January 22, 2025 • 47 mins
Bartholomew Broadbent, is CEO of Broadbent Selections, a fine wine importer, and owner/founder of Broadbent, whose proprietary label includes fine Port, Madeira, wines from Portugal and California. He is an authority on Port and Madeira and frequent speaker on wine. Broadbent Selections imports many fine wines including Lebanon’s Chateau Musar, South Africa’s Sadie Family Wines and Australia’s Tyrell. He discusses his life in wine and his late father, wine critic/writer, Michael Broadbent.
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The Connected Table is broadcast live Wednesdays at 2PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
The Connected Table Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:21):
FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Welcome to the Connected Table Live. We're your hosts, Melanie
Young and David Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple. We
enjoy bringing you the dynamic people who work front and
center and behind the scenes in wine, food, spirits and
hospitality around the world. We are about telling their stories
and sharing their knowledge with you, and today we have
(01:04):
an esteemed guest. Let's just start it this way. The
name Broadbent is firmly sealed in the legacy of fine wine,
much like Turnbull and Ascer is to bespoke men's clothing.
Both originated in the United Kingdom, where they gained recognition,
and both have global impact. Master of wine. Michael Broadbent
(01:26):
was a world renowned wine writer and critic who helped
establish the fine wine department at Christy's auction House in London.
His son, Bartholomew Broadbent is CEO of Broadbent Selections, a
fine wine importer and owner and founder of Broadbent, a
producer of fine port's and Madeira's. Bartholomew Broadbent is a
(01:46):
world authority on port and Madeira and a discerning importer
of fine wines including Lebanon's Chateau Mussar, South Africa, Saudi
Family Wines, Australia's Terrell, among others. We recently spent time
with barth Allomew on two visits to New Orleans and
had the chance to taste through his portfolio, and he
joins us as our esteemed guest today on the Connected Table. Welcome,
(02:10):
Thank you very much. Well, first of all, let's start
with your nickname, which we're going to refer to you as,
which is Bulu. Talk to us about that because most
people we had a little conversation before we started recording
about how you like to be referred and bullous you're preferred.
What is that?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Well, I mean imagine having a name like Bartholow me
Broadbent when you're four years old and or three years
old and your friends just can't say your name. And
I didn't like bart So. But anyway, my best friend
went to The Jungle Book, a film which came out
in the nineteen sixties, and there was a character called
(02:48):
Ballu the Bear, Balue the Bear, and that's where he
started calling me Ballu. And that's what my nickname has
been forever. My parents spelt it both differently, and my
sister spelled it differently. People pronounce it different ways, but
it's Balu or Balu or have it whatever you want.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
I love the Jungle Book. I used to read.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
All the time. I was fascinated by it.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
So, Bartholin, and you were born and raised in the UK,
why don't you tell us a little bit about your
upgrade upbringing? And you know, was yours a proper English
family upbringing?
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Well? No, because I was at a French school. I
was at the French li Say until I was eleven,
so I spoke French as the first language because my
parents were ashamed of not speaking Veragua French, so they
spent sent us both to the French Lesay. But I
was very distracted because it was the mixed school, and
so then my sister continued all her career at the
(03:46):
French Resay. But when I was eleven, I was sent
after a traditional boarding school, what you call a prep school,
and then at thirteen of what you call a public school,
which is a traditional private school boarding school, and so, yeah,
it was sort of traditional in that regard. What was
pretty untraditional was drinking wine from the age of seven
(04:09):
every day, except at school, when I didn't have wine much.
We did have a beer club we could join when
we were sixteen, but otherwise, yeah, my father encouraged us
to taste every wine every evening. We'd also drink orange
(04:29):
juice or rabin or whatever. But yes, we drank wine
every day, and of course tasted some of the greatest
wines in the world because of his association with Christie's
Wine auctions.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So you know, you're tasting fine Bordeaux and your playmates
are drinking like orange.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Juice, right, Yeah, exactly cool.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
That must have been quite an experience, and it kind
of reminds me of my childhood because my father was
a fine wine collector and I would taste with him,
and it taught me to be responsible and careful about
my drinking and also have a discerning palate. Your father
obviously is world renowned. He has passed now. He lived
to a ripe old age in his nineties, I believe,
which is a tribute to fine wine is great for
(05:15):
your health, right.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, I mean a week before his a day before
his ninety second birthday, he published his last books of
wine tasting, and a week before his ninety second birthday
he got married for a second time, the Devil so
(05:37):
Yes in June. That was in April of twenty nineteen.
And then in June he fell off a chair and
broke his back. But lucky thing as they fixed a chair.
And then he survived another nine months and died right
(05:58):
the day that COVID lockdown happens. So thankfully he was
he had cares at that point, so it was a
really good time to go. It's perfect.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Well two points. First of all, some of my favorite
long lived people, Julia Child and Robert Mundaby all lived
in their nineties and they drink every day and consumed.
And you obviously, and here it did probably a droll
sense of humor from your father.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Well, I yeah, and I also have a great Julia
Child's story from We were talking about food and wine
classicspen before going on air, and I asked her to
do a to be on a panel for a madeira tasting,
and right before the tasting she It was her and
(06:41):
Robert Parker and a couple of other guys, and right
before the tasting she said bananas. And I said, what
do you mean she has got her bananas? I said why,
and she should have became. The best food wine combination
in the world is bananas and madeira. So I went
to Bobby Sucki the Little Nell, and told them we
(07:01):
had to have bananas. He went out to shop and
bought some and chopped them up and put them on
front in front of everyone. And at the end of
the tasting, one of the tastes is one of the
audience said can I ask a questions? And I said sure,
and he said, well, why why do we have a
dish full of bananas in front bus And I turned
to Julia and I said, oh, Julia, can you tell
them why you wanted bananas? And she said, oh, dear,
(07:25):
I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
You did a good Julia Child imitation. Yes, David, we
have to try bananas. And Madeira here.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
We have we have one of the two.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
You know, My father and I had a Madeira moment.
I would come home from New York and he my
mother drank milk with her dinner. That just says enough.
And so I would come home and Dad would say,
what do you want to pull from the cellar? And
I would be like, I like Madeira because I happened
to love it. And he's like, what kind of madeira?
And I like very old madeira? And he pulled one
(08:06):
from like the nineteen twenty. He said, how is this
sold enough for you?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Brilliant?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, it really was.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Bart.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
Many have credited you with broadening the global market for
both port and madeira through your importing company you started
in the nineteen eighties under the Broadbent name, And I'm
curious as to how the market has changed and what
the understanding of fortified wines has, how it's evolved over
the years since you, since you've done this, and what
(08:38):
do you see the future of the fortified wine market.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Well, just to be a little bit more accurate, yes,
the Broadband I was always promoting wine as a Broadbent,
but I moved to when I moved to America in
nineteen eighty five or six was eighty six. Maybe it
was to start a company for the Simmington family who
(09:05):
owned a bunch of port companies, and after that brought
into the Madeira Wine Company. But so I was for
the first ten years promoting their wines until I started
Broadbent Selections and Broadbent Port and Madeira in nineteen ninety six.
But the market for port when I started was non existent.
(09:29):
There were maybe very old men stuck in their private
clubs and company lever armchairs drinking port, but no one
else was that. When I'd go into a shop in
say New York State and take a ruby port that
sells for eight dollars, and they thought I was absolutely
(09:52):
crazy because all they knew was of port was pints
of port sold people in brown paper bags to drink streets.
So it was really starting from scratch with Americans. And
I spent my first you know, the ten years traveling extensively.
I mean one one one day, I remember doing three
(10:14):
cities in three states in one day for a morning seminar,
afternoon seminar, and evenings. And it was interesting to see
the progress because after a year or so, you know
that there wasn't seventy year olds. It was six year
old men, and then fifty year old men who started
drinking it, and then when you got to the four
(10:35):
year old men, women started drinking it, and then thirty
year old men. And then one of my highlights was
at the in San Francisco, the Spinsters of San Francisco,
who a bunch of ladies from age twenty one to
thirty two. And when I was sitting in front of
three hundred women of that age tasting port, I knew
(11:00):
that port was going to become mainstream. And all of
them were buying ports for their parents for Christmas. And
when I came home with a date and it was great,
so you know, it progress. And then so by nineteen
ninety six, when I was in full swing selling just
(11:22):
port and Madeira, it was it was mainstream. It was
it was a popular, very popular drink. But subsequently, because
I branched into other wines, my biggest selling wine is
actually not port. It's been a very been a vere
and lots of importing other wines. My focus has gone
(11:45):
a little bit away from promoting port all over the
country to doing occasional events, and no one ever replaced me,
so really sort of, and then port became a sort
of branded item, like a spirits item. And whereas I
was doing teaching in restaurants about pork to the servers
(12:07):
and all the time, and telling people to serve vintage
ports and telling them they don't have to drink it
in twenty four hours, you can keep a vintage port
open for weeks and don't worry. So restaurants were selling
vintage ports a lot. Nowadays they don't really serve it
at all unless you could find us restaurants. But most
restaurants don't open vintage sports because the education has lapsed.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, it's very true. And there's wineless as we've read,
or shrinking anyway these days for economy. It's interesting. Two points.
We recently had lunch in New York with Carl Thicago
Kopkey and we did a whole chasing Menua Grammercy Tavern
chasing port with their recourse, which really opened your eyes
to the wonderful ways to enjoy port. My personal pet
(12:57):
peeve is when these beautiful wines are listed as to
desert wines, because it puts them in the dessert corner
and there's so much more to it.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Yeah, well, when I was teaching restaurants about how to
serve port in the eighties and nineties. I was saying,
put ports on the front page because that people will
see it. They might not drink it before dinner. They may,
but they may not, but they will see it and
it'll be in their brain for later. That you never
(13:26):
city ports on the front page anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Well, you know, the whole restaurant situation's topsy turvy from
how wine was presented and designed to training. I truly
believe I thought it was interesting you called them spencers
from twenty two to thirty two. That's still gelling in
my head. But I have a tip for you. I
have a haunch that the next place to start marketing
wine is to majong parties because majong is a growing
(13:53):
game that is going across the country with women of
all ages. And I was telling David, I'm going to
try to re search that, but it's that women getting
together and they love to drink. I see you taking
notes like book clubs. Like book clubs, book clubs and
Pino Grecio go hand in hand, same thing with majong now,
and I'm doing a little research.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I well, that's really because I'm doing next week, I'm
doing an interview with a woman who has a podcast
just about port and one of the questions is about
poor markets. I'm going to actually use this and suggest
that I do.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Mention Melanie Youngs's mojos. The next thing is so interesting
to talk about your vino verity, which is actually a
new in your collection and your portfolio, was I think
a newer entry for you. You introduced a couple of
years ago, like I think.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
In a while, No No d introduced French and the
Italian wines. If anyone told me how easy it was
to sell the Italian wines, I would have done it
years ago. But no. But when I started Rob bent
Port and Robert Madeira in nineteen ninety six, I a
(15:06):
couple of years later I had an idea to do
a vina vere because vino veri at that point was
not a cash green in America was languishing and bottom
felves of liquor stores and getting stale. And I realized
that all you have to do is put it in
a refrigerator container and then it's as fresh and delicious
(15:26):
as it is in Portugal. And that really kicked off
the the cash green and my niece who was four,
had sent me a Christmas card that she'd drawn and
it was hanging my fridge for two years, and she
and when we came up with label, I just said,
(15:46):
we want something fun for a label like that, and
we use this little red flower that she'd drawn when
she was four, and used it and it's been hugely successful.
Of course, now she's in her twenties saying where it's
my commission or whatever, but it's yeah. So I've been
selling that Vino Verde for probably about seventeen years now.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
We've consumed many a bottle of it over the years.
I will say that I love it. Yeah, I've actually
been to vina Verdi too. It's a beautiful region.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
As well, in the region of Verde, and there's a
lot of producers that make the wine in vina Verde,
and it's just a delightful one.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yes, yes, Well, given the explosion of popularity in white wines, crisp,
dry white wines in particular lower alcohol, vina Verde fits
this model very well. So do some of your other
wines which we had the great pleasure of stopping by
baccan All Just for everybody listening. Baccan All is in
wonder of a wine shop and like outdoor dinner, live music,
(16:47):
hang out venue to relax in the by wad of
New Orleans. Very wine centric and we tasted several of
your selections. We were particularly excited or I personally about
the South African wine. I'm a big fan of South
Africa and Shannon, and I think Shannon is like the
ultimate white wine, whether it's from South Africa the loar
(17:07):
talk to us about because you're very strong in South
Africa while you decided to do a particular focus there.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Yeah, we represent about fourteen wineries from South Africa, and
we really do have the top ones like Evan Sadi
the Winemaker's Winemaker Award at Probine a few years ago.
He's voted the best wine maker by all the winemakers
in the world. And the South African wineries are spectacularly good.
(17:38):
And we sort of grew in that because I heard
a guy called Greg Perkins who'd worked with me in
the eighties when I was at Supremeport Wines. But he
went on to work for two importers that were specialized
in South Africa, and one of those became a just
(17:58):
selling big box box wines from South Africa, but he
had an expertise, so he helped me develop the the
South afteran portfolio and yeah it is, it is spectacular.
The Shan producers were represented represent someone called Addie Badenhorst,
(18:19):
is a huge character. And then he in a very
generous demonstration of how closely knit the wine makers are.
He said, well, you know you should you should also
represent Sebastian Beaumont because he makes the best blind in
South Africa. So you know, one one way maker recommending
(18:40):
another to join the same portfolio as pretty unusual and
that's the way they are in South Africa. And then
the other talking of white wines, Spy Valley from New
Zealand is one of our biggest brands. They have another
brand called Satellite, so we are huge with New Zealand wines,
(19:04):
two which are deliciously of refreshing and refreshing.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
We tasted it and really liked it a lot. Savion
Blanc is just Famion Blanc, Peanut Gratio Ocean and they're
all off the charts peak pools when we're a big
fan of and they're just appealing to a broad on
your cell, I have a theory on that climate change
is driving us to drink lighter style wines. I truly
believe that. Yeah, among other things.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I think also, I mean, the big heavy red wines
just are not very fashionable people are. They just don't
go well with food. They're not good with your brains
because you know, ten years of drinking wine where evolution
has enabled us to adapt to wines which are anywhere
(19:54):
from six to twelve percent alcohol. Along come fifteen sixteen
wine sporteen and a half percent wines, and they make
you drunk when you can't drink. Can't share a bottle
of wine with someone that's fifteen percent alcohol and finish
a bottle without being completely drunk, whereas twelve and a
(20:14):
half percent wine you can drink a bottle and then
still have room for glass support. So yeah, so, and
it's just high alcohol doesn't go well with foods unless
it's port with silton or port with bananas. Well.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Also trends, you know, in the United States, the biggest
food categories that people are eating or Asian and Mexican. Yeah,
and those wines just do better with Pan Asian food
and Latin. I'm broad in at Latin and Pan Asian
food and those flavors and and you know, I think
(20:50):
that and chill dreads is another growing category we're seeing absolutely.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
I think I think people are you know, a lot
of it has to do with acidity in those wines
as well. People want the later, they want lighter wines,
and acidity and fruit is what they're looking for to
counteract the flavors that come out of those spicier foods.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Right. Yeah, So in your portfolio, what are some of
the wines that you're seeing, First of all, what are
the wines that you're selling well, and what are the
wines that are kind of like, wow, this is a surprise, Well.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
I mean selling well. Obviously the Benabde's, the New Zealand wines,
some of the South African wines. But the Wild Wine
is shutting me off from even It's been growing in
awareness in the US for the eighteen year old. Actually
I've been representing it for twenty seven years and it
(21:51):
is now one of the most sort off the wines
and it's in There are many people in the world,
including myself you call it, who say it's the best
wine in the world. And I really truly believe that
Shadow Mussar's greatest wine in the world.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Well, that's a huge statement.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
There's a pretty big statement just for any.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Of our listeners who are not familiar with Mussar and
where it's from in Lebanon, because obviously Lebanon is experienced
a country. This hears a lot of hardship. We've had
the pleasure of attending a wine of Lebonon tasting several
years ago in New York. It was fantastic. Mussar definitely
has its own personality in the world of Lebanese wines.
Talk to us about it. For those who may be
(22:36):
less familiar, well, it.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Is unique in the wine world of wines because Shasha,
who was the son of a founder who took over
the winery in nineteen fifty four, he trained in Bordeaux
and decided to make his wine Lebanon the exact opposite
of how he was taught to make it by a
French professor in Bordeaux, and he created a unique wine
(23:02):
and it's it's so the wines are grown in the
the Beckhard Valley. We were actually I had actually all
of my employees were there on October seventh, twenty two
years ago, and that was quite an experience. Luckily now
(23:24):
Lebanon is safe again. But Mark Hoshar, the current owner,
has been living in my flat in London since since
October seventh, twenty twenty three. But the wine is delicious people.
If people don't know it, they don't know it. But
once they taste it, they never forget it. It's a
life changing wine. It's a wine which is full of story,
(23:48):
the endless stories about Muza. You know, be easy to say, oh,
what's your favorite wine, Shuttle of Feet, Well that's really
the end of the story. But when you say what's
your favorite wine shutting Musa, it's the beginning of a
very long story and the stories of Chateau Musa was
the only winery to be making wine in Lebanon during
(24:10):
the throughout the Civil War of the nineteen seventies and
and it is one of the It was Decanter magazines
very first wine maker of the year, which then became
an annual thing. But their wines are aged beautifully. The
white wines are absolutely fascinating that the red wines are
(24:30):
what most people would know, but the white wines are
completely unique. It's just a great wine and highly recommend.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
It and for our listeners who aren't familiar with the
makeup of the wine. It's a blend of cabernet, Sauvignon,
Sanso and krinon or.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Depending on the bottle. There's also some that are mixed
with granache. It was a mix of roane and and
bordo Va ritals.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
They make a bunch of different wines. Housha Music, Chatau
is our levantine. They're all different lens of grapes, but
the commonality between all of them is a sense that's
in all of them.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
And okay, so very interesting. We have to go to
a chateau Musar event. We have not been to leven
and obviously we'll be going right now. But we're fascinated
by We've never done anything with that family producer and
would love to learn more and taste more of the
wines because it does have this mystique and you know,
to call on wine life changing is a very large stament.
(25:34):
And I'm trying to think what my life changing wine was.
You know, It's probably what I had with my father,
and it was probably a California cabernet made in the
nineteen early nineteen eighties or maybe seventies, late seventies.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Well, it's also I mean a lot of people have flamed.
That's life changing wine, and I've seen that effect on people.
But it's also the most natural wine in the world.
In fact, the natural wine movement, which we've all heard about,
was started by Chatamraza. But when an Italian went to
visit the winery in Lebanon and said, well, if you
(26:07):
can do this here, we can do that in Italy,
and he started the natural wine movement. But the idea
came from Chatamraza.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Interesting, you know why, I tasted and I liked a
lot of the wines, in particular Burgundies and at your
tasting it back and all, but you did one that
was one hundred percent semon from Tyrol in the Hunter Valley,
and I love that. I love semeon, so it's so
unique and sich a great texture to it. Talked to
us about a lot of our listeners. You know, Australia
(26:37):
doesn't do much promotion here anymore in the United States.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Excuse me, Well, interestingly, Australia just interviewed me a couple
of days ago about what their plans are for promoting it,
and they will be doing a little bit more, but
we represent Tyrols, and in Australia is a tough category.
(27:04):
A lot of people were turned off by a big
brand from Australia which dominated at the market. But Turrels
is actually one of those wines which is becoming the
darling of so meliers in America. They are discovering the
great seminoles. Turreals actually has the oldest semule vines in
(27:25):
the world. They have the oldest shade vine in the
world too, and they are really making probably the best
semioles in the world. But then we also represent Elderton,
which is from Barossa Valley, and Barossa Valley tends to
be a little bit out of favor right now because
they tend to make bigger wines. But I just went
(27:48):
to visit Australia and went to Elderton and they're making
more elegant style wines from Barossa Valley and we tasted
all of our and they age so beautifully and they're
great wines that they are tougher to sell because of
the you know, they're big red wines, and if you
(28:09):
like big red wines, you can get the great big
red wines from Australia but they also make great light
white wines like Semion from Turtles, which age beautifully too well.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
And for sure, Semeon is very dominant in both the
Hunter Valley and Barassa Valley, and I think it's really
one of those terrific Australian I'd like to have more.
I mean, we both talk about how much we love Semon,
particularly we do blends in Bordeaux and it just has
a unique character to it.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I love.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah, that was one of our favorites in the Whites. Yeah.
Are you looking to expand into other areas in terms
of what you're bringing in?
Speaker 3 (28:49):
No, not really, And we pretty much represent wines from
almost everywhere in the world, and we could go to
upcoming countries like Slobe and place of that. But we've
I've done. I've spent my life building brands from unknown regions,
Like even when I started with New Zealand, it wasn't
a big region Portuguese wine, South African wines, Lebanese wines,
(29:13):
even English wines actually, but the so it's always pushing
winds uphill and I've reached an age in my life
where I can start rolling wines downhill. So letting the
brands we've built start gathering steam and going for easier
regions like Italy where it's already an estabage market, so
(29:35):
I'm not really looking to go into new new regions.
English sparking wine absolutely love Gusborne. I've got a hashtag
that's better than champagne. But English sparking wine is now
some plumb of the greatest sparking wine in the world.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
We agree, and we'd like to actually visit that area.
We've We went to tasting a swirl with an English
sparkling wine and a champagne. Yes, and it was Simpsons
and Troueau, and it was a really interesting. A lot
of people could not tell the differences.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Yeah, we play things with Sons and Paris where we
did French champagnes against English sparking windes, and in every
single case they just they voted that the English one
was best, but they thought it was a French one
they were voting for. Ye.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
That happened at the tasting we were at too.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah it swirrel. Hooray for blind taste. As now we
read that you also you've made wine and you also
had a part ownership and a Chinese winery and China
is kind of like this intrigued to us because it's
a huge consumption, huge mark for consumption, but also for
production and also for wine fraud and all sorts of
many other things. What was that experience? Like I believe
(30:53):
the name of the wine was Dragon's Hollow.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
I mean it was fabulous because it was in Ninisha Province,
and I think they they were fascinated by the fact
that I was there. And I recruited the Spy Valley
winemaker to help me as a consulting white maker, and
we went to the region and we were probably the
(31:19):
only two white people they saw every year, and so
it was really interesting to be in a completely foreign
environment and I loved that. And the wines were before
our time. It came about because I went to Australia
to be a speaker at the first sorry we went
to China to be a speaker at first China Wine Expert,
(31:41):
and whilst there I thought, well, I might as well
find an import of my broadband sports madeism Naverian. This
is about fourteen years ago, I guess, and I found
an importer and I had met a woman before Gain
(32:01):
who came with me to translate that she'd worked in China,
so we had her as a translator for me, and
that turns out her father was starting this winery. He
was he started the first wine important company in China
and he was now starting a Chinese winery called Dragons Follow,
and he basically gave me fifty percent equity if I
(32:25):
would take care of the international marketing of it. And
the wines were very successful. It got into the New
York Times New Ideas type magazine, and but it was
we were premature, it was before the time, and also
the wines were inconsistent at that point. They didn't make
One year was great, next year was last. And so
(32:47):
then in the end I just sold my shares back
or gave my shares back to the founder. But as
an experience I loved, absolutely loved.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Do you see Chinese The Chinese wine market is a
viable contender to come into the United States and everything's
going there.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Yeah. I mean it's a tough market though it's a
wild West of a market, so selling wine there is
a bit crazy, and they are beginning, I think, to
make better and better wines. So eventually, yes, because the
USA is a market for international wines. Part of a
problem we found that is, we thought we'd be able
(33:29):
to sell the wines to Chinese restaurants. And two problems
with that is one is half of Chinese people that
had restaurants here couldn't drink wine, literally, they couldn't metabolize it.
And the other problem was that the big massive companies
(33:50):
printed the Chinese the wineless in Chinese restaurants in America.
So we couldn't get our wines onto this list because
the big COEs were paying for the list to be
printed and putting their own big brands onto that list,
and they weren't Chinese wines at all, and they didn't
want to put our wine on them because it would
(34:10):
stop them buying soft the American wines selling. So it
was a tough, tough thing, tough adventure, but fun adventure.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
It's an interesting market, that's for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
You hear about about the fact that the government's basically
just throwing billions of dollars in creating the creating the
industry in China, and you really wonder where it's all
going to go, quality wise and distribution was.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
I always get excited when we go to a restaurant
and we see a ringer on the wine list that
like an Armenian wine at a restaurant in Shannooga, Tennessee Calliope,
which is Levantine cuisine, and even in David's mother's senior
Living center, Lithuanian wine sparkling wine with tasted like a moscato,
(34:58):
and we're like, how did that happen?
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Well? I always used to go into restaurants and look
straight past the first few pages and go to the
categories that were either interesting others or some Milais picks
or whatever. But now when I don't know if you know,
we're making wines in California, so we're now now it's
very important because they've become big brands for us. We're
(35:22):
making a wine. Three wines. One is sort of a
tribute to my father. It's called Auctionaire and it's a
Napper wine made in a cell wine that he would
enjoy from Napa. And then my father trained as an architect,
and so we have another wine contribute to him called
Architect and that's made in the Alexander Valley. And then
(35:46):
we have a very very good value proposition wine from
the North Coast called Broadbent North Coast Cabinet, Sylvyland. They're
all cabs, and we're also launched a chardney from the
North Coast under the broad Bad name, and these have
become very successful because where I'm not a trophy winery person,
(36:10):
I'm a professional in the wine business. I'm not a
big rich person buying a winery for trophy reasons. So
we're selling our wines at very reasonable prices. So they're
making a bit of a stir in the market.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
But we tasted the broad Bet both the broadb and
Shortenay and the Broadbitt North Coast Cabiny Sauvignon, and they
were terrific. They were really good every day drinking wines.
I think you said the price point was like hundred
ten dollars.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Yeah, well there's ten dollars for those two, and I
think the architect is twenty five and the auctioneur is
thirty five. And when I was going around with the
with the North Coast Wine to events, I was boring wines.
You know, this is a new wine, what do you
think it would sell for? And people were saying anywhere
from thirty five to sixty five seventy five dollars and
(37:02):
it was ten dollars, and the people were quite shocked.
But it doesn't cost twenty five dollars to make any
wine in the world. Everything about twenty five dollars. It's
marketing or supply and demand.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Well, when we do our everyday shopping and we go
to like Costco or Trader Joe's or a local wine shop,
but I'm talking you know, you you know, it's it's
the wines in that ten dollars ten to fifteen rangers selling.
I mean it was I remember a Christmas we were
Trader Joe's and they were empty shelves. Certain types of
wines which we found were fast, but they were all
(37:36):
at that level. And there's a following people who actually
followed to figure out what other wine, great wine bargains
they can find it, like Trader Joe's in Costco. There's
a whole following for that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Yeah, so the markets change. It used to be the
seven ninth, nine, ten nine nine wines now, but now
it's actually I think that ten dollars fifteen is a
sweet spot, and then fifteen twenties or so successful well, I.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Think you almost have to be because you know, if
you go too low, it is pretty plunky. There's a
lot of plunky wine out there too, but we thought
the brought bet and it's got your name on it,
so it's going to be good, right, we have I
don't know if I tried architect in an auctioneer, we'll
have to.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
Yeah, it's a beautiful label. That is a drawing my
father did when he was an architecture school in all
by Hands. So anyway, yeah, it's good restaurying.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
So Bart, you.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
Touched on the fact that if you had known Italy
would be so easy to sell, you have done.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
You'd have done it a lot earlier. Let's talk about
your Italian wines a little bit.
Speaker 5 (38:39):
Some of them were very familiar with and you've got
some great labels in your portfolio, even though it's a
more recent addition to your your book. Why don't you
talk about a couple of those brands.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Well, Bindi Sigari, which is a county producer, County Clasgow producer.
We just got the most charming aristocratic family and their
family is actually older than Antonori and older than Frescobality
as far as wine producing goes. They're really fantastic wines.
(39:12):
Another one we bring in from Piedmont is called Barber
and they are a fantastic family that are traveling everywhere.
They have wines in the Asti region, in the all
sorts of different regions of Piedmont, and they love pairing
food and wine, and they love paying music and wine,
(39:33):
and they do things that they bring the symphony into
their vineyards to play to the grapes and the audients.
And then the other one we have from Brunel de
Montalcino is called Capana, which makes great brunelos.
Speaker 4 (39:49):
They make some wonderful wines. We've been there, right, Yeah,
we have.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah, we know. I used to my company AM Young Communications,
but that I had in New York did all the
bend the new to Brunelo events in the United States
like many many years. So we are big fans obviously
a Brunello de Mantaccino, we know Compona and we try
to go down to Prima Tiscana sprinquly Can. Italian wines
are an easy sell because there's a lot of interest,
(40:12):
a lot of heritage here, et cetera. Now we do
want to touch on the fact that you live in Richmond,
Virginia and your company's based there, and Virginia is one
of our favorite domestic wine countries. You do have a
Virginia wine in your portfolio that We've done a podcast
podcast with talk to us about that which has an
Italian heritage.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Yeah, Luca Pacino from Italy and the Zonian family. They
they make the top wine in Virginia, which is called Barbasville,
Virginia and now has over three hundred wineries. And for many,
many many years was the was a judge on the
(40:54):
Governor's Cup judging thing, which basically tastes hundreds of wines
out the twelve best wines. And every single year I
would discover a winery that I'd never heard of that
was spectacularly good and in the top twelve. And it's
(41:15):
a region which produces great wines from many many varietals.
Whereas you know New York State they have good reasonings
and a few others. But but in I would put
Virginia in terms of varietal and quality, quality and range
of wines, I'd put them up there with California and
(41:36):
Oregon and Washington. I probably there's more European cell wines
than those three, and and really great wines from everything
from the aide cabinets and onta whatever is.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
The camberde Frank my personal favorite. Yeah, and the Petitments
saying we had a petitement saying matter we could go
at a dinner party early man. Yeah, wonderful wine for me.
Speaker 5 (42:04):
The two stars in Virginia are petit men saying in
the Whites and Cabane Frank and the Yes.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Yeah, and then Vienna and Cabernet Samgen really terrific. So
we love Virginia. We'll have to come and visit. We've
driven through there and visited many many wineries in that
and we'd love to judge on the Governor's Cup. We
always like to ask two things at the end. First
of all, you travel a lot. What do you do
when you're not traveling and you just want to kick back?
(42:31):
And what's in your glass?
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Wasn't my glass? Well? I have two kids, I have twins,
so I'm not traveling. I'm to version myself to my family.
They've just gone off to college, so it's been more
quiet time at home. And I drink my wife's drinks
(42:57):
by Valley Savon Blac every night, or if not that,
it would be Limestone Hill from the bets offt Winery
in South Africa. I drink those when I'm but last
night I had half a bottle of chattamizarre and half
(43:20):
a bottle of camel wine from Burgundy. But I tend
to drink whatever red wines I can find in the
office seller that are preferably under fourteen point five percent alcohol.
Preferably under fourteen percent alcohol, so I can drink a
fair amount. Yeah, so that's that's that.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Well, we try to do that as well. We'd have
sun nights where we don't drink at all, and then
the sun nights we do. That's how we kind of
create our moderation off and on and we are drinking
our cellar. So another question we love to ask is
if you were a grape varrheinal, what would you if
you were of a rietal, what would you be either
the grape or the wine style personality.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
You're going to ask that question. So I actually sent
it to all my employees to see what they would
come up with.
Speaker 4 (44:11):
And no, that's even better.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
One said Merlow, because it can be normal classic. One
said an Ace, great brand. It means the name on
Ace means Rascal, and said she thought that was Camara,
thought she that was a thing, one person said. One
person said Tarantas. But and then one person said chard
(44:39):
because it can at times be the highest quality, but
it's also good for fun, cheap good times. And then
we have a master somelier who works for us called
josh Or, and he suggested sin So, and I actually
agree you were that that would be my choice because
(45:04):
his word, he says, it's it's pedestrian to the possession.
You are simple every day, but the wine, the wine
world knows, knows you and often looks past to other
more fashionable grapes. But at the right time you bring
greatness that inspires a loyalty and pursuit that the likes
(45:28):
of which only come with a board men. But I
think since So, I like because my favorite wine, Chotamusar,
is based on sin So, and it's a wine which
is superbly high quality, but also not perfect. It's not
the perfect wine. That's got lots of flaws, which I
(45:49):
think is part of what makes it great. And I'm
not a perfect person. I've got lots of flaws, and
so I can raise to the sound it's when I
need to and be a monk's royalty. But I'm basically
happier being a bit of a rascal and bad boy.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
So if you were a white, you'd be in Arnaz,
a little rascal. Well, here's to being let's raise a
glassa here's to being perfectly imperfect, which I always like
to say about myself. It's perfectly okay to be perfectly imperfect,
as we always search for that perfect wine, that perfect food,
that perfect but everything has a slight impervection, and that's
(46:31):
perfectly okay. We have enjoyed visiting with you. A character, Yeah, character,
it's about character and a little acidity to be a
little specky and sippy. We've enjoyed this. We've enjoyed seeing
you in New Orleans. Please come back, please. We love
tasting your wines and we'd love to see you again
(46:51):
soon somewhere in the Winea verse.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
Yes, I look forward to seeing it again. We've known
each other a very long time, reconnected recently.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
It took a long time to get you this show.
We've been over eleven years, but it's all about that
personal experience. So thank you very much. You've been listening
to The Connected Table Live with Melanie Young and David Ranson,
and we hope you've enjoyed our conversation with Barth following
me broadbent. You can go to his website and learn more.
(47:22):
Broadbentselections dot com actually is Broadbent dot com Broadbent dot
com and as always, be adventurous with your palette and
always stay insatiably curious. Thank you,
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements radio show, programs, services, or
products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability
explicitor implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio or
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directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W
(00:21):
FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Welcome to the Connected Table Live. We're your hosts, Melanie
Young and David Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple. We
enjoy bringing you the dynamic people who work front and
center and behind the scenes in wine, food, spirits and
hospitality around the world. We are about telling their stories
and sharing their knowledge with you, and today we have
(01:04):
an esteemed guest. Let's just start it this way. The
name Broadbent is firmly sealed in the legacy of fine wine,
much like Turnbull and Ascer is to bespoke men's clothing.
Both originated in the United Kingdom, where they gained recognition,
and both have global impact. Master of wine. Michael Broadbent
(01:26):
was a world renowned wine writer and critic who helped
establish the fine wine department at Christy's auction House in London.
His son, Bartholomew Broadbent is CEO of Broadbent Selections, a
fine wine importer and owner and founder of Broadbent, a
producer of fine port's and Madeira's. Bartholomew Broadbent is a
(01:46):
world authority on port and Madeira and a discerning importer
of fine wines including Lebanon's Chateau Mussar, South Africa, Saudi
Family Wines, Australia's Terrell, among others. We recently spent time
with barth Allomew on two visits to New Orleans and
had the chance to taste through his portfolio, and he
joins us as our esteemed guest today on the Connected Table. Welcome,
(02:10):
Thank you very much. Well, first of all, let's start
with your nickname, which we're going to refer to you as,
which is Bulu. Talk to us about that because most
people we had a little conversation before we started recording
about how you like to be referred and bullous you're preferred.
What is that?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Well, I mean imagine having a name like Bartholow me
Broadbent when you're four years old and or three years
old and your friends just can't say your name. And
I didn't like bart So. But anyway, my best friend
went to The Jungle Book, a film which came out
in the nineteen sixties, and there was a character called
(02:48):
Ballu the Bear, Balue the Bear, and that's where he
started calling me Ballu. And that's what my nickname has
been forever. My parents spelt it both differently, and my
sister spelled it differently. People pronounce it different ways, but
it's Balu or Balu or have it whatever you want.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
I love the Jungle Book. I used to read.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
All the time. I was fascinated by it.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
So, Bartholin, and you were born and raised in the UK,
why don't you tell us a little bit about your
upgrade upbringing? And you know, was yours a proper English
family upbringing?
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Well? No, because I was at a French school. I
was at the French li Say until I was eleven,
so I spoke French as the first language because my
parents were ashamed of not speaking Veragua French, so they
spent sent us both to the French Lesay. But I
was very distracted because it was the mixed school, and
so then my sister continued all her career at the
(03:46):
French Resay. But when I was eleven, I was sent
after a traditional boarding school, what you call a prep school,
and then at thirteen of what you call a public school,
which is a traditional private school boarding school, and so, yeah,
it was sort of traditional in that regard. What was
pretty untraditional was drinking wine from the age of seven
(04:09):
every day, except at school, when I didn't have wine much.
We did have a beer club we could join when
we were sixteen, but otherwise, yeah, my father encouraged us
to taste every wine every evening. We'd also drink orange
(04:29):
juice or rabin or whatever. But yes, we drank wine
every day, and of course tasted some of the greatest
wines in the world because of his association with Christie's
Wine auctions.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So you know, you're tasting fine Bordeaux and your playmates
are drinking like orange.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Juice, right, Yeah, exactly cool.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
That must have been quite an experience, and it kind
of reminds me of my childhood because my father was
a fine wine collector and I would taste with him,
and it taught me to be responsible and careful about
my drinking and also have a discerning palate. Your father
obviously is world renowned. He has passed now. He lived
to a ripe old age in his nineties, I believe,
which is a tribute to fine wine is great for
(05:15):
your health, right.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, I mean a week before his a day before
his ninety second birthday, he published his last books of
wine tasting, and a week before his ninety second birthday
he got married for a second time, the Devil so
(05:37):
Yes in June. That was in April of twenty nineteen.
And then in June he fell off a chair and
broke his back. But lucky thing as they fixed a chair.
And then he survived another nine months and died right
(05:58):
the day that COVID lockdown happens. So thankfully he was
he had cares at that point, so it was a
really good time to go. It's perfect.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Well two points. First of all, some of my favorite
long lived people, Julia Child and Robert Mundaby all lived
in their nineties and they drink every day and consumed.
And you obviously, and here it did probably a droll
sense of humor from your father.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Well, I yeah, and I also have a great Julia
Child's story from We were talking about food and wine
classicspen before going on air, and I asked her to
do a to be on a panel for a madeira tasting,
and right before the tasting she It was her and
(06:41):
Robert Parker and a couple of other guys, and right
before the tasting she said bananas. And I said, what
do you mean she has got her bananas? I said why,
and she should have became. The best food wine combination
in the world is bananas and madeira. So I went
to Bobby Sucki the Little Nell, and told them we
(07:01):
had to have bananas. He went out to shop and
bought some and chopped them up and put them on
front in front of everyone. And at the end of
the tasting, one of the tastes is one of the
audience said can I ask a questions? And I said sure,
and he said, well, why why do we have a
dish full of bananas in front bus And I turned
to Julia and I said, oh, Julia, can you tell
them why you wanted bananas? And she said, oh, dear,
(07:25):
I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
You did a good Julia Child imitation. Yes, David, we
have to try bananas. And Madeira here.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
We have we have one of the two.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
You know, My father and I had a Madeira moment.
I would come home from New York and he my
mother drank milk with her dinner. That just says enough.
And so I would come home and Dad would say,
what do you want to pull from the cellar? And
I would be like, I like Madeira because I happened
to love it. And he's like, what kind of madeira?
And I like very old madeira? And he pulled one
(08:06):
from like the nineteen twenty. He said, how is this
sold enough for you?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Brilliant?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, it really was.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Bart.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
Many have credited you with broadening the global market for
both port and madeira through your importing company you started
in the nineteen eighties under the Broadbent name, And I'm
curious as to how the market has changed and what
the understanding of fortified wines has, how it's evolved over
the years since you, since you've done this, and what
(08:38):
do you see the future of the fortified wine market.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Well, just to be a little bit more accurate, yes,
the Broadband I was always promoting wine as a Broadbent,
but I moved to when I moved to America in
nineteen eighty five or six was eighty six. Maybe it
was to start a company for the Simmington family who
(09:05):
owned a bunch of port companies, and after that brought
into the Madeira Wine Company. But so I was for
the first ten years promoting their wines until I started
Broadbent Selections and Broadbent Port and Madeira in nineteen ninety six.
But the market for port when I started was non existent.
(09:29):
There were maybe very old men stuck in their private
clubs and company lever armchairs drinking port, but no one
else was that. When I'd go into a shop in
say New York State and take a ruby port that
sells for eight dollars, and they thought I was absolutely
(09:52):
crazy because all they knew was of port was pints
of port sold people in brown paper bags to drink streets.
So it was really starting from scratch with Americans. And
I spent my first you know, the ten years traveling extensively.
I mean one one one day, I remember doing three
(10:14):
cities in three states in one day for a morning seminar,
afternoon seminar, and evenings. And it was interesting to see
the progress because after a year or so, you know
that there wasn't seventy year olds. It was six year
old men, and then fifty year old men who started
drinking it, and then when you got to the four
(10:35):
year old men, women started drinking it, and then thirty
year old men. And then one of my highlights was
at the in San Francisco, the Spinsters of San Francisco,
who a bunch of ladies from age twenty one to
thirty two. And when I was sitting in front of
three hundred women of that age tasting port, I knew
(11:00):
that port was going to become mainstream. And all of
them were buying ports for their parents for Christmas. And
when I came home with a date and it was great,
so you know, it progress. And then so by nineteen
ninety six, when I was in full swing selling just
(11:22):
port and Madeira, it was it was mainstream. It was
it was a popular, very popular drink. But subsequently, because
I branched into other wines, my biggest selling wine is
actually not port. It's been a very been a vere
and lots of importing other wines. My focus has gone
(11:45):
a little bit away from promoting port all over the
country to doing occasional events, and no one ever replaced me,
so really sort of, and then port became a sort
of branded item, like a spirits item. And whereas I
was doing teaching in restaurants about pork to the servers
(12:07):
and all the time, and telling people to serve vintage
ports and telling them they don't have to drink it
in twenty four hours, you can keep a vintage port
open for weeks and don't worry. So restaurants were selling
vintage ports a lot. Nowadays they don't really serve it
at all unless you could find us restaurants. But most
restaurants don't open vintage sports because the education has lapsed.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, it's very true. And there's wineless as we've read,
or shrinking anyway these days for economy. It's interesting. Two points.
We recently had lunch in New York with Carl Thicago
Kopkey and we did a whole chasing Menua Grammercy Tavern
chasing port with their recourse, which really opened your eyes
to the wonderful ways to enjoy port. My personal pet
(12:57):
peeve is when these beautiful wines are listed as to
desert wines, because it puts them in the dessert corner
and there's so much more to it.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Yeah, well, when I was teaching restaurants about how to
serve port in the eighties and nineties. I was saying,
put ports on the front page because that people will
see it. They might not drink it before dinner. They may,
but they may not, but they will see it and
it'll be in their brain for later. That you never
(13:26):
city ports on the front page anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Well, you know, the whole restaurant situation's topsy turvy from
how wine was presented and designed to training. I truly
believe I thought it was interesting you called them spencers
from twenty two to thirty two. That's still gelling in
my head. But I have a tip for you. I
have a haunch that the next place to start marketing
wine is to majong parties because majong is a growing
(13:53):
game that is going across the country with women of
all ages. And I was telling David, I'm going to
try to re search that, but it's that women getting
together and they love to drink. I see you taking
notes like book clubs. Like book clubs, book clubs and
Pino Grecio go hand in hand, same thing with majong now,
and I'm doing a little research.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I well, that's really because I'm doing next week, I'm
doing an interview with a woman who has a podcast
just about port and one of the questions is about
poor markets. I'm going to actually use this and suggest
that I do.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Mention Melanie Youngs's mojos. The next thing is so interesting
to talk about your vino verity, which is actually a
new in your collection and your portfolio, was I think
a newer entry for you. You introduced a couple of
years ago, like I think.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
In a while, No No d introduced French and the
Italian wines. If anyone told me how easy it was
to sell the Italian wines, I would have done it
years ago. But no. But when I started Rob bent
Port and Robert Madeira in nineteen ninety six, I a
(15:06):
couple of years later I had an idea to do
a vina vere because vino veri at that point was
not a cash green in America was languishing and bottom
felves of liquor stores and getting stale. And I realized
that all you have to do is put it in
a refrigerator container and then it's as fresh and delicious
(15:26):
as it is in Portugal. And that really kicked off
the the cash green and my niece who was four,
had sent me a Christmas card that she'd drawn and
it was hanging my fridge for two years, and she
and when we came up with label, I just said,
(15:46):
we want something fun for a label like that, and
we use this little red flower that she'd drawn when
she was four, and used it and it's been hugely successful.
Of course, now she's in her twenties saying where it's
my commission or whatever, but it's yeah. So I've been
selling that Vino Verde for probably about seventeen years now.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
We've consumed many a bottle of it over the years.
I will say that I love it. Yeah, I've actually
been to vina Verdi too. It's a beautiful region.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
As well, in the region of Verde, and there's a
lot of producers that make the wine in vina Verde,
and it's just a delightful one.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yes, yes, Well, given the explosion of popularity in white wines, crisp,
dry white wines in particular lower alcohol, vina Verde fits
this model very well. So do some of your other
wines which we had the great pleasure of stopping by
baccan All Just for everybody listening. Baccan All is in
wonder of a wine shop and like outdoor dinner, live music,
(16:47):
hang out venue to relax in the by wad of
New Orleans. Very wine centric and we tasted several of
your selections. We were particularly excited or I personally about
the South African wine. I'm a big fan of South
Africa and Shannon, and I think Shannon is like the
ultimate white wine, whether it's from South Africa the loar
(17:07):
talk to us about because you're very strong in South
Africa while you decided to do a particular focus there.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Yeah, we represent about fourteen wineries from South Africa, and
we really do have the top ones like Evan Sadi
the Winemaker's Winemaker Award at Probine a few years ago.
He's voted the best wine maker by all the winemakers
in the world. And the South African wineries are spectacularly good.
(17:38):
And we sort of grew in that because I heard
a guy called Greg Perkins who'd worked with me in
the eighties when I was at Supremeport Wines. But he
went on to work for two importers that were specialized
in South Africa, and one of those became a just
(17:58):
selling big box box wines from South Africa, but he
had an expertise, so he helped me develop the the
South afteran portfolio and yeah it is, it is spectacular.
The Shan producers were represented represent someone called Addie Badenhorst,
(18:19):
is a huge character. And then he in a very
generous demonstration of how closely knit the wine makers are.
He said, well, you know you should you should also
represent Sebastian Beaumont because he makes the best blind in
South Africa. So you know, one one way maker recommending
(18:40):
another to join the same portfolio as pretty unusual and
that's the way they are in South Africa. And then
the other talking of white wines, Spy Valley from New
Zealand is one of our biggest brands. They have another
brand called Satellite, so we are huge with New Zealand wines,
(19:04):
two which are deliciously of refreshing and refreshing.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
We tasted it and really liked it a lot. Savion
Blanc is just Famion Blanc, Peanut Gratio Ocean and they're
all off the charts peak pools when we're a big
fan of and they're just appealing to a broad on
your cell, I have a theory on that climate change
is driving us to drink lighter style wines. I truly
believe that. Yeah, among other things.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I think also, I mean, the big heavy red wines
just are not very fashionable people are. They just don't
go well with food. They're not good with your brains
because you know, ten years of drinking wine where evolution
has enabled us to adapt to wines which are anywhere
(19:54):
from six to twelve percent alcohol. Along come fifteen sixteen
wine sporteen and a half percent wines, and they make
you drunk when you can't drink. Can't share a bottle
of wine with someone that's fifteen percent alcohol and finish
a bottle without being completely drunk, whereas twelve and a
(20:14):
half percent wine you can drink a bottle and then
still have room for glass support. So yeah, so, and
it's just high alcohol doesn't go well with foods unless
it's port with silton or port with bananas. Well.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Also trends, you know, in the United States, the biggest
food categories that people are eating or Asian and Mexican. Yeah,
and those wines just do better with Pan Asian food
and Latin. I'm broad in at Latin and Pan Asian
food and those flavors and and you know, I think
(20:50):
that and chill dreads is another growing category we're seeing absolutely.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
I think I think people are you know, a lot
of it has to do with acidity in those wines
as well. People want the later, they want lighter wines,
and acidity and fruit is what they're looking for to
counteract the flavors that come out of those spicier foods.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Right. Yeah, So in your portfolio, what are some of
the wines that you're seeing, First of all, what are
the wines that you're selling well, and what are the
wines that are kind of like, wow, this is a surprise, Well.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
I mean selling well. Obviously the Benabde's, the New Zealand wines,
some of the South African wines. But the Wild Wine
is shutting me off from even It's been growing in
awareness in the US for the eighteen year old. Actually
I've been representing it for twenty seven years and it
(21:51):
is now one of the most sort off the wines
and it's in There are many people in the world,
including myself you call it, who say it's the best
wine in the world. And I really truly believe that
Shadow Mussar's greatest wine in the world.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Well, that's a huge statement.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
There's a pretty big statement just for any.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Of our listeners who are not familiar with Mussar and
where it's from in Lebanon, because obviously Lebanon is experienced
a country. This hears a lot of hardship. We've had
the pleasure of attending a wine of Lebonon tasting several
years ago in New York. It was fantastic. Mussar definitely
has its own personality in the world of Lebanese wines.
Talk to us about it. For those who may be
(22:36):
less familiar, well, it.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Is unique in the wine world of wines because Shasha,
who was the son of a founder who took over
the winery in nineteen fifty four, he trained in Bordeaux
and decided to make his wine Lebanon the exact opposite
of how he was taught to make it by a
French professor in Bordeaux, and he created a unique wine
(23:02):
and it's it's so the wines are grown in the
the Beckhard Valley. We were actually I had actually all
of my employees were there on October seventh, twenty two
years ago, and that was quite an experience. Luckily now
(23:24):
Lebanon is safe again. But Mark Hoshar, the current owner,
has been living in my flat in London since since
October seventh, twenty twenty three. But the wine is delicious people.
If people don't know it, they don't know it. But
once they taste it, they never forget it. It's a
life changing wine. It's a wine which is full of story,
(23:48):
the endless stories about Muza. You know, be easy to say, oh,
what's your favorite wine, Shuttle of Feet, Well that's really
the end of the story. But when you say what's
your favorite wine shutting Musa, it's the beginning of a
very long story and the stories of Chateau Musa was
the only winery to be making wine in Lebanon during
(24:10):
the throughout the Civil War of the nineteen seventies and
and it is one of the It was Decanter magazines
very first wine maker of the year, which then became
an annual thing. But their wines are aged beautifully. The
white wines are absolutely fascinating that the red wines are
(24:30):
what most people would know, but the white wines are
completely unique. It's just a great wine and highly recommend.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
It and for our listeners who aren't familiar with the
makeup of the wine. It's a blend of cabernet, Sauvignon,
Sanso and krinon or.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Depending on the bottle. There's also some that are mixed
with granache. It was a mix of roane and and
bordo Va ritals.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
They make a bunch of different wines. Housha Music, Chatau
is our levantine. They're all different lens of grapes, but
the commonality between all of them is a sense that's
in all of them.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
And okay, so very interesting. We have to go to
a chateau Musar event. We have not been to leven
and obviously we'll be going right now. But we're fascinated
by We've never done anything with that family producer and
would love to learn more and taste more of the
wines because it does have this mystique and you know,
to call on wine life changing is a very large stament.
(25:34):
And I'm trying to think what my life changing wine was.
You know, It's probably what I had with my father,
and it was probably a California cabernet made in the
nineteen early nineteen eighties or maybe seventies, late seventies.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Well, it's also I mean a lot of people have flamed.
That's life changing wine, and I've seen that effect on people.
But it's also the most natural wine in the world.
In fact, the natural wine movement, which we've all heard about,
was started by Chatamraza. But when an Italian went to
visit the winery in Lebanon and said, well, if you
(26:07):
can do this here, we can do that in Italy,
and he started the natural wine movement. But the idea
came from Chatamraza.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Interesting, you know why, I tasted and I liked a
lot of the wines, in particular Burgundies and at your
tasting it back and all, but you did one that
was one hundred percent semon from Tyrol in the Hunter Valley,
and I love that. I love semeon, so it's so
unique and sich a great texture to it. Talked to
us about a lot of our listeners. You know, Australia
(26:37):
doesn't do much promotion here anymore in the United States.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Excuse me, Well, interestingly, Australia just interviewed me a couple
of days ago about what their plans are for promoting it,
and they will be doing a little bit more, but
we represent Tyrols, and in Australia is a tough category.
(27:04):
A lot of people were turned off by a big
brand from Australia which dominated at the market. But Turrels
is actually one of those wines which is becoming the
darling of so meliers in America. They are discovering the
great seminoles. Turreals actually has the oldest semule vines in
(27:25):
the world. They have the oldest shade vine in the
world too, and they are really making probably the best
semioles in the world. But then we also represent Elderton,
which is from Barossa Valley, and Barossa Valley tends to
be a little bit out of favor right now because
they tend to make bigger wines. But I just went
(27:48):
to visit Australia and went to Elderton and they're making
more elegant style wines from Barossa Valley and we tasted
all of our and they age so beautifully and they're
great wines that they are tougher to sell because of
the you know, they're big red wines, and if you
(28:09):
like big red wines, you can get the great big
red wines from Australia but they also make great light
white wines like Semion from Turtles, which age beautifully too well.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
And for sure, Semeon is very dominant in both the
Hunter Valley and Barassa Valley, and I think it's really
one of those terrific Australian I'd like to have more.
I mean, we both talk about how much we love Semon,
particularly we do blends in Bordeaux and it just has
a unique character to it.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I love.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah, that was one of our favorites in the Whites. Yeah.
Are you looking to expand into other areas in terms
of what you're bringing in?
Speaker 3 (28:49):
No, not really, And we pretty much represent wines from
almost everywhere in the world, and we could go to
upcoming countries like Slobe and place of that. But we've
I've done. I've spent my life building brands from unknown regions,
Like even when I started with New Zealand, it wasn't
a big region Portuguese wine, South African wines, Lebanese wines,
(29:13):
even English wines actually, but the so it's always pushing
winds uphill and I've reached an age in my life
where I can start rolling wines downhill. So letting the
brands we've built start gathering steam and going for easier
regions like Italy where it's already an estabage market, so
(29:35):
I'm not really looking to go into new new regions.
English sparking wine absolutely love Gusborne. I've got a hashtag
that's better than champagne. But English sparking wine is now
some plumb of the greatest sparking wine in the world.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
We agree, and we'd like to actually visit that area.
We've We went to tasting a swirl with an English
sparkling wine and a champagne. Yes, and it was Simpsons
and Troueau, and it was a really interesting. A lot
of people could not tell the differences.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Yeah, we play things with Sons and Paris where we
did French champagnes against English sparking windes, and in every
single case they just they voted that the English one
was best, but they thought it was a French one
they were voting for. Ye.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
That happened at the tasting we were at too.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah it swirrel. Hooray for blind taste. As now we
read that you also you've made wine and you also
had a part ownership and a Chinese winery and China
is kind of like this intrigued to us because it's
a huge consumption, huge mark for consumption, but also for
production and also for wine fraud and all sorts of
many other things. What was that experience? Like I believe
(30:53):
the name of the wine was Dragon's Hollow.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
I mean it was fabulous because it was in Ninisha Province,
and I think they they were fascinated by the fact
that I was there. And I recruited the Spy Valley
winemaker to help me as a consulting white maker, and
we went to the region and we were probably the
(31:19):
only two white people they saw every year, and so
it was really interesting to be in a completely foreign
environment and I loved that. And the wines were before
our time. It came about because I went to Australia
to be a speaker at the first sorry we went
to China to be a speaker at first China Wine Expert,
(31:41):
and whilst there I thought, well, I might as well
find an import of my broadband sports madeism Naverian. This
is about fourteen years ago, I guess, and I found
an importer and I had met a woman before Gain
(32:01):
who came with me to translate that she'd worked in China,
so we had her as a translator for me, and
that turns out her father was starting this winery. He
was he started the first wine important company in China
and he was now starting a Chinese winery called Dragons Follow,
and he basically gave me fifty percent equity if I
(32:25):
would take care of the international marketing of it. And
the wines were very successful. It got into the New
York Times New Ideas type magazine, and but it was
we were premature, it was before the time, and also
the wines were inconsistent at that point. They didn't make
One year was great, next year was last. And so
(32:47):
then in the end I just sold my shares back
or gave my shares back to the founder. But as
an experience I loved, absolutely loved.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Do you see Chinese The Chinese wine market is a
viable contender to come into the United States and everything's
going there.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Yeah. I mean it's a tough market though it's a
wild West of a market, so selling wine there is
a bit crazy, and they are beginning, I think, to
make better and better wines. So eventually, yes, because the
USA is a market for international wines. Part of a
problem we found that is, we thought we'd be able
(33:29):
to sell the wines to Chinese restaurants. And two problems
with that is one is half of Chinese people that
had restaurants here couldn't drink wine, literally, they couldn't metabolize it.
And the other problem was that the big massive companies
(33:50):
printed the Chinese the wineless in Chinese restaurants in America.
So we couldn't get our wines onto this list because
the big COEs were paying for the list to be
printed and putting their own big brands onto that list,
and they weren't Chinese wines at all, and they didn't
want to put our wine on them because it would
(34:10):
stop them buying soft the American wines selling. So it
was a tough, tough thing, tough adventure, but fun adventure.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
It's an interesting market, that's for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
You hear about about the fact that the government's basically
just throwing billions of dollars in creating the creating the
industry in China, and you really wonder where it's all
going to go, quality wise and distribution was.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
I always get excited when we go to a restaurant
and we see a ringer on the wine list that
like an Armenian wine at a restaurant in Shannooga, Tennessee Calliope,
which is Levantine cuisine, and even in David's mother's senior
Living center, Lithuanian wine sparkling wine with tasted like a moscato,
(34:58):
and we're like, how did that happen?
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Well? I always used to go into restaurants and look
straight past the first few pages and go to the
categories that were either interesting others or some Milais picks
or whatever. But now when I don't know if you know,
we're making wines in California, so we're now now it's
very important because they've become big brands for us. We're
(35:22):
making a wine. Three wines. One is sort of a
tribute to my father. It's called Auctionaire and it's a
Napper wine made in a cell wine that he would
enjoy from Napa. And then my father trained as an architect,
and so we have another wine contribute to him called
Architect and that's made in the Alexander Valley. And then
(35:46):
we have a very very good value proposition wine from
the North Coast called Broadbent North Coast Cabinet, Sylvyland. They're
all cabs, and we're also launched a chardney from the
North Coast under the broad Bad name, and these have
become very successful because where I'm not a trophy winery person,
(36:10):
I'm a professional in the wine business. I'm not a
big rich person buying a winery for trophy reasons. So
we're selling our wines at very reasonable prices. So they're
making a bit of a stir in the market.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
But we tasted the broad Bet both the broadb and
Shortenay and the Broadbitt North Coast Cabiny Sauvignon, and they
were terrific. They were really good every day drinking wines.
I think you said the price point was like hundred
ten dollars.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Yeah, well there's ten dollars for those two, and I
think the architect is twenty five and the auctioneur is
thirty five. And when I was going around with the
with the North Coast Wine to events, I was boring wines.
You know, this is a new wine, what do you
think it would sell for? And people were saying anywhere
from thirty five to sixty five seventy five dollars and
(37:02):
it was ten dollars, and the people were quite shocked.
But it doesn't cost twenty five dollars to make any
wine in the world. Everything about twenty five dollars. It's
marketing or supply and demand.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Well, when we do our everyday shopping and we go
to like Costco or Trader Joe's or a local wine shop,
but I'm talking you know, you you know, it's it's
the wines in that ten dollars ten to fifteen rangers selling.
I mean it was I remember a Christmas we were
Trader Joe's and they were empty shelves. Certain types of
wines which we found were fast, but they were all
(37:36):
at that level. And there's a following people who actually
followed to figure out what other wine, great wine bargains
they can find it, like Trader Joe's in Costco. There's
a whole following for that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Yeah, so the markets change. It used to be the
seven ninth, nine, ten nine nine wines now, but now
it's actually I think that ten dollars fifteen is a
sweet spot, and then fifteen twenties or so successful well, I.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Think you almost have to be because you know, if
you go too low, it is pretty plunky. There's a
lot of plunky wine out there too, but we thought
the brought bet and it's got your name on it,
so it's going to be good, right, we have I
don't know if I tried architect in an auctioneer, we'll
have to.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
Yeah, it's a beautiful label. That is a drawing my
father did when he was an architecture school in all
by Hands. So anyway, yeah, it's good restaurying.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
So Bart, you.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
Touched on the fact that if you had known Italy
would be so easy to sell, you have done.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
You'd have done it a lot earlier. Let's talk about
your Italian wines a little bit.
Speaker 5 (38:39):
Some of them were very familiar with and you've got
some great labels in your portfolio, even though it's a
more recent addition to your your book. Why don't you
talk about a couple of those brands.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Well, Bindi Sigari, which is a county producer, County Clasgow producer.
We just got the most charming aristocratic family and their
family is actually older than Antonori and older than Frescobality
as far as wine producing goes. They're really fantastic wines.
(39:12):
Another one we bring in from Piedmont is called Barber
and they are a fantastic family that are traveling everywhere.
They have wines in the Asti region, in the all
sorts of different regions of Piedmont, and they love pairing
food and wine, and they love paying music and wine,
(39:33):
and they do things that they bring the symphony into
their vineyards to play to the grapes and the audients.
And then the other one we have from Brunel de
Montalcino is called Capana, which makes great brunelos.
Speaker 4 (39:49):
They make some wonderful wines. We've been there, right, Yeah,
we have.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah, we know. I used to my company AM Young Communications,
but that I had in New York did all the
bend the new to Brunelo events in the United States
like many many years. So we are big fans obviously
a Brunello de Mantaccino, we know Compona and we try
to go down to Prima Tiscana sprinquly Can. Italian wines
are an easy sell because there's a lot of interest,
(40:12):
a lot of heritage here, et cetera. Now we do
want to touch on the fact that you live in Richmond,
Virginia and your company's based there, and Virginia is one
of our favorite domestic wine countries. You do have a
Virginia wine in your portfolio that We've done a podcast
podcast with talk to us about that which has an
Italian heritage.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Yeah, Luca Pacino from Italy and the Zonian family. They
they make the top wine in Virginia, which is called Barbasville,
Virginia and now has over three hundred wineries. And for many,
many many years was the was a judge on the
(40:54):
Governor's Cup judging thing, which basically tastes hundreds of wines
out the twelve best wines. And every single year I
would discover a winery that I'd never heard of that
was spectacularly good and in the top twelve. And it's
(41:15):
a region which produces great wines from many many varietals.
Whereas you know New York State they have good reasonings
and a few others. But but in I would put
Virginia in terms of varietal and quality, quality and range
of wines, I'd put them up there with California and
(41:36):
Oregon and Washington. I probably there's more European cell wines
than those three, and and really great wines from everything
from the aide cabinets and onta whatever is.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
The camberde Frank my personal favorite. Yeah, and the Petitments
saying we had a petitement saying matter we could go
at a dinner party early man. Yeah, wonderful wine for me.
Speaker 5 (42:04):
The two stars in Virginia are petit men saying in
the Whites and Cabane Frank and the Yes.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Yeah, and then Vienna and Cabernet Samgen really terrific. So
we love Virginia. We'll have to come and visit. We've
driven through there and visited many many wineries in that
and we'd love to judge on the Governor's Cup. We
always like to ask two things at the end. First
of all, you travel a lot. What do you do
when you're not traveling and you just want to kick back?
(42:31):
And what's in your glass?
Speaker 3 (42:34):
Wasn't my glass? Well? I have two kids, I have twins,
so I'm not traveling. I'm to version myself to my family.
They've just gone off to college, so it's been more
quiet time at home. And I drink my wife's drinks
(42:57):
by Valley Savon Blac every night, or if not that,
it would be Limestone Hill from the bets offt Winery
in South Africa. I drink those when I'm but last
night I had half a bottle of chattamizarre and half
(43:20):
a bottle of camel wine from Burgundy. But I tend
to drink whatever red wines I can find in the
office seller that are preferably under fourteen point five percent alcohol.
Preferably under fourteen percent alcohol, so I can drink a
fair amount. Yeah, so that's that's that.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Well, we try to do that as well. We'd have
sun nights where we don't drink at all, and then
the sun nights we do. That's how we kind of
create our moderation off and on and we are drinking
our cellar. So another question we love to ask is
if you were a grape varrheinal, what would you if
you were of a rietal, what would you be either
the grape or the wine style personality.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
You're going to ask that question. So I actually sent
it to all my employees to see what they would
come up with.
Speaker 4 (44:11):
And no, that's even better.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
One said Merlow, because it can be normal classic. One
said an Ace, great brand. It means the name on
Ace means Rascal, and said she thought that was Camara,
thought she that was a thing, one person said. One
person said Tarantas. But and then one person said chard
(44:39):
because it can at times be the highest quality, but
it's also good for fun, cheap good times. And then
we have a master somelier who works for us called
josh Or, and he suggested sin So, and I actually
agree you were that that would be my choice because
(45:04):
his word, he says, it's it's pedestrian to the possession.
You are simple every day, but the wine, the wine
world knows, knows you and often looks past to other
more fashionable grapes. But at the right time you bring
greatness that inspires a loyalty and pursuit that the likes
(45:28):
of which only come with a board men. But I
think since So, I like because my favorite wine, Chotamusar,
is based on sin So, and it's a wine which
is superbly high quality, but also not perfect. It's not
the perfect wine. That's got lots of flaws, which I
(45:49):
think is part of what makes it great. And I'm
not a perfect person. I've got lots of flaws, and
so I can raise to the sound it's when I
need to and be a monk's royalty. But I'm basically
happier being a bit of a rascal and bad boy.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
So if you were a white, you'd be in Arnaz,
a little rascal. Well, here's to being let's raise a
glassa here's to being perfectly imperfect, which I always like
to say about myself. It's perfectly okay to be perfectly imperfect,
as we always search for that perfect wine, that perfect food,
that perfect but everything has a slight impervection, and that's
(46:31):
perfectly okay. We have enjoyed visiting with you. A character, Yeah, character,
it's about character and a little acidity to be a
little specky and sippy. We've enjoyed this. We've enjoyed seeing
you in New Orleans. Please come back, please. We love
tasting your wines and we'd love to see you again
(46:51):
soon somewhere in the Winea verse.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
Yes, I look forward to seeing it again. We've known
each other a very long time, reconnected recently.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
It took a long time to get you this show.
We've been over eleven years, but it's all about that
personal experience. So thank you very much. You've been listening
to The Connected Table Live with Melanie Young and David Ranson,
and we hope you've enjoyed our conversation with Barth following
me broadbent. You can go to his website and learn more.
(47:22):
Broadbentselections dot com actually is Broadbent dot com Broadbent dot
com and as always, be adventurous with your palette and
always stay insatiably curious. Thank you,
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