In conversation with Philippe Bascaules of Inglenook

Philippe Bascaules, Inglenook
Philippe Bascaules, Inglenook

The year Philippe Bascaules became general manager of Inglenook was a watershed for the winery. It wasn’t just that Bascaules was bringing the winemaking experience he’d developed at Chateau Margaux, one of the greatest wineries in the world. It was also that 2011 was the year that owner Francis Ford Coppola finally acquired the Inglenook name, bringing the last missing piece back to the historic winery.

Checkered history

Californian wine history is brim-full of wonderful stories, from colonial skirmishes to Prohibition. Yet even by California’s character-packed history, the tale of Inglenook stands out.

It was founded in 1880 by Gustav Nybom, an adventurous Finn whose CV included steering a ship through the Bering Sea to Alaska; acting as the Russian Consul in the USA; making a fortune trading furs; and founding a commercial salmon canning plant. Deciding that he wanted to make a Californian wine to rival the best wines of Bordeaux, he bought land in Rutherford in the Napa Valley, where his grapes could benefit from the mix of cold nights, morning fog and warm days. Nybom brought extensive research to bear on the winemaking, including taking the novel approach of sorting and separating grapes. Within ten years, his wines were winning international awards.

After his death, Inglenook not only survived Prohibition, but continued to produce notable wines; Wine Spectator gave the 1941 Inglenook Cabernet Sauvignon a perfect score.

But Californian wine history is also notable for its many reversals, and by the 1960s the Inglenook estate was run down. New owners began to churn out volume brands, abandoning the established house style.

The Godfather

The runaway success of The Godfather series of films, which began in 1972 film, earned its director enough money to get him into the wine business. Francis Ford Coppola bought part of the Inglenook Estate in 1975, and created a Bordeaux-style blend in the spirit of Nybom, releasing the iconic Rubicon in 1983. Over the next few years, Francis Ford Coppola acquired the rest of the historic Inglenook property, which he expanded and developed. At long last, in 2011, Coppola secured the rights to the  name.

And he hired Bascaules as general manager. After graduating from Montpellier University, Bascaules became assistant to the director at Chateau Margaux, the illustrious first growth Bordeaux estates. Ten years later, in 2000, he became estate director, and then crossed the Atlantic to join Inglenook in October 2011.

Meininger’s Wine Business International caught up with Bascaules at ProWein.

You previously worked for Chateaux Margaux, which sits at the pinnacle of Old World winemaking. Was California a culture shock for you?

No, because it’s the same lifestyle. Maybe people work a little bit more, and work is more at the centre of life. People react differently. I remember that they expected a lot from me – the winemaker coming from Chateaux Margaux! The team expected I would solve all the problems, where maybe I have more questions than they have. So we have learned together.

What changes did you make?

I immediately changed one detail I didn’t like. It was my first decision – to pick a little bit earlier than what people used to do. And now we pick in small boxes. They used to pick in half ton bins. So this was in the first year. Now what we have changed is we have two new de-stemmers that are much more respectful of the grapes. Then, I am focused on the quality of the pickers. I decided in 2013 and 2014 that we pay per hour and not per ton. This completely changed the quality of the picking.

Now I want to ask the vineyard group to work better the whole year, because they are the most important. In America, the winemaker does everything, which is completely wrong. The quality starts in the vineyard. If each vineyard worker doesn’t do a great job, it starts lowering the quality.

The year that you arrived, 2011, was a notoriously bad vintage in many parts of the US. How did you handle it?

Yes, 2011 was a very unusual vintage: wet, cool, and rainy at the end. In Bordeaux when you decide to pick, it’s because you’ve got the rot and you can’t wait. In California you have no rot, so you can wait; the reaction of many winemakers is to wait. In 2011, nobody could wait, and so for many people it was a bad vintage. You got some herbaceous notes and so many people said: “This is bad wine”.  Many people didn’t want to taste and to buy. I like the 2011. We have some herbaceous notes, but for me it gives more complexity. We don’t need the full ripeness of the tannins. It’s a change of vision of the wine.

What other differences do you see between the way wine is made in California and in France?

If someone tells me I make a ‘European’ wine, I don’t accept that. I don’t accept the Californian wine style made in the last 20 years. It’s just the style of the wines made in California in the past 20 years. That doesn’t mean that’s California. I am sure that Napa can make very elegant, fresh wines. Not the same as they made in the 1950s and 1960s, but I don’t want to make the same. We can make beautiful wines.

Francis Ford Coppola, the famous film director who owns Inglenook, is known in Hollywood as a risk taker. What’s he like to work with when it comes to wine?

He says all the time that he’s not the wine expert. Although he lives and owns the estate and I communicate with him every day and he likes to be aware of everything, he respects my knowledge. He doesn’t interfere. He told me that before I accepted. He told me: “I want to make less alcoholic wine. I would like to try dry farming.”

When we are tasting wines over 15% alcohol, I can just drink a very small quantity. I don’t want to make a Port wine. So if we take less alcoholic wines, yes, I want to do that. The dry farming? I say it’s not reasonable, because we have some lots with young vines and we need water. So I convince him that dry farming is not the solution today. Maybe in 20 years if we change the vineyard, but at the moment it’s not possible. It’s an ideology.

We used to irrigate not all the time, but now we start the irrigation in June and July. We have less leaves now than before. I lowered the canopy.

Nevertheless, California is suffering a drought and water availability is becoming more of an issue. Are you affected by it?

Not really.

I understand Bordeaux much better. I understand why in Bordeaux we have such high density. In the Medoc, we put 10,000 vines per hectare and it’s a lot. But in Bordeaux we need dry soils, because it rains all the time. The vines are like a water pump. If you have low density in Bordeaux, the vines don’t take the water fast enough and even in July and August the soil is full of water.

In Napa it’s totally different; the soil is just full of water in winter. So if you put a lot of vines per acre you will drain the soil quickly and will need to irrigate in six weeks, because the soil is completely dry. I cannot change the density of course, so I decided to hedge the shoots and have fewer shorter shoots and leaves. The soils keep much more of the water.

And what is your plan for dealing with the alcohol level?

In Bordeaux we chaptalize, so we don’t see the impact of alcohol on the process. I did not realise the relationship between tannin and alcohol. In California, sometimes we are in the middle of fermentation and we have too much tannin. What can we do? We can’t stop. It’s the reason Californian wines have a lot of tannins. This is why they wait a long time to pick, to make sure the tannins are ripe, but then they make more alcohol. It’s a vicious circle a little bit. I want to reverse that. To have a better water stress and to compensate with the hydration at the end. I use irrigation just at the end. At the same time I want to pick earlier, because I accept a certain amount of herbaceousness. I think it’s better for the complexity, but many wineries don’t accept that. Many consumers don’t expect the herbaceous notes. But I need to take a risk.

Finally, what’s next on the agenda?

We will build a new winery. Hopefully it will be finished for harvest 2018 and will be just behind the old winery. So that’s very exciting.

Felicity Carter

 

 

 

Latest Articles