Terroir and French Wine Part 1 – Episode #633

Author Robert Camuto visits the Thunder Show and conveys his passion for the concept of terroir.

Hello everybody welcome to Wine Library TV I am your host gary vay-ner-chuk and this my friends is the Thunder Show aka the Internet’s most passionate wine program and as you can see I have a guest an author Robert Camuto right exactly uh and Robert is here to join me to

Taste uh some vino talk about his experiences book and I’m happy to have him here Robert great to be here yeah so uh you reached out to me you sent me an email yeah why’d you tell the beany axe the story of how you got on the show and

Then we’ll take it back to why you wrote the book and would like some meat oh yeah well first of all I’m a big fan of Gary’s and one of the reasons being that I love the way he talks about wine you know none of this crap exactly not

Talking down right right right and also I think that too often like the whole wine vocabulary we get too caught up in this technical speak and I think that kind of sucks because really if you were to talk about music that way would you say well gee this piece of music

This great symphony or this great song has 43 C notes 53 notes and everything like that no you missed the whole essence of the wine and the wine is what moves you from inside and really touches your head in your heart that’s what it’s about I mean I agreed though I do talk

About music the way you just refer to okay so I appreciate that thank you so much how long get when did you find the show what what how long have you been watching how did you catch it I’ve been catching it for I’d say a little over a year now appreciate it

Tell me about why you wrote a wine book and what is it all about well tell me about you who are you how’d you get here I’ll shut up okay come on I’ve new screen this guy good okay I’ve been a journalist all my professional life and born in New York and

And grew up in Westchester and after went to graduate school in New York at Columbia University and after that I moved to Dallas Fort Worth where I lived for 16 years how is that Dallas Fort Worth yeah after New York yeah scary understood at first you know I was a

Dallas for the first time no but I love Dallas I mean Dallas Fort Worth but if you like the cowboy fans uh well okay you’re a Giants fan yes I’m kind of like Bruce Springsteen when it comes to pro sports I mean I remember like are you a

Fan of the team or not really you just not into sports oh I am not really into football as it is today because I believe in terroir and I think if the Jets maybe could get some real turf maybe I could get behind him like if

They were in New York instead of New Jersey no you know no real surfaced okay okay now say gradually I like the mud you like the old school I understand the old school but basically I am a fan of whatever team the Dallas Cowboys is playing right that’s how much you hate

The Cowboys yeah I love it and mainly because you know I I was a cowboy fan they completely broke my heart you know after Jimmy Johnson thing yeah I got tired of seeing Michael Irvin on Dallas television arrested every night in a fir with like three hoes behind it

Yeah you know the whole say yeah say it bad forget it because they were playing the Cowboys that’s who I’m alright so you were in Dallas for 16 years yeah I started a weekly newspaper called 2fw Weekly or Fort Worth weekly is kind of an all weekly entrepreneurial yeah

Yeah yeah you know and I sold it in 2000 good and it’s still alive and kicking and you know at that point my wife is from France from nice okay and one night it was a bottle of coach our own we’re sitting around the kitchen table and I

Said hey we’re still young now you know our son at the time he was like why don’t we move to knees she said are you serious I said yeah why not so what made you say that she wanted it you saw it underlining in your wife and

You want to do that mom know what you were curious you retired Dallas no sir but you know what it really was is that the times we visited there you ready wearing today got it okay so you go so I pack up and go yeah so your

Boys a friendship yeah he’s you know he’s both he’s a tow truck yeah when he speaks unless you know he speaks you know that and then we speak in French she’s got the you know so it’s two different when I speak in Russian and it’s totally Jersey you know accent

Russian yeah so he’s so he really grew up in France yeah I mean have what years did you live in you still live there yeah you live in France right now right now so so how often do you get to the US once twice a year right and I see you

Picked up the huge French accent yeah um I can’t speak with the French accent if you like ya know I like the New York and so um so that’s real I didn’t realize okay so go ahead okay yeah so cozy you know I’m there and I was was and have

Been writing for Washington Post features more recent it’s a nice gig yeah great great newspaper yeah yeah and the Wine Spectator – I don’t do the technical stuff I do more the color stuff why make a profile yes travel which is what I love so that way so when

You move there you started right you were you writing about wine at all and and you jumped ahead to like you just went to France and now you’re writing perspective yeah I just wanted toast okay okay what happened well I started writing you know really travel cultural stories that sort of epicurean stuff

There for the post right away as soon as you went to France yeah yeah the gig that you got yeah yeah yeah you know it was a great editor yeah yeah I contacted if said yeah do some stuff focus and so what happened is as I traveled from one

End of France the other I just really got sucked into the terroir and when I say terroir I mean really seeing that place where they like cuisine not just the DNA the soy the sea and I you know in the cuisine and the way it goes with the wine and the way the

People even what they did make vines exactly yeah tone yeah yeah the smell of the tractors yeah yeah it sucked you in yeah it romanced you yeah took the pants off yeah okay and basically uh you know I think it’s a great time in France and I think corkscrewed kind of refers to

The corkscrewing the kind of screwy state that wines in France are in now because you know 15 years ago what was there there was really 15 20 years ago there was Bordeaux and burgundy now you have this new generation of winemakers smart educated with some ideas that matter

Great water bundle guy act I mean Mott your favorite um all all emerging in language that grew see on I mean just so many so many interesting places so those are things that started really sucking you in yeah that you realize it wasn’t just about you know Bordeaux and

Brittany exactly and that is what the book is about it’s about the people the humanity the twenty decide to write the book a couple of years ago years ago and you know cuz I said you know in my notes book before no first first book yeah oh

Did it and yeah who published actually University of Nebraska Press oh really yeah they have a big Francophile that’s pretty cool area yeah it’s a nice picture of you you’re profiling back here thank you so much it’s a good looking picture let’s be honest um okay

At the beginning of the week people were saying that I looked better than the picture so I must be really tired really because I’m going around the country I guess it’s your charisma you know like you just got that good vibe they say that to me all the time it’s not true

I’m just really okay and so so that’s a it’s the stories of your travel these different places yeah yeah and it’s about the people that I think are having a around France that are having an impact on wine and so stressing this what about the Pioneers do you think it’s about the next

Generation of people that can push the envelope I think it’s about the people that are pushing the envelope now and some of the people that are pushing the envelope and even and a little bit of some people who are just out there doing great stuff and who aren’t necessarily

Even pushing any envelopes I understand just good peeps yeah exactly so you brought one one yeah I went and had even grabbed two wines did a little roan action just I’m dying to try these two wines so I figured yeah what is your take on wines from other parts of the

World my take on wines from other parts yeah well first of all I think that France has the biggest diversity of terroir there is the biggest expression and the biggest number of Vinh your if you think about it France is about one-third bigger than California but they’ve got I believe

About four times the plants have to plan to the application they’re about 18 times the number of roads it’s in it’s it’s it’s there it’s their identity in a lot of ways yeah and if I could and the reason why that’s important if I could

Say this as sure Larry is a fan of diversity we can say Gary likes come on yeah you know so I like diversity to I like things that are different I want to eat the same thing every night I want drink the second girl listen I you know

I appreciate those words that I’m sure you know if you’ve been watching for as long as you’ve been watching it I hope that it’s very obvious to you that the agenda the agenda of why I started this show now or does this airs past our three-year mark is to get people trying

New things exactly there’s so much out there yeah I had the same in little trips experiences that you had I actually went to the guy act very early on there was a company called vineyard expressions a guy in uh it’s funny I noticed this is from Richmond California

Charles Neil section I know Charles Neil stuff and and the vineyard expressions people were also from down in the south as well and had all these weird things guy at Blanc’s of all this crazy I was like what is going on I’ve never heard about this I’m gonna read it and

So there’s so many different things yeah and people find one wine and they drink it every single night yeah and that makes me cry to sleep yes yes yes I agree I agree and then you see so what’s give me that problem sorry to interrupt you do you feel that problem is as

Obvious in France as well that you mean run-of-the-mill people or people just reading the same one yes and no I mean I think there’s more and more people that are more interested in these regions the you know the problem is sometimes bad raps die hard really hard I mean so you

Know you have people of a certain generation not doing anything so but I think the new generation there’s a new generation of people that are like the probably the age of a lot of your viewers who are just curious there was lowing watch older than you

Know but look at the no but look at the look at what’s happening in Paris now you have this explosion of these little wine so yes little Kathy stew you know they they have a little plot sure yeah you know it’s just it’s fantastic and you know the other thing that’s good

About having that many having that many wine makers it means that you know they with all these forces to you know big things and industrialization that France can’t really be tamed too much mm-hmm you know Charles de Gaulle once said that you cannot govern a country with

254 kinds of cheese it and that is what is great about France and what’s not great about France in your opinion in the wine world in the wine world I would say that some of the action in Bordeaux and Bert you know see some of these established areas we have insurance

Companies and I’m right about that taking over some of these chateaus and you know some people may say well you’re overthinking it if you care but you know I don’t know everything stems from the top an insurance company you know these banks look at where we are now with the

Insurance companies and banks right we can’t let him do that to wine Gary listen you know there’s so much we can do I know but they’ve taken the retire we can’t let him take the wine they’re taking a lot yeah I know you since you travel to France I didn’t bring you a

Little something for your next trip okay it’s a gift from France okay really officially France made in France okay not made in China not in that coffin China okay thank you uh-huh oh my god dude that is so nice now this can be worn on the Thunder Show

How’s that good is that good Wow how we lookin flip the cam I want to see tremendous this is exactly just something you hold it down for one second this is the way to go I mean this is the way to travel in frit this is awesome that’s so nice thank you

That’s super I love this I’m so pumped right now all right all right I’m super pumped um thank you thank you so much um so one of things I always find interesting is that in France you are not allowed to promote wine on the Internet

Did you know that that to me is absurd and ludicrous and obnoxious what do think about that well did you know that you can’t be there’s like these promotion laws you know and so I don’t know all the details some spewing a lot of venom for not knowing all the details

But there is definitely some legalities with you know promoting wine on the internet so I got to look more into that well there’s a lot of people who sell it and there’s a beautiful web I know that there’s some great site to find promotion I leave it to the French yeah

I’m curious you know cuz when I was in Paris last at lay web a tech conference and I spoke people were asking me about this and I wasn’t really I never got around to educating myself and I didn’t know if you really knew no but I’ll have

To look into that um there’s probably a book about that thick and it’s yeah all right let’s get the first one keep talking I’m having a good time yeah um this is a pier going on Dino Kunal a really interesting producer with this stuff mm-hmm Leo ba 2006 st. Joseph Blanc

This is a ruse on more song blend 80% marcin 20% busan 92 points we inspected 38 US dollars and I just think that a lot of people let’s talk about Rome for a minute so many people focus on shutting off the pop yeah collectors focus on you know Hermitage coral tea

Mm-hmm I think places like you know varas and and and st. yourself crows Hermitage really undervalued I mean 38 bones is a lot of money so I’m not gonna sit here and say this is an expensive bottle wine but you know white roads special six yourself Blanc I mean you know this even

Outside the road in France you’re not seeing that many say just said Blanc some lists or in stores right right I mean that’s pretty wild so very underrated part of French white wine history and just and just French wines in general what’s been your traditional take on the white Rome lines are your

Family are you like the majority not a fan where do you sit on that well not a lot of have you not played around with it either I’ll tell you what I think first of all I think that when you talk about terroir yeah if you really want to

See terroir you go to the room you followed the river and you follow it from the south where the sun is shining and it’s beating down and then you get to around velen’s you know that that’s the dividing line between the south and yep suddenly it’s cloudy it’s the same

There’s no more thing there’s no more Sun and in the south you know the food is spicier you know more peppers more vegetable more Provence kind of thing and then you go north and it’s more cream and you know that really goes better with some of the northern more acidic s– kind of

Wines and you know to me that’s what you really see terroir yeah and I agree with you you know some of these places they get fashionable they get discovered but there’s tons more discovery and I’ll tell you you know why groans I for my wife’s birthday which also happens to be

Valentine’s Day I said ah I’m gonna cook cook for friends you know good good no no I know so the so so what I made for the lead-in dish I’m sorry I’d love to talk about food when I said why because you got to do that I love to talk about wrestling

And foot and football so your food is much more acceptable don’t go away so what I did is in our village now there’s these guys who gather truffles I mean I mean not in our village but from you know about an hour way they come pigs these pigs are dogs

Actually they use some more dogs now cuz eat the truffle no too much they get addicted you know they’re there right yeah more pigs yeah all right yeah they were like you know certain NFL players so anyway uh I made a great little you know truffles Reese might like them easy

Easy to make easy you know that would be Thomas honestly delicious obnoxiously delicious yeah you know did a little sauce with the butter just dumped pasta easy put out a bunch of wines you know friends yeah the home run was a white Rome from Kara really I mean and it was like probably

You know third the price of everything but just the way you know that nuttiness and the way it went with the dish let’s jump into this real quick okay let’s go aromatically this is spectacular I just noticed I was gonna say this like while you were talking I was in it the whole

Time I get a really interesting like lemon kind of component like lemon peel but I get enormous amounts of application flowers on this nose what are you picking up on the bouquet anything stand out I’m getting kind of like a sweaty Jets jersey butter sweat yeah like if a man sweat butter yeah

That’s what this would smell like if you went to a movie right a lot of like action like you’re woken up the whole butter popcorn got it I do get the but not on a Chardonnay level it’s a little more subtle yeah you get the

Floral case you thing I get it so much where’s that damn you smell a lot of flowers I’m so big that’s like my thing like I smell a lot of flowers because I pick them up a lot in different wines I get it quite a bit on this I think this

Smells yeah yeah it’s that do you like it the nose I mean the nose well it’s not your style listen I hope you understand I feel like you’re a tremendously good dude if you hate this nose I have no emotional attachment to this you already gave me what I want

Yeah you know seriously no I mean I don’t know if you know the scene here no holds barred yeah yeah sucks the worst thing you ever saw in your life tell them I think yeah I mean it I mean you know heavy I mean the flowers are a

Little pregnant for me I understand licorice crazy I want to say it first are you getting a licorice yeah yeah is it almost ridiculous – yeah me too yeah bit too much for me though I love licorice so much that I’m gonna kind of

Be like okay with it ma the red light is blinking what does that mean ma ma you’re supposed to know what the red light blinking means are you worried is there enough battery what do you think is gonna happen but it’s blinking it never blinks okay this is one of the

Great episodes of YB TV history we just ate we drank so much licorice that I think the camera got worried yeah am I wrong you thinking this has an outlandish about a licorice I think so but you don’t like that I’m still tasting the licorice me too yeah I was

Gonna say yeah I was gonna say so I think that chilled I think that would diminish it would but I like tasting what really their exit I agree for the tasting I agree I’m like Jim I’ve never had this much licorice in a wine before

Ever ever and I think I did in what just this last week in walk in a Seattle room wasn’t one of these Washington state room you Reds yeah and had so much licorice oh yeah but this real any more than this yeah I believe you yeah yeah well it’s almost difficult to

Pick up anything else on this one yeah let me just get him to one more time yeah I mean have you on the licorice I do get a little bit of an apple component on the back end um that may be because the blood is not going to my

Brain anymore because this is very tight of my head I think this is extremely over-the-top licorice flavored wine I mean there’s nothing really else to say it’s almost like taking four or five pieces of really real real licorice sticking it in water and then drinking that later I

Mean I really think five hours of soaking in water pure licorice is what this wine tastes like the controversial thing about that is I kind of like that it’s so different for me so I’m gonna give it respect for the difference of it but that being said at 38 bones I think

It is an overpriced wine and I think it’s a little gloppy don’t worry it’s a little gloppy okay it’s a little gloppy on my palate and I don’t like that do you like the glop eNOS do you find it to be a little heavy it’s be a little

Cloying yeah right yeah I’m gonna put my bag outside oh I don’t think I understand the real lip do you understand what’s already happened in the show yeah give me ray I left light went off this is what this is why I do this right that’s the best part

Okay don’t and and I saw your face you’re being hesitant let’s crush these wines okay this one stinks the one you brought up bash it right back to my camera okay okay good all right um so to me you know this is an eighty eighty seven point play and

That’s me liking the licorice I’m sure you know if he was to score it probably even lower than that so you know thirty-eight bones I would say to pass quorum is a producer that I think makes really good wines so I’m a little bit disappointed with this effort

It’s just too much if it could have calmed down just a bit maybe with a three four five year ageing window don’t be twisted this is a ten to twelve year aging white wine that’s what these wines can do I think a lot of people don’t recognize that in you know white

Rhone wines yeah um but I thirty eight bones I’m gonna give it a pass and just don’t see me paying that kind of money and I don’t think you should as well generally in that region I love the expression of Vionnet but but I’m a big boost on more sungai

This just got I think this just got away from them just a little bit you know yeah just a hair all right it’s the tape you’ve got caught with the tape it is the first time ever so I almost don’t want to do it I just want

To end the show I don’t want to break our streak of never ever ever alright well break the streak we’ll be right back