Poking the bear: terry theise’ s champagne
Terry Theise: The Giant of Bacharacher Hahn( photo courtesy Terry Theise)
Interview by Gary Hewitt, Sommelier( ISG CMS), CWE
Terry Theise selects and manages the Champagne, German, and Austrian portfolios for Michael Skurnik Wines, a specialist importer-distributor based in New York State. Terry’ s outspoken passion for carefully-made wines that express a sense of place puts him in the vanguard as a crusader for“ grower Champagne.” Gary Hewitt caught up with the always eloquent, opinionated and controversial Mr. Thiese, just returned from an extended buying trip to Europe. To read Terry’ s own erudite writings, visit the Michael Skurnik website and peruse the portfolios or Terry’ s Squawk Box( www. skurnikwines. com / msw / terry _ theise. html), or pick up his new book, Reading between the Wines.
GH: Terry, as an introduction, could you tell us about your background and how you ended up in the wine business?
TT: Essentially, people who get into the business in the United States are people who love wine, and are able to persuade someone they can sell it. I had to come back to the U. S. from ten years living in Germany. About halfway through those ten years, I became passionately enamoured of wine, and just knew that I wanted to be in the trade in some way.
The first thing I did was work for a wholesaler in the Washington D. C. area. As a rookie— and as an unproven commodity— I had the territory that consisted of all of the accounts that either the company had never called on or had already thrown us out. I knew what dues I had to pay. I established myself as somebody who was able to sell to a wide range of people.
I began the Champagne portfolio in the summer of 1997, having once again been told that so-called“ noname Champagne” would never sell. At that time, the U. S. market was overwhelmingly dominated by big commercial négociants. A number of my colleagues in the fine-wine importing business had one, in some cases two, Champagne growers in their portfolio. But that struck me as tokenism. Nobody would claim to be in the Burgundy business if they only represented one grower. I didn’ t think you could be in the Champagne business by representing only one grower. For me the meta-message was: we also have Champagne. I saw some potential for Champagne to really be front and centre in this discussion. My standard line is: I wasn’ t the first person to do it, I was the first person to overdo it.
GH: Which is probably appropriate when you’ re talking about Champagne.
TT: Quite so. I began with nine growers, and that number quickly morphed into fifteen. My feeling was that if you were telling people that there are important terroir distinctions among different locations in Champagne, you need to be able to demonstrate it.
I wanted to re-cast the conversation about Champagne: Champagne now is like Burgundy was twenty-five years ago; Burgundy was completely controlled by négociants, and then Burgundy completely changed and became a region dominated by its small producers. Champagne was about to experience the same thing. I wanted to be at the vanguard of that. I wanted to help shove my shoulder into the rock, and push it up the hill.
GH: If Burgundy is a model, where is Champagne on the timeline?
TT: Champagne is and will always be overwhelmingly
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