting better, but I still never thought I was going to get
the job.
And I did this crazy thing.
I later find out it's how I got the job or why I got the job.
But I printed off the whitelist and I started finding some errors on it.
(06:00):
Maybe it was a mixing and accent here or there was too many spaces here or this section that
says Rhone Valley after the end of it.
And this one didn't, but there are Rhone Valley.
So I found like over 120 errors, literally with a red pen.
And I had it in this Manila folder.
And on the last day, the GM said, you've been carrying that around all day.
(06:23):
What is that?
And I've been debating on whether I was going to give this to you or not.
But if I were you, I would want me to give it to you.
And so I gave it to him and he starts opening it.
I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, you can't open this right now.
You have to open this after I leave.
And lo and behold, like two days later, he said, we're going to send you an offer letter
(06:44):
in the mail, oddly enough.
And two months later, May of 08, I moved out to Napa Valley.
So you actually just answered my next question.
But what was it like interviewing with Chef Keller?
It was intense.
I mean, how long was it?
Was it one minute, five minutes, an hour?
(07:05):
It was probably, no, it was probably 20 minutes.
And I remember him saying, and this is why I didn't think I was going to get a job.
He remember saying, do you ever want to open up your own restaurant?
And I had already opened up restaurants for other people and I know how hard it is.
And I said, no.
And I was like, did I just insult him?
(07:28):
But because he wants ambitious people, right?
Everybody is an alpha at the French Laundry.
You have to be.
You have to be the best at your craft.
Most people.
His reputation is perfectionism.
It is.
It's the pursuit of perfection.
Understanding that you're never going to get it perfect, but the pursuit is something that
you can never lose sight of.
(07:50):
And I had been in the military prior.
I did the GI Bill to push myself through college.
So I was already part of that ethos, right?
It has to be perfect.
I mean, the military will ingrain that into you, whether you like it or not.
How and so my natural next question was going to be, and I think it was 06 or 07, but were
(08:11):
you at the French Laundry when somebody broke in and robbed their wine cellar?
But it sounds like it was just after.
That happened after I'd left.
That was actually in the Christmas time of what would have been 2012.
And I remember hearing the stories because I could not believe the brazen, what these
(08:36):
guys did.
You know, Thomas was entertaining in his house at that time.
Well, for those that don't know, it's on the same property.
It's on the same property from the cellar door to his back door is 50 feet.
So while he had people in his house and feeding them, someone took a crowbar to the cellar
(08:58):
door and broke in.
That's crazy.
That is crazy.
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Cheers.
There's so many stories that have come to light over the last decade of, you know, wine
(09:42):
crime because people maybe have not realized how much money is in the asset class of wine.
But if somebody's going to talk about the asset class of wine, I think you're the perfect
person.
So for those that don't know about Harper's Club, what is the business?
So the business, I assumed at a certain wealth demographic, you probably don't walk into
(10:07):
a store anymore, right?
You got a guy.
You got someone that you call when you want to go on vacation.
You got someone that you call when you've got a legal problem.
You got someone that you call that, you know, always does, you know, your tailoring.
And for the experience that you get in a three-star Michelin restaurant where you can speak with
(10:28):
a knowledgeable sommelier and within minutes they can learn your preferences and really
craft an amazing experience for you, there's a need for that.
There's a niche for that.
And I thought it was vastly underserved.
So Harper's Club is about access almost more than anything else, access to wines, access
to knowledge, access to my experience.
(10:50):
You know, when I'm selling or talking about a 1945 Mouton, right, one of the most venerable
wines of the world, I've had it, right?
I've had it about five times.
I've had it enough times that I think I could spot a fake if I ever come across one.
And that is one of the most counterfeited wines on the planet.
(11:11):
And so the business day today, if I was going to describe you to somebody who didn't know
the industry, didn't know exactly what a somm was other than their local restaurant might
have a somm.
You are the somm, you're the wine advisor to Hollywood.
You have the US's A-listers and many people from overseas calling you to either buy wine,
(11:39):
curate wine, or help them put together a wine portfolio for their seller.
Right.
So as a concierge wine advisory firm, we're almost like a lifestyle company because we
take care of as much as possible as we can for the clients in the way of wine and spirits
and events and gifting and travel and hard to get reservations.
(12:01):
We want to be the go-to guy for everything in their life that surrounds food, spirits
and wine.
And by working with a company like us, we can get the very best, the absolutely very
best wines that you'll never see on a retail wine shelf.
They just never do.
(12:22):
They go to private clients like this.
And there's probably only about a dozen guys in the country that do what I do at the level
that we do it at.
We touch six liters of Latache and $350,000 bottles of Scotch.
The really, really thin air at the top.
How comfortable are you sharing some of your clients?
(12:45):
I'm familiar with some of your work and I don't know if you don't feel like you have
to but can you maybe share some of the guests that you or the clients that you curate for?
Yeah, I've been really lucky to have been in some of the most amazing homes around this
country whether they're VC or tech guys out of Silicon Valley.
(13:09):
But I moved to LA because I really found that market to be underserved.
There's not a lot of people in that town despite the massive amount of discretionary wealth.
So I moved down there.
I joined this organization called EMC, State Managers Coalition.
(13:29):
And I did that so I could maybe get access to some of these ultra high net worth individuals.
And I did a master class and Mark Wahlberg's, a state manager was there and she was like,
oh my gosh, you've got to help me out.
His cellar is a mess.
It's unorganized and he's always looking for protrudes and this, that and the other.
(13:53):
So I said, sure, no problem.
And I did a protrude dinner with him and the winemaker in his house.
Gosh, when was that?
It was back in maybe 2013.
And so that was really cool.
And then I just, you know, I started buying Sosakaya and all kinds of Bordeaux for him.
(14:14):
And he became really good friends with Jimmy Butler.
And at one of Mark's birthday parties, I met Jimmy Butler and I think he had two bottles
of wine to his name at the time.
And he was in Tuscany and he was trying to go visit Sosakaya because that was his epiphany
wine.
And my buddy, who was a director at Cobrand who imports that into the US, I gave him a
(14:36):
call.
I'm like, dude, help me out here.
Like, if you can pull this rabbit out of your hat, you'll make me look great.
And he did.
And, you know, Jimmy Butler landed his helicopter on the lawn of Sosakaya, had an amazing time
and visit there.
They pulled out the legendary vintages like 1985 and did a lunch for him.
He actually made a whole cool YouTube video on it.
(14:58):
And from then on, I was his guy.
And we just got done installing a five-year project of building up his collection in a
new cellar that he built that took about two years to build.
That's so funny that you brought up Jimmy Butler because the other day I'm reading Architecture
Digest and I'm looking at this wine cellar.
(15:20):
I'm like, God, I wonder what saw him help Jimmy put this together.
And then literally the next week, you and I were having lunch and you're like, oh, I
just got done working on this.
And so I think it was before the mag had come out or the mag had just come out.
And I...
Yeah, it is an exceptional cellar.
It was done by Tom Warner Cellars out of Marin.
(15:41):
And we had no limitations.
Jimmy wanted the absolute best on every turn and every corner.
You look at the picture on the cover there and those are three liters and six liters
and nine liters.
Someone the other day was saying, wow, look at all those magnums.
I'm like, none of those are magnums.
(16:01):
It is impressive, impressive stuff.
And he's really interested to it.
He's not just collecting to have trophies.
I went to Bordeaux with him and we got to tour all around.
And this last summer we did the same thing in Burgundy.
He really wants to learn more about the people and the culture.
And he has got a phenomenal palate.
(16:23):
We did a couple of blind tastings together and he did better than I did.
He's really good at wine tasting.
Yeah, that's amazing.
So when you think about your business, what are some of the things that have been really
important to help you find your footing and establish Harpers Club?
Because you don't just show up in LA and start for...
(16:45):
No, you know, the background of French Laundry opens a lot of doors.
And it did when I lived up here in Napa for seven years.
And I've been to most every winery.
In fact, I went to one today that I'd never been to.
I don't know why.
But man, that's a beautiful place.
But you know, Harpers Club is about really...
(17:11):
Sometimes I say I'm the wine sherpa, right?
I'm here to take people on a journey.
And if they just want to collect DRC, that's fine.
But if they really want to understand their collection, not only from an investment standpoint,
because most of my clients don't buy wines for investment, even though that's their profession,
they want to have this because they enjoy it.
And so I tell all of my team all the time, we don't sell wine.
(17:36):
We sell experiences.
We create experiences for our clients.
Because when you open a $5,000 bottle of wine, you're not drinking wine, right?
You are going through an experience of what happened that year in that vineyard by that
winemaker.
These are monumental wines.
They're not just expensive.
If you've had a really, really expensive, older, fully mature, perfectly mature wine,
(18:01):
it will change your life.
I think that's so interesting, especially our work with the Cuvée business.
We spend a lot of time thinking about the customer experience at the time of curation.
When you describe it, it's almost as if I hear...
And you didn't say this, and tell me if I'm off, but it's almost as if I hear you say,
(18:25):
these people have enough money to do anything that they want.
And they have chosen or trusted within you to help them based on the taste preferences
that they have pick and choose their experience.
A hundred percent.
And I actually had a client say that to me once.
He's probably 65, and he doesn't drink every day.
(18:50):
But when he does drink, he wants to be blown away.
And he has the money to buy anything that he wants and can.
It doesn't matter if it's 100 or 1,000 or 10,000.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
I'm only drinking once in a while.
They lean to me because I tell them the right temperature and how long to decant it and
what's the proper glassware.
(19:11):
And so it's not just about putting bottles in their cellar.
It's much more than that.
And helping them find the moment.
It is.
And my background and education, I built the whole wine education program at the French
Laundry for all 11 of the outlets at that time.
And so I love sharing what I know.
(19:31):
I don't hold back.
I'm not one of those guys that tries to be the smartest guy in the room.
I want to share everything, absolutely everything that I know about wine that I can and empower
my clients to be very knowledgeable about the bottles of wine that are in their cellar.
They owe it.
I owe it to them.
If they're going to entrust all of that with me, I owe it to make sure that they always
(19:56):
look good and they always have the best wines in the cellar.
So if it's not a good vintage or it's a B-plus producer, it's not going to end up in my client's
cellar.
We're a demand-driven company.
So I don't go out and buy wine and then sell it to my clients.
I find out exactly what they're interested in, what vintage is, what producers, what
(20:16):
format.
What are their short-term goals?
What are their long-term goals?
What are they drinking right now?
What are they not like anymore?
Let's divest in that and get the things that they are liking.
So I'm constantly monitoring their collections to make sure nothing is going old.
And if you're not drinking a certain region anymore because you've moved on to something
(20:37):
else, then we stop putting those wines in the cellar.
I wonder what you see in the industry as a headwind.
What are some of the things you're worried about in the US wine industry?
Well, I'd be lying if I didn't say we're all nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking
(20:59):
chairs about wine tariffs.
They happened during the last Trump administration.
And it's something that will, given where the wine industry is right now, it's a little
bit on life support.
It would really cripple and hobble the industry.
(21:19):
So everyone is on bated breath.
Nothing has come out as of yet.
Hopefully nothing will.
But that is something that makes everyone very cautious, including myself, because about
75% of what we source is directly out of Europe.
So I will be directly affected by such things.
(21:40):
Other headwinds that I see are the wine consumption globally is dropping.
And it doesn't help when you've got people telling you that wine's not good for you anymore.
That's a bunch of baloney.
(22:01):
The French paradox proves this.
You look at the places that have the most centenarians.
They're usually in Europe.
The blue zones of Europe.
Yeah, the blue zones of Europe where they drink every day.
So I find that to be unfortunate, but it is happening.
(22:21):
And this new generation, Gen Z and Gen X, they're drinking less.
They're drinking ready to make cocktails.
They're getting into cannabis.
They're not really following in their father's footsteps.
So the wine industry has a little correction coming.
(22:42):
People are tired of paying $18 for a glass of wine when they can just get a cool beer
for six, seven bucks.
People are cognizant of that.
So I think the wine industry had a great time and made a lot of hay in the 90s and the 2000s.
But everyone's kind of dancing for their dinner now, especially at the lower levels.
(23:08):
It's a fierce competition.
And you've got large retailers like Costco that can just dominate the market.
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(23:31):
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Yeah, that's so interesting.
We've had a few guests on recently talking about the retail industry.
And I think when you think about these grocery stores or Amazon in some sense now owning
Whole Foods, these people have become the one stop shop, whether it be online or in
(23:55):
person.
You see Target moving into grocery.
You see Amazon moving via Whole Foods or Instacart into other places, or Deliveroo rather.
So I just think these retailers are sprawling and moving into the other categories.
They are.
It's tough.
And you layer upon that.
(24:17):
Next to pharmaceuticals, it's the most regulated industry that exists in the US, the alcohol
industry.
So shipping is really arduous and tenuous.
And there's a lot of places you can't even ship to still to the state, which is unfortunate
because at the end of the day, the consumer loses.
(24:38):
Retail is going to look different in 10 years.
And we hope that we're starting to lead that charge in a more honest advisory capacity.
We're a little insulated because we're at the top end of the consumer market.
So our average bottle price is over $600.
So we're very fortunate for that.
There is some insulation.
(25:00):
But the industry as a whole is going to look a lot different.
And you're right, people are going to be buying premium wines at gas stations or wherever
they can get them.
Wine stores could be a thing of the past, to be quite honest.
And a lot has gone online.
Wow.
When you, for Harper's Club, are sourcing, it sounds like you wait till you have a client
(25:23):
that would like to go pursue a certain brand or a specific taste profile.
But when you meet a winery owner, what are some of the ways that you work with a brand
to build a long-term relationship?
Well, I just go back to access, right?
So all the great wineries of the world, you can't just knock on the door like you can
(25:45):
most of the places in Napa Valley and go into the tasting room.
It just doesn't exist, right?
So how else are they going to get those experiences?
And they don't want someone who can't afford a $300 bottle of wine to show up at their
winery that sells $300 bottles of wine.
They want true buyers.
They want collectors.
(26:06):
We have some wineries that we work direct with that want to know where these are going,
like literally who is buying this wine.
It's not totally, we're going to sell out anyway.
We want to make sure it's a customer that's a good long-term customer.
And a lot of them, like DRC, these bottles are numbered and they watch the auction market.
(26:27):
They don't like these wines being flipped.
And if you sell your wines, if you get your wines directly from DRC, if you're on the
private client for Wilson Daniels, and you sell it, I think it's inside of 10 years,
and they find it at auction, you're off the list.
You lose your allocation.
Same thing with a restaurant.
So it's a real tough thing.
(26:49):
Is that similar to how car brands like Ferrari kind of work to buy a new Ferrari?
You have to have a Ferrari, which means you have to find a used Ferrari.
Right.
Exactly.
I don't think it's to that level.
But to your point, they can sell all the wines, especially at the high end, multiple times.
(27:10):
And that's what drives wine cost.
So a $5,000 bottle of wine doesn't incur 500 times more production costs or marketing costs.
It's simply...
Is that the brand equity?
Yes, the brand equity, it's supply and demand.
It's that simple curve that you saw in high school economics class.
So when the demand outstrips the supply, the price goes up.
(27:35):
How do you think about advising clients on old world, new world, and the age of some
of Napa Valley's cabs?
How do you suggest one looking to build a well-rounded portfolio think about Napa Valley's
high price point cabs?
Well, Napa wine has gotten expensive.
(28:00):
Is it justified?
Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?
So you're talking to someone who sells very expensive wine.
So I would say yes.
Again, it's the demand that's outstripping the supply.
Do I think that it's unfortunate that you almost have to spend over $100 to get a great
(28:26):
Napa Cabernet?
Yes.
Because if you go to Spain, or you go to France, or you go to Italy, you can find amazing wines
for 10 euros.
And it's because the land is so expensive here that a new winery, your kids might make
money, but you're not going to make money if you have to buy the land.
(28:51):
But in Europe, they're usually passed down from one generation to another.
The house is paid off.
The winery is paid off.
They own the land, right?
Everything's...
Labor is cheaper.
So you factor all that in, that's how they're able to make great wines at a significantly
lower price point.
I wonder what you, given where you are in the industry and what you've achieved and
(29:16):
who your clients are, what would you tell somebody just starting their journey who has
the aspirations to be a Somme, what would you tell them to do or how to spend their
time?
Go into another field.
I'm just kidding.
If you're wanting to be a Somme, find a mentor.
(29:38):
It's one of those professions that's still based on apprenticeship.
You can read all the books that you want, but until you have somebody that helps guide
you through a wine and helps you learn how to taste a wine and understand geography and
landscape and climate and soils, it's really, really complicated.
(30:06):
You have about a new million wines made in the world globally every year.
So you're never going to tackle it in short form.
It takes...
It's the 10,000-hour rule, and that's just to become slightly proficient.
I think you probably need to put in about 20,000 hours to become a Master Somme.
But the fastest track to becoming a good Somme is working and finding a great mentor.
(30:32):
I had one in St. Louis.
His name was Bob Cable.
Every night when I was doing the paperwork, he would open up a new wine and, oh, Chris,
here, this is a Condrieu.
It comes from the Northern Rhone Valley.
It's very unique because it's the only white wine appellation for still wine in the Northern
Rhone.
(30:54):
It has this oily texture, and it's because of these attributes that Viognier possesses.
It tastes like this, but domestic Viognier will taste different because it's sunnier
and it's riper.
You don't really find that in the books.
You need a good mentor.
I have been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with some Master Sommes, Masters of
(31:19):
Wine.
Many of them have hospitality experience where they ran a wine program or a food and bev
program where they had a lot of reps.
Something I loved about my undergrad in wine at Sonoma was the amount of time you would
spend in the field, like seeing as believing, at least for me.
How important is finding a good food and bev program in the reps to becoming a Somme?
(31:46):
You know, that's a good point.
I think that if you're going to establish a good food and beverage program, you should
kind of be using a little bit of everybody and not kind of solely leaning into one or
(32:06):
two different vendors because everyone has a little bit something different to offer,
whether it's regional or price point-wise.
But good programs are the best programs that I come across are based on not what the Somme
(32:27):
likes in particular, but what is the restaurant about?
What's the soul of this restaurant?
What are they trying to telegraph to their client base?
When I see champagnes at a Spanish restaurant, it just doesn't make sense to me.
It's one of the great things about press restaurant up in St. Alina, right?
(32:49):
It's all wines from California and mostly all from Napa Valley.
And that's amazing.
And that's why that restaurant is so great to visit.
I mean, it's a museum of wine.
They have some of the most rarest California wines on that list that you won't see anywhere
else in the world.
And truly is.
I think the last question I would love to close with is those that would like to follow
(33:13):
your work or if you haven't seen any of Chris's work, you can grab the Jimmy Butler issue
of Architectures Digest.
But where can people follow you on the internet?
Where can they see some of your work?
You can see our work on Instagram.
We do a lot of social media, kind of inspirational posts and reels about what we do.
(33:34):
What's that handle?
It's at Harper's Club.
And if you wanted to get a hold of me, it's chris at harpersclub.com.
Chris, thank you so much for coming on.
It's always great to hang out with you.
You always are up to something super interesting.
I can't wait to see where Harper's Club goes over the next years.
But again, I'm Andrew Allison.
I'm the CEO of Kuve.
(33:55):
We make this podcast in partnership with Highway 29 Media.
Cheers.
Cheers.
The industry insider podcast has been brought to you by Kuve, the Napa winery guide.
Download the app for iPhone today and start planning your perfect wine country adventure.
Find out more at kuveapp.com.
Cheers.
Cheers.
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