Interview with Bo Barrett: A farmer, producing wine

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE LEGENDARY BO BARETT BEHIND THE FAMOUS CHÂTEAU MONTELENA BY KETIL KRONGAARD SAUER

What is your favorite wine?

When people ask me, what is my favorite wine? I always answer the same; what I am selling right now. For our custumers my current wine is is my favorite wine! However, for myself the favorits are the wines we are still working on in the cellar. What have you done differently over time?

Right now, we are matching the rootstock to the soil, because we have the tool today to find out what the problems are with a specific plot. The problems can be overcome when you know what they are.We have changed the rows of the land, for the wines to get the angle right to catch the sun. We changed from the easiest way to turn the tractor and making it easy for ourselves, to having a superior performance and quality. It’s about the whole thing! Not just the efficiency. We want to achieve the best; it’s about the quality.

A farmer, producing wine

What are your views on sustainable and organic production?

It’s the only way I know. We have solar panels, our own compost and have even ordered the first electric tractor, that we will be beta testers for. We aren’t certified due to paperwork, but we do all the things that match the organic ways, but for instance for the compost, we use chicken manure and that has to be organic as well – the paperwork for this is huge and not worth it.

Does the adequate acidity occur normally? Or do you add some?

It depends on the vintage. We make wine in California and sometimes it’s necessary. If you know that the vintage has a low amount of acidity. It’s better to add as early as possible to let it integrate. It gives a more consistent acidity, and you won’t be able to taste it. You must know that I am a winemaker and will do anything to make it – the wine – more delicious.

Does your white wine undergo malolactic fermentation?

No.

Where do you prefer to see your wines being drunk? In private or restaurants.

Both places, but for the wines to be exposed, I prefer that the wines are served in restaurants to have the sommeliers tell our story since in private, many tend to serve the wines for the same circle and I would love for the wines to be enjoyed by many. It’s like a good joke; the more it’s passed around, the funnier it gets. I love the club members of our winery, also they really helped us make it through the covid. The price on wines are raising at an astonishing speed right now, could you see yourself keeping the wine and sell them later on at a higher price?

No – We want people to drink the wines and we want people to enjoy them. The cork to be pulled and the wine to be enjoyed and have an email the day after saying that they enjoyed the wine. Do you know what an aquarium wine is? (“No”) “We don’t eat those fish” We don’t want that, we want our wines to be drunk (or eaten)!

What do you think about the climate changing? It’s a concern, but where we are farming, the ocean is so big and cold and it’s hard to change. The drought, that we had last year was very much like the drought in 1977, but most people weren’t around to remember that. I was. We learn to adapt, we change the canopy management, so we have more shade. The big deal for us was to change the row angle to get better grapes and also better plants, last year we used 40% less water and still ended up with a great wine. We have made an order for the first electric tractors, almost everything else runs on electric power, powered with solar energy.

What’s the most important decision you have mode?

To stay small!! When we won the judgement of Paris, we could have started making 100.000 cases of wine every year, but we didn’t. 40 years later we were stillw making 6.000 cases.

The price vs. quality. How do you put a price tag on the wine?

That’s a difficult question. We want people to enjoy and drink our wine but if we don’t charge enough people won’t respect it. An example could be our Chardonnay: It was

caught in no mans land and we didn’t sell any, but then we raised the price 10 dollars and now everyone loves it because it’s considered a fine wine. We try to make something like the catch phrase ‘affordable luxury’. When we buy the grapes, it’s easy. If we pay 10.000 dollars for 1 ton, we need to charge 100$ for 1 bottle. Then it’s easy math. What do you think about sommeliers?

I would like to think about sommeliers like teachers, for an example, if you go to the race track and you look at the odds and bets. Unless you know something and have experience, you bet blind, but if you take your uncle who has been there many times and has insider knowledge, you will have a better chance of winning. Sommeliers are similar, they can help you get the bottle, that you will enjoy. Do you have something that you would like to say?

I would like to say that even though we are featured in the “Bottle Shock” movie, with our Chardonnay… We are a red wine house! We loved to be a part of “Bottle Shock”, but we are a red wine house that makes a small amount of Chardonnay.