When I visited the progressive J winery in Sonoma County this spring with some other wine journalists, I was surprised to hear head winemaker George Bursick tell us to come back in two years and J would be making the best Pinot Noir in California. Normally, winemakers are as bland as football coaches in saying anything truly quotable. So Bursick's willingness to paint a bullseye on his chest for other winemakers to shoot at woke me up after a morning of sipping wines. The statement was especially daring as Bursick, formerly wine chef at Ferrari-Carano, had never made Pinot Noir commercially.When I got back to my desk, I wrote my column for The NewsJournal in Wilmington on Bursick's pronouncements. Many readers don't know it, but writers don't write the headlines for their stories. Fortunately, I have good headline writers, and my column on Bursick and J appeared under the headline:
"Audacious Winemaker Shoots for the Top with His Pinot Noirs."
I was not surprised to find out that the folks at J did not go all spastic on me or George. A few days later, veteran PR head Tony Lombardi sent me a note with a link to the J blogsite (http://jvineyards.blogspot.com/). There was a picture of George with a faux tattoo that says "Audacious Winemaker" that Lombardi had a local tattootist whip up.
Which goes to show you that Bursick, unlike the grape he plans to take to new heights, is not thin-skinned.
Until next time...
Roger Morris
No comments:
Post a Comment