It is said that "peers are light", and there is no greater honor in the world than to be recognized as the best in the world by your peers, right? Decanter interviewed 133 of the world's leading winemakers, asking each of them to choose the 3 winemakers they most admired. The person of choice can be a winemaker or winemaking consultant from anywhere in the world, provided that at least 10 vintages have been made and that they are still making wine.
Let's take a look at which of the most nominated winemakers are the most nominated!
1. Top 5 Best Winemakers in the World
Note: Sorted alphabetically in no particular order.
1. Albert Antonioni – the guide to South American wine
In 2010, as with every consulting job at Alberto Antonini, he was commissioned by a winery from Yeghegnadzor in Armenia. When they first met, the owner told Antonioni that he wanted to make a 'modern style' wine, to which Antonioni replied: "Every wine yehegnazor made 6,000 years ago was fermented in a traditional two-eared fine-necked jar using native grape varieties, which is actually the 'modern style' wine you need." ”
He said this with an almost Zen look, "The wine of the future will eventually return to the past." This perspective has inspired him throughout his 30-year career as a return to simplicity to best interpret where wine comes from.
Antonini is an Italian who in 1985 took a job as an assistant winemaker after completing a course in viticulture and vinification in Florence. He later served as a technical director at prestigious wineries such as Col d'Orcia and Marchesi Antinori in Tuscany. In 1997, Antonioni turned to winemaking consultant, and it was only then that his influence began to show.
Many of Antonioni's clients are in Italy, and he himself owns his own winery in Tuscany, The Poggiotondo, but his most influential place is South America.
When Antonioni first came to Argentina in 1995, he founded Altos Las Hormigas with like-minded winemakers Attilio Pagli and Antonio Morescalchi.
At that time, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon were The star varieties of Argentina, and Antonioni did the opposite, setting his sights on Malbec. Later, Anthill Winery was very successful, and it was also popular in the United States and other markets, becoming a benchmark for other Argentine wineries. At that time, the mainstream style of Malbec in Argentina was a ripe and sweet type, and it was difficult to feel the characteristics of the origin from the wine, however, anthill wines were not among them.
Later, Antonioni realized that the right thing to do should be to push the origin, not the variety. He said: "The Bordeaux formula colonized the rest of the world with its standardized variety and style, and we have to forget about this formula." "Thanks to his efforts, Anthill has become a frontrunner in Argentina's transformation into Malbec, leading the trend to reduce the use of oak barrels, refuse to overcook, and show the origin rather than the variety.
In Chile, Antonioni's position is equally pivotal, as he has worked as a wine consultant to well-known wineries such as Concha y Toro, Montgras, Vina Leyda and Luis Felipe Edwards. Because his winemaking style is unpretentious, his influence is not very clear to outsiders, but there is no doubt that his presence has led to some of the best winemakers in Chile, and his views have changed the wine industry in Chile, Argentina and even south America as a whole.
Peer review
Marcelo Papa of Concha y Toro:
I've worked with Albert for 15 years and there's no doubt that he's a great winemaker with unparalleled knowledge and expertise. But what impressed me most was his respect for authentic quality.
2. Aubert de Verran – head of Kande
Aubert de Villaine, the head of the well-known Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, has always been known for his humble qualities, always saying that he is merely the caretaker of this magnificent building. In addition, he is President of the Abbey of Saint-Vivé and Vice-President of the Burgundy Society for the Preservation of The Diversity of Grape Varieties.
But to define Aubert de Verand as a saint or a janitor underestimates him.
Born in 1939, Aubert de Verrand started out as a wine journalist before deciding a few years later to return to Burgundy to take over Romani Conti. His management of Kande officially began in 1974, when Burgundy was in the midst of a post-World War II recovery period, waiting to be revived, and many wineries began to pursue production and neglect quality, but De Veranderan's consciousness was very long-term, and he knew that he must put quality first.
At that time, the use of fertilizers and chemical fungicides was still the mainstream practice in the vineyard, and De Veranderan's foresight once again had a vision, and eventually the entire Kande was biodynamically planted.
It is well known that in 2015 UNESCO inscribed the Climat in Burgundy on the World Heritage List, facilitated by Aubel de Verand. He said that there are 2 reasons for applying for heritage, on the one hand, the unique terroir is the precious wealth of Burgundy, and the success of the application can further show the style of this wealth to the world; on the other hand, the application for the heritage can also make the Burgundy people realize how precious and unique the wealth they have is, so that they can better protect the land. The application for the project began in 2006, and it took nearly 10 years to succeed, and for ten years, Aubel de Veranderan never gave up.
Although most of his energy was devoted to Romani Kande, DeVillan and his wife also owned their own A & P de Villaine in the village of Bouzeron in Cote Chalonnaise, where they planted a special variety, Aligote, and founded the world's only Arigot variety conservation garden.
Chester Osborn of d'Arenberg:
Why did I vote for Aubert de Verran? First of all, because everything he does is perfect. Secondly, I have been tasting his works for many years, all of which are perfectly structured wines, typical of the Burgundy style, layered and profoundly expressing the soil and geology of the wine.
3. Paul Drape – king of the fairy pink daisy
Paul Draper has been the chief winemaker at Ridge Vineyards since 1969 and is known as California's "King of Fairy Pink."
Paul Drape graduated from Stanford University and spent a few years in Italy and Chile before joining Ridge Winery, not a cognate winemaker, but that didn't stop him from becoming a landmark figure in California wine. This is not only because his 1971 Vintage Monte Bello blend won no. 5 in the famous Paris Trials, but also because of his decisive role in reviving California's Zinfandel.
The Drap brewing philosophy is characterized by a focus on traditional winemaking methods, an insistence on sustainable agricultural development and an emphasis on the importance of terroir characteristics. In a recent interview, Drap said he would correct the misconceptions about the grapes. He believes that Xian Fan Dai is not a simple, fruity grape. Conversely, it can also produce wines with complex flavors, maturity and just the right amount of alcohol.
Gordon Russell, chief winemaker at Esk Valley Estate:
Whenever I pursue something in my brewing career, I find that it is what Paul Drap has been doing. For example, he has a confidant-like knowledge and respect for every piece of land, and he never goes along with trends, but I'm glad to see that classic ridge wines are once again on trend. Under his leadership, more and more wineries began to produce wines that were elegant and expressed the land rather than the winery.
4. Michelle Rowland – Flying Winemaker
Writing about Michel Rolland, there is a feeling that there is no need to introduce it anymore, and there are few people in the world like Michel Rolland who are household names even among people who are not wine experts.
Born in 1947 to a family of wine farmers in the Pomerol appellation on the right bank of Bordeaux, Michel Roland grew up attending the Château La Tour Blanche school and studying at the Bordeaux Winemaking Institute. In the nearly four decades that followed, Roland also profoundly influenced the wine world along with dramatic changes in the wine industry and winemaking philosophy.
Looking back at the winemaking technology at the end of the last century, people rarely think of controlling the fermentation temperature, thinning the fruit, or ensuring the ripeness of the berries. Today, this is completely unthinkable, as these operations are already the most basic elements of the winemaking process. Of course, these processes were not pioneered by Roland, but thanks to a number of winemakers. But Roland, as the most well-known flying winemaker, has undoubtedly played a great role in the implementation of these concepts in wineries around the world.
Although Roland gives the impression that the labels of "flying winemaker" and "globalization" are very obvious, in fact, he has many advanced winemaking concepts, which are very forward-looking when viewed today. For example, he emphasizes the need to control ripeness, but also emphasizes that the quality of the fruit is the first, and it is necessary to choose the right grape variety and cultivate it in the right terroir to produce the best fruit. The best examples, such as Malbec and Carmenere, two little sparrows from Bordeaux, flew up the branches and became phoenixes in Argentina and Chile.
Stephen Carrier of Chateau de Fieuzal:
Michel Roland's influence is unparalleled in Bordeaux and the world, but what many people don't know is that Roland is not only an outstanding winemaker, but also a master viticulture.
Aurelio Montes at Montes Wines:
I worked with him in Chile for 5 years, and Michel Roland brought me some new perspectives on winemaking. And he has a lot of techniques that other winemakers just can't do, and if I had to pick one that I think he's best at, it would be his blending technique.
5. Christopher Lumi – a burgundian who strives for excellence
Christophe Roumier, owner and winemaker at the famous Domaine G. Roumier in Burgundy, now runs the winery with his father, Jean-Marie Roumier.
Christopher Lumi's wines, whether at the Burgundy or Grand Prix, have a delicate and dexterous yet pure style. His wine sometimes tastes very tight when he is young, but this just shows that he has a strong ability to age.
Lumi learned not only from his father and grandfather, but also from many excellent winemakers, such as Henri Jayer, Jacques Seysses, and so on. He drew inspiration not only from their winemaking techniques, but also from their winemaking philosophy to produce the most ageing Burgundy.
Anthony of Hamilton Russell.)
Hamilton Russell）：
In an appellation that already has so many prime plots of land, Christopher Lumi shows us how much one can increase the already outstanding terroir to the point of manpower. What impressed me most was his thoughtful and uninterrupted pursuit of quality, which epitomized his dedication.
Second, the rest of the outstanding winemakers
Including the top 5 winemakers just introduced, this list has selected a total of 30 outstanding winemakers who have been nominated, and here we will detail the 7 most influential and well-known winemakers in addition to the top 5 winemakers.
Note: Rankings are in no particular order.
6. Eric Bosseno – Bordeaux's most influential winemaking consultant
Eric Boissenot has been named one of the top 10 most influential winemaking consultants in the world, along with the likes of Michel Rowland, Paul Hobbs and Steven Derenoncourt.
He was a low-key and humble winemaking consultant, whose name you may not have heard of, but who must have been familiar with some of the wineries that passed through him: Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Chateau Latour, Chateau Margaux, Chateau Mouton Rothschild... That's right, 4 of the famous 5 first-class chuangs have asked him to be a wine consultant.
Eric Bossino's father, Jacques Boissenot, is also a well-known winemaking consultant and a proud protégé of Emile Peynaud, the "father of modern winemaking", who worked together for many years. Eric has been brewing with his father since he was a child, and after graduating from the University of Bordeaux with an oenology major, he began his career as an wine consultant. Father and son are very low-key, but their influence is spread all over the world, handling more than 200 wineries, and Medoc has 2/3 of the 1855 ranks of the 1855 list are their customers.
Sandrine Garbay of Chateau d'Yquem:
Eric is the most skilled and talented winemaker I know, and he improves the quality of his wines while respecting the spirit of the winery itself.
7. Stephen Denongu - self-taught winemaker
Stephane Derenoncourt, one of France's best winemakers and astute plantation consultants, is known as the next Michel Roland.
In fact, this winemaking master is not from a science class, but a halfway home and self-taught. He stumbled upon a work of grape making and spent the next 10 years on the right bank of Bordeaux, working in a number of wineries.
Chateau Pavie Macquin and La Mondotte on the right bank of Bordeaux are mediocre in their own right, but after being handed down by Stephen Denonour, they produced high-quality, highly regarded wines that later rose to the throne of Premier Grand Cru Classe B in Saint-Emilion.
After gaining enough experience on the right bank of Bordeaux, Stephen Denongu became a global winemaking consultant and founded his own consultancy company. Many of Stephen Denongu's works are rare and good wines that are hard to find, and although he personally does not highly respect wine ratings, the wines he produces are very good at wine critic ratings, and even Rober Parker often receives full marks.
Andrea Leon of Casa Lapostolle:
I worked with Stephen at Saint-Emilion and I appreciated his respect for the terroir and his keen intuition, from which I learned to be with your wine all the time, to work non-stop.
8. Paul Hobbes – Steve Jobs of wine
Paul Hobbs, known as steve Jobs of the wine world, is his masterpiece, opus one of the famous American wine kings.
But throughout Paul Hobbes's winemaking career, Work One, although now famous, is not a high achievement for him. After starting his career as a wine consultant in various parts of North and South America and Europe, his personality and the almost demanding requirements for terroir ideas began to show. He is known as the Steve Jobs of the wine industry, which is why he is firm, stubborn, harsh, never compromised, and must carry out his ideas to the end.
In 1991, Paul Hobbes established his own eponymous winery (Paul Hobbs) in napa Valley, and later in other countries, including the Argentine wine king Vina Cobos.
Paul Hobbes also went down the path of pandering to the market in his early years, preferring to make very mature, high-alcohol, over-barreled wines that were indeed loved by consumers and easily earned Parker high scores. But then he himself rejected this practice and began to make wines that were more delicate and more reflective of the terroir, and now he is a complete "believer in the terroir".
Santiago Margozzini of MontGras:
I used to think that grapes and fruits don't matter, and that wine can be made into any shape using winemaking techniques. But he taught me in the 10 years he was making wine for our winery that what matters is the fruit, and the timing of the picking, after that, the only thing the winemaker can do is not mess it up.
9. Dominique Lafang - the master of perfectionism
Dominique Lafon is the owner of Domaine des Comtes Lafon, one of the world's finest dry white winemakers.
La Fang always frowned and seemed unkind, but in fact, this was his perfectionism, and he was always troubled by the fact that the wine had not yet met his expectations. La Fang is really a very interesting winemaker, he changed all his vineyards to biodynamic cultivation, but at first he did not want to admit it, because he was afraid of being called "fashionable" by others...
In a sense, La Fang is an "obsessive-compulsive" and "perfectionist", his winery is already well-known, fully capable of hiring more staff to take care of his vineyard, but he prefers to do everything himself, and it is not very safe to hand over any small matter to others. However, it is this attitude of pursuit of perfection that can produce such a top-quality wine bar.
Philipp Wittmann of Weingut Wittmann:
What I admire most about Dominic is that he can always express where his wine comes from, his wine is always elegant and pure, with a strong terroir influence, a combination of elegance and depth, which is the most special place.
10. Paul Pontalier – the young margaux chief winemaker
Paul Pontallier, who was the chief winemaker and managing director of Château Margaux, sadly died of cancer in 2016 at the age of 59.
Unlike many well-known winemakers who have been halfway through, Paul Pontalier is a serious "academic". Born in Bordeaux in 1956 into a long-established wine family, he studied agronomy and viticulture in Paris and Montpellier, and in 1978 he returned to Bordeaux to pursue a doctorate, and in 1981 he officially became a doctor of wine research with his thesis "On the Aging of Red Wine in Oak Barrels".
In 1983, Corinne Mentzelopoulo, the owner of margaux, hired Pontalier himself, when he was only 27 years old and had just graduated two years later. In 1990, his mentor Philippe Barre, who joined Margaux, retired and Pontalier took over as Margaux's general manager.
Château Margaux has not performed well in the 1970s, but when Pontalier joined, Margaux immediately produced a world-shattering vintage. He is also a man who is not afraid of change, such as pulling Pavillon Blanc's soaring alcohol levels back on track.
Francisco Baettig of Vina Errazuriz:
I voted for Paul because of his talent and dedication. He worked at Margaux for 32 years, maintaining and refining Margaux's sophisticated and elegant style.
11. Helmut Dukhov – Riesling master who never goes with the flow
Helmut Donnhoff is a famous Riesling master who now runs the famous Weingut Donnhoff winery in Germany.
Run by the Duhov family for generations, the château has been running for 260 years, and Duhov has always adhered to traditional winemaking methods, such as the refusal of screwcaps. What he brews is just like his people: humble and introverted.
Like many other great winemakers, Duhov insisted that the terroir should be expressed through wine, and that the winemaker was just an intermediary. The style of the wines that have passed through his hands is not strong, but it is very elegant, and each wine has its own optimal maturity.
Jeffrey Grosset of Grosset Wines:
Few winemakers have the knowledge, wisdom and creativity of his kind, and he never blindly chases fashion.
12. Marcelo Retamar – chile's leader in reform
Marcelo Retamal has been a winemaker at Chile's De Martino winery since graduating in 1996.
In 2011, Marcelo Retamar and his team announced one thing: they would no longer use new oak barrels in the future, and they would advance the harvest date of the grapes to retain more fresh fruit and minimize manual interference in the brewing process.
Such a statement may seem nothing out of the ordinary today, as many Chilean wineries say, but it was 2011, and the decision was shocking at the time.
In addition to leading the reform of Chilean wine, Retamar and his team also shouldered the responsibility of reviving Chile's forgotten Itata Valley appellation and influencing the winemaking style of the Argentine wine world. For the South American wine industry, Retamar has always been a leader, and now whether it is it the Itata Valley, or fresh, low-alcohol wines have entered people's vision and stepped onto the table of consumers, it has to be said that these are inseparable from Theratamar's promotion.
Marcelo owes a great deal to chilean wine diversity today. Not only did he come up with those ideas out of the blue, he had the courage to realize them. You have to acknowledge his foresight, his constant self-questioning, his skilful skills and his love of wine.
After reading the deeds of these great winemakers, I have to say that although the masters have very different personalities, many aspects are consistent.
The truly great winemaker does not perfunctorily say "Great wine comes from the vineyard" to express the so-called winemaking philosophy, but to realize this sentence by practicing it. The phrase "respect for the terroir" can be said by everyone, but not everyone can do it. (Reference/ Decanter)