Jamie Kutch Interview
Ξ February 27th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ A Day at a Time, Interviews, Winemakers |
If you’re into Pinot Noir and you haven’t heard the name Kutch then it’s time to seek it out. If you’re into Burgundian style Pinot Noir and you haven’t heard the name Kutch then it’s time to find some. If you don’t know the story behind Jamie Kutch and his love for wine then you’ve come to the right place. The story is actually pretty simple and I’m not the first to write about it.
Jamie Kutch, now 34, fell in love with wine while working on Wall Street, and while most of us get the bug and make wine a great hobby, Jaime made it a life changing experience. I’m not here to tell the back story though, I’m here to tell the results, the score, the later innings, honestly, I’m here telling you how it’s all panning out.
I was lucky enough to be invited to Jamie’s San Francisco home on a lazy Sunday afternoon. My wife and children were all welcome and we shared wine and stories with Scooby Doo blaring in the background. I found quickly that Jamie is an East Coast man at his core with a no fail attitude but at the same time his love for wine is not all that different than his love for people. There we were, talking it up amongst cases of Kutch ready for delivery and bottles of wine from California Pinot to White Burgundy laying about waiting for their turn to be consumed. There were two hours of conversation that could have turned to four had my daughter been a little more patient.
The following interview is the heart of what Jamie is accomplishing and taking his time in the middle of his second release speaks volumes to his true personality.
What was your biggest challenge coming from the East Coast to the West Coast? You obviously would have some concerns about uprooting your life, so to date, what’s the biggest challenge?
Jamie: I would say the biggest challenge in making high end Pinot Noir is getting the fruit and it still poses to be the biggest challenge today. Even after my second release and my third in barrel I’m working on sourcing fruit for my fourth. It keeps going back to the fruit and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again about how important the fruit sources are.
When you come at it with passion and heart, not multi-millions you’ll get some sympathy from some people but the majority would rather sell to the Patz and Hall, Lynmar, and Merry Edwards so there’s huge competition to try and find those grapes.
Do you play that card?
Jamie: I play the card of attention or attentiveness whether that’s sending free bottles of wine or when I go over sending bottles of wine. I tell them I’ll send them a press pack back and I put together everything that’s ever been written and a business proposal and I’ll say where I can see their wine fitting into my brand. To show how my business is structured, how I’m that small, little, high end guy. I’m not Merry Edwards, which, she’s high end but she’s a different type of high end. When you’re 500 cases it’s different. I have the tenacity of a New Yorker so when you get the brush, I’ll call a week later. If that doesn’t work I’ll wait in the drive way for them to get home. (We both laugh)
The scare coming out was the logistics of cost. It’s hard still today making it all work without a finance person behind me. You know you’re working with nature so you don’t know your yield. They can project two to three tons but if you have three tons it’s significantly different than two tons and if you’re buying from five vineyards those costs can add up quickly. You’ll need more barrels.
French or American Barrels?
Jamie: All French, all new, but one new barrel is almost $900 USD. On top of the barrels you’re talking about custom crush fees, storage fees, then the glass, the capsules, and the corks. It’s a hard balance to figure out, and then you want demand.
I do everything. I’m proud I can say that, I do everything from beginning to the end with the help of some friends.
Did you write a business plan before you came west?
Jamie: I didn’t write one in New York because I didn’t really know what to write. It took until my first harvest and when I was looking for fruit my second year that I really started to culminate and write a business plan. You know there’s a curve and I can’t say enough of how great it was that Michael Browne was a mentor for a year and at least showed me the ropes enough for me to understand what was happening. He’d talk about Oak and then I’d taste it. He’d talk about fruit and then taste the wines. It was cool to watch Kosta Browne because they made a lot of wine at different pick dates and different places in the Russian River Valley and fruit from Santa Lucia, watching it grow with the Franscionis and Gary’s.
You got to go down with them?
Jamie: I did once and it was beautiful, the vineyards were immaculate. My fist vintage with Kosta Browne was 2005. I went down in 2006.
I was going to ask you if you had your own wine collection but obviously (I look around the room filled with all sorts of bottles stacked on tables and on the floor) you do!
Jamie: I have a cellar and I have some at Vinfolio. I’d say of the cellar 60% is Burgundy.
White and Red?
Jamie: Yes, although I’m cautious with Whites because of the oxidation issues. I’d say 30% is Riesling and maybe 10% is Pinot. I buy a lot of Pinots just to see what other producers are doing.
So your real love is Burgundy?
Jamie: Yeah, I like finesse and delicate balance.
There’s a lot of California Pinot you could do without.
Jamie: Yes, there are.
Let me ask you this, and you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to. People say Kosta Browne is going “That way.” That over the top fruit bomb always looking for Parker and Spectator Scores. I personally haven’t seen that, but what’s your feeling on that?
Jamie: I think Michael makes wines that he loves and I respect that. He makes fuller wines and bigger wines, he has, I’d say a bigger hand but it’s a gentle hand. They might be bigger but they are balanced. You know, my epiphany wine was a ’02 Kosta Browne Kanzler, awesome, a great wine, one of the greatest California wines I’ve ever tasted.
The word “Cult” is a lot like the word Terroir where, I don’t think anyone really knows what that means. Do you consider yourself a “Cult Winery? Or is Boutique a better word?
Jamie: Boutique is a good word, I respect that word. Two things: when demand out does the supply there’s a pent up interest to secure those wines and then being such a small producer and not making a lot. For my second year the demand has been double from what I’m selling. That’s pretty amazing but I think people are living vicariously through my story as well. There are producers out there at 10,000 to 15,000 cases that still say the word “Cult” but at 10,000 cases I don’t know if the word boutique works for those brands because they’re filling five to ten ton fermentors. They’re using a pump to pump the wine. In any event, what I’m doing is I’m fermenting in only _ ton bins which I bring inside the cave to keep them cold and outside the cave to keep them warm. I’m using gravity flow.
What does gravity flow do for you?
Jamie: It goes back to handling the wine delicately. With a pump it seems like your forcing the wine to go to quickly which doesn’t seem delicate to me. In my opinion boutique is like a cheese monger. It’s the Kraft versus the little guy doing it out of his garage. Business is always a concern, you have to live, but it’s a big investment in capital so as the production continues up you continue to invest more money. I haven’t made money yet but if you can get to a thousand cases and stay consistent with great quality sources, I’d say one to three thousand would be great.
Next year I have 850 in barrel so it’s a big jump, but, there’s a good chance I will sell off some of those barrels. I sold off ten barrels last year dropping it to 450 to keep the quality up. The pressed wine is always a little inferior to the free run.
Pinot is your girl right now. Any Syrah, any Grenache in the future?
Jamie: As I mentioned earlier the love is delicate wines, wines that pair really well with food on a linen table cloth. Part of that goes into, what other grape would represent on the table. I have the red, so more of white interests me and the white of all the varieties would be the Chardonnay. Maybe, I’m not giving any preview that I have any but maybe someday. I’m very picky of the style of Chardonnay I like. I don’t like tons of new oak, I don’t like really ripe Chardonnay where it’s real tropical, or real buttery, so I like it with natural acidity, crisp so it cuts through the food.
You mean like Burgundy?
Jamie: Yeah, Burgundy, Chablis really turns me on, you know, I nice Corton is something I would never want to kick out of bed, but we’ll see where that goes. Maybe someday but as of now I’m really trying to focus in on cool climate sites either in the Russian River Valley and there are very little.
Do you think this whole Russian River thing is overplayed?
Jamie: I think the wines from the Russian River Valley are often times some of the best that come out of the state of California and almost next to it would be the Sonoma Coast, I really like Sonoma Coast. The differences are Russian River has pretty delicate red fruit from great soils. That said, they’re not always super intense. The Sonoma Coast fruit is intense. The berries are smaller and they struggle a little more. When I say Sonoma Coast I’m talking the true coast, within three miles of the coast line.
So what’s harder, East Coast Finance or West Coast wine?
Jamie: This is harder. I thought there was a stress to trading and a stress about market positions but my decisions now have a bigger impact. It’s wild that there is no one out there but you. It’s significantly harder and scarier and there are a lot of nervous times. This is a little different because it’s yours. It’s your baby but the rewards and gratifications are bigger. In Wall Street I was just churning money and here I’m actually producing something. I was standing with my wife when we were bottling and I said to her, “you know how many of these bottles will be across the country in another two or three months and some will end up on dinner tables and celebrations?” It’s wild to think about.
Let’s take Kutch and Burgundy out of the equation. What’s your favorite Pinot?
Jamie: New Pinot, referring to a producer, wines I have a high respect for would be Ted Lemon of Littorai. He studied in Burgundy, he makes great balanced Pinots and he has a very delicate hand. He’s in tune with vineyards. I look up to him as a little bit of a mentor. With regards to old Pinot I would say conservatively I’ve drank 100 plus from 1985 and back. Last night I had a ’76 Chalone and the wine was made with 100% inclusion and was mind boggling. The sommelier was flabbergasted. Chalone from the late seventies to the very early eighties made these incredible wines by Dick Graff.
’06 has obviously had some good press and you don’t know about ’08 yet, so how do you feel about the ’07 vintage.
Jamie: I don’t want to be that guy that says this is the greatest vintage ever, you know, the new guy trying to sell wine but that said I thought the 2007 vintage was absolutely incredible.
Well you’re safe in saying that it’s the best vintage that YOU’VE been involved in?
Jamie: So far, yes, but you give me twenty years of wine making and that will change an enormous amount.
End
If you give us twenty more vintages Jamie, we will be pleased. I can’t wait to taste that Chardonnay!
Brandon Miller
