Feb. 12, 2021 — For centuries, Mother Nature and wine gods have protected the venerable Clos de Vougeot vineyards in Burgundy, France, giving generations of vintners sun-soaked slopes, rich clay-limestone soil, water, temperate climate, strong vines to tend, and bountiful fruit to harvest. Capturing liquid lightning in a bottle, Jean-Charles Boisset vividly describes the end result as “magical elixir,” nature’s gift to humankind.
Jean-Charles, 51, president of Boisset Collection and member of the Chaînes des Rôtisseurs Napa-Sonoma Bailliage, was born and raised in Vougeot, France. Growing up in a home above the cellars of a winery Jean-Claude and Claudine Boisset, his parents, started in 1961 with few resources but barrels of entrepreneurial energy, today Jean-Charles is at the helm of a business deeply rooted in history while forging ahead in the 21st century with an inspired world vision.
The world suffered mightily in 2020 yet Jean-Charles believes there is a silver lining to the tragic time. To him, it’s not about the need to pivot or adapt. Rather, it’s about life lessons learned.
“I think what’s important is people wish to spend more time together and realize that we need one another. And it’s not about conflicts; it’s about love. It’s not about managing differences but managing what brings us together. It’s about unity,” Jean-Charles said during a Jan. 28 phone interview with Chaîne. “I adore opening a bottle of wine because it means I am with others.”
To support sommeliers who had their world turned upside down in 2020 in a nanosecond, a portion of the proceeds of every bottle sold of Boisset’s Raymond Vineyards Sommelier Selection wines is donated to the United Sommeliers Fund.
And in 2020, Jean-Charles and his team launched JCB Unity, one wine with 100 percent of the proceeds donated to the Association of African American Vintners and Wine Unify. The wine sold out immediately so in 2021, the company will launch another JCB Unity wine with Sam’s Club and a “Reserve Napa Valley” edition at their wineries to grow the donation. Jean-Charles expects to raise about $200,000 for the charities in 2021.
“What 2020 will be remembered for is gratitude; as simply as that. Let’s be grateful for one another,” Jean-Charles said.
Boisset Collection
Under Jean-Charles’ leadership, producing fine wine remains its epicenter from which many other endeavors naturally and passionately flow.
The company’s epicenter is an international network of nearly 30 Boisset Collection wineries that produce wine in some of the world’s most prestigious terroirs, from Burgundy, the birthplace of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, to the South of France, to California’s Napa Valley and Russian River Valley. The winery his parents founded is now the leading wine company in Burgundy and positioned strongly worldwide.
Realizing Sonoma’s Russian River Valley shared similarities with Burgundy terroirs, in 2003 Jean-Charles brought DeLoach Vineyards, a pioneering producer of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Zinfandel, into the family collection.
The Buena Vista Winery, California’s oldest and first premium winery founded in 1857, became part of the Boisset Collection in 2011.
Constantly innovating, JCB Spirits is a line of luxury vodkas and gin distilled from Burgundy wine made from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay that includes the first-ever caviar-infused and truffle-infused vodkas.
With recent acquisitions, Jean-Charles continues to share his love of wine and history with the public. It’s a perfect pairing!
In 2019, Boisset Collection acquired Oakville Grocery in Napa Valley, the oldest continually operating grocery in California, and its store in Healdsburg. An 1874 Victorian house sits on the Oakville property, which Jean-Charles has turned into the Oakville Wine Merchant, a lounge featuring 50 wines by the glass and 350 by the bottle, as well as the 1881 Napa Valley Wine History Museum.
A wine history museum is also located at their Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma and a third museum – the Sacre Vigne Museum – is open to the public in Burgundy, France. All Boisset museums do not charge admission fees.
The company’s JCB Collection is a suite of Jean-Charles’ personal wine expressions and related lifestyle offerings that includes the JCB Passion Collection by Baccarat, the first stemware line the historic French crystal company has ever launched with a vintner.
In addition, JCB Collection features a jewelry line; books by Jean-Charles (Passion of Wine: The French Ideal and the American Dream and The Alchemy of The Senses); and most recently, a line of fragrances that are a natural fit with the company’s core expertise.
One way Jean-Charles connects with the world is through JCB LIVE, live broadcasts Monday through Friday during which he and a guest explore wine, art, design, fashion, architecture, history, nature, food and great chefs and the finest things in life. Episodes stream live on multiple platforms to reach thousands of viewers each week and 1.5 million views monthly.
“I think love and passion and pleasure is what it’s all about. And that’s why wine for us, fragrance, jewelry and all what we do is all about the pleasure, whether it’s of the eye, the heart or the emotion. And that’s what makes me vibrate,” Jean-Charles said.
As a testament to his world vision and passion for life, Boisset Collection is an example of a successful social capital business, an aspect of any business that does not require an accountant. For Boisset, that intangible bottom line is reified and reinforced each time fine wine brings families and friends together to share exquisite cuisine and most important, conversation flavored with timeless notes of comity. With his vast business portfolio, Jean-Charles has unlimited capacity to amass social capital worldwide, a torch of unity his ancestors passed to him that ignites his operating philosophy centered on family, passion, history, quality, innovation and a deep commitment to sustainability.
Ancestors
In the first half of the 20th century when two horrific world wars defined the era, rain – and tears – fell softly, then ferociously on French farm fields and vineyards. Winery owners and winemakers in Alsace, Champagne, Beaujolais, Bordeaux and Burgundy carried the crushing yoke of concomitantly feeding the beasts of war and their own beautiful babies whom they hoped would one day inherit the privilege of carrying on viticultural traditions and practices hundreds of years in the making. French citizens risked their lives to help them and their beloved country. During World War II, Jean-Charles’ maternal and paternal grandparents joined the French Resistance to covertly aide Allied soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy, dropped from the heavens and scaled the 100-foot Pointe du Hoc cliff with grappling hooks and rope to liberate France in 1944 and 1945.
“When the Americans came in thankfully and gratefully, both of my grandparents actually, my grandfathers helped the forces to be deployed and to bring freedom to France. So it’s been a very close, respectful relationship with the United States, a great love that we will never forget and a great mutual admiration,” Jean-Charles said.
History buffs will recall France and the United States share a friendship that dates to the American Revolution when Marquis de Lafayette and thousands of French soldiers fought side-by-side with General George Washington and rebels in the Continental Army at the decisive 1781 Battle of Yorktown in Virginia. The Treaty of Paris, signed on Sept. 3, 1783 at the Hôtel d’York, sealed America’s sovereignty.
In 2015, a replica of L’Hermione, the ship Lafayette sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to Rhode Island in 1780, navigated the same route across the Atlantic, docked at Yorktown, and visited key ports along the east coast to celebrate the enduring friendship.
That mutual admiration is what motivated Jean-Charles to come to the United States.
“I think it’s very, very, very important to all of us realize the love, the respect, the passion between the two,” he said.
In a tribute to his grandparents, Boisset’s JCB No 39, one in a line of wine numbered to commemorate history and milestone events, honors his maternal grandparents’ Sept. 26, 1939 wedding anniversary and the idea of adventure, loyalty and commitment. The day after the wedding, his grandfather went off to war, was taken prisoner, escaped, and returned home to join the French Resistance.
Sustainability
Jean Charles’ parents were 18 years old when they started their winery in Burgundy. Jean-Charles, his sister Nathalie and their grandparents were all involved from soil to cellar. In The Alchemy of The Senses, Jean-Charles fondly reflects on spending time with his grandmother.
From The Alchemy of The Senses:
“I would walk through the estate with my grandmother and she would implore us to open our eyes and consider the world around us – to observe it, sense its energy and see its interconnections. She would guide us with her questions.”
With Nathalie, Jean-Charles created Domaine de la Vougeraie to unite the family’s Burgundy vineyards, including one planted in 1110 by Cistercian monks. He instituted the concept of “viniculteur” to produce terroir-driven wine through sustainable organic and Biodynamic farming, practices that he brought to his California wineries as well.
“If you put pesticides in the vineyards, you will end up having pesticides in your glass of wine and it’s impossible to avoid,” Jean-Charles said.
Mother Nature should always be trusted. “That’s the beauty of the lesson of Mother Nature I learned early on. Let the bees create the magic. Let them be bees: Oh-la-la!” Jean-Charles said enthusiastically.
2021
As the new year begins, Jean-Charles recommends Chaîne members consider collecting wine in addition to consuming it. One vintage ideal for both consuming and collecting is 2018 Burgundy, which was an exceptional year and close to the iconic 1947 vintage, he added. Napa 2016, 2017, and 2018 were also exceptional years.
From Burgundy, France and California to all points around the globe, the magical elixir can have an important role in the year ahead.
“Oceans separate us; wine unites us,” Jean-Charles said.
The wine gods are most certainly smiling.
LINKS
Main photo above: Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma, California