▻ Tor Kenward
Elin McCoy in conversation with Tor Kenward
Episode Summary:-
Elin McCoy talks to Tor Kenward of Tor Wines, and also author of the recently published “Reflections of a Vintner: Stories and Seasonal Wisdom from a Lifetime in Napa Valley.” In 1977, Tor arrived in the Napa Valley after running a jazz club, and for his first three decades there worked for Beringer Vineyards, one of the Valley’s most historic wineries – it was founded in 1870 and renowned as the longest family-owned, continuously operated winery in California for a century – where he worked both in winemaking and marketing. In 2001 he left to set up his own winery, Tor Wines, buying grapes from the best plots in the Napa Valley to create highly awarded wines.
He tells Elin how he grew up in Southern California, and his first job was running a jazz club. It was the early 1970s, and a time when the world’s greatest wines were still affordable. One of his friends who loved jazz owned a wine store, and together they enjoyed Bordeaux first growths and Domaine Romanée-Conti, which sold for less than US$50. “We were ripping a lot of corks of these great wines, and it changed my perspective on almost everything,” he says. His father was a writer and his mother a painter; they cooked great food, but the missing element had been wine. Drinking the great wines of the world ignited a passion, Tor relates, and he was determined to learn as much as he could about wine, but he found that there was a gap – not so much on the emerging fine wine of California. The writers he read were Michael Broadbent and Harry Waugh, but there was comparatively little written about the wines of the Napa Valley, for example.
Tor began to visit the valley, and tells Elin how, back in the mid-70s, there was only one stoplight between Calistoga and the San Francisco International airport and less than 50 wineries, and you could easily pick your three wineries to visit and taste (there were no tasting fees then). He fell in love with the land, the simplicity, and the people: “You had to really love that almost blue-collar agrarian famer type of vibe that existed in Napa Valley, that is so different to the Napa Valley that most people have been to in the last 10 years. They would not recognise the two, they are totally different places.”
Despite a successful career booking the likes of Oscar Peterson, Stan Getz and the young stand-up comedian Steve Martin, he decided to move to the Napa Valley and work in the wine industry. “The artists were wonderful, but there is a dark side to the business, the wine business was all light,” he says. Fortune took him to Beringer Vineyards, where he started in the tasting room before helping create a series of programmes, including what became an esteemed one for chefs. Beringer had been sold to Nestlé, the Swiss-based multinational food company, and they sent him to Europe, where he met famous winemakers in Bordeaux, Burgundy and other parts of Europe. “The hospitality and the food and wine in Europe was a revelation to a lot of us rubes in California – and that included Bob Mondavi at the time. We saw what was a hospitality consciousness that did not exist in any part of the wine country in the US, certainly not Napa. We realised we had to bring this to the Napa Valley. Bob started his programme, and I started an aggressive programme.” Soon famous chefs were coming to Napa Valley, including Julia Child, who became a friend of Tor’s. A wine and food revolution was happening, aided by the American Institute of Wine and Food, as “intellectuals, great chefs and winemakers getting together to spread the gospel.”
Tor talks about the contribution of Julia Child and the French cooking teacher Madeleine Kamman, and how in the late ‘70s and ‘80s and ‘90s, the age of the celebrity chef evolved, and with wine writer Robert Parker romanticising wine and food in the US, a true revolution took off.
Elin asks Tor who his idols were. He names Robert Mondavi, Myron Nightingale (the folksy but eminent winemaker at Beringer), and winemakers Tony Soter, John Kongsgaard, and Andre Tchelistcheff. He reminisces about how the old guard – Louis Martini, Jack Davies, Myron Nightingale, Bob Mondavi and Andre Tchelistcheff – often met at the Grape Vine Inn to talk about what makes great wine, its tannins, its acid, its ph. He remembers Andre Tchelistcheff having the last word, exclaiming, “No, it’s the flesh.” Tor tells Elin that the great wines he has made all had in their youth a certain core of good fruit, not over-ripe, or under-ripe, there was a mid-palate flesh in those wines.
““I’ve been doing what I love to do now for 50 years…the wine industry allows you – if you are a person that is a curious person, which I consider myself to be – it allows you to be curious all your life.””
While working at Beringer, Tor started to experiment with his own winemaking, and in the 1980s he and his neighbour, viticulturist David Abreu worked together. They followed the minimal-intervention model of Burgundy, and the winemaking was very rudimentary. “For temperature control, we had to forklift the fermentation bin out of the sun,” he says. Tor sees Napa Valley replicating Burgundy more than Bordeaux, as there are a lot of small growers and producers. “It is that producer relationship that exists in Burgundy that we live with in the Napa Valley, more so than Bordeaux.” Relationships are key to getting access to the best plots in the vineyards of these historic vineyards, he adds. “I have 8/10 blocks of To Kalon because I have the respect of Andy Beckstoffer, we are friends. The same with Vine Hill Ranch, they respect what we are doing as a winery. So, when blocks become available, we are on the shortlist. Relationship and reputations become very important long-term for the survival and success of any winery that looks at vineyard designation.”
Tor’s first vintage was 2001. “We had access to a vineyard next to Andre Tchelistcheff’s office at Beaulieu Vineyards. The next year they replanted the vines!” He tells Elin how he had to sometimes scramble the first couple of years, but in 2005 Andy Bekcstoffer offered him some vines in To Kalon, one of Napa’s premium vineyards. He tells Elin he is constantly on the lookout for new plots and there are several he would love to make wine from, including some very old Cabernet Franc. He admits that the style of Napa Cabernet Sauvignon has shifted over the 40 years he has been in the Valley, the last 20 years due to huge replanting, replacing of rootstocks and clones. There used to be a certain green character to some of the Cabernets, due to the “California sprawl,” where some of the fruit didn’t see enough sunlight. He admits that he believes the style change went too far, was too extreme, too ripe, and that in the last five-to-eight years, there has been a movement to more structured, balanced wine.
Tor maintains that he believes in the future of Cabernet Sauvignon in Napa Valley, despite the challenges of climate change. He points out that they are now using less water in the winery, employing different canopy management of the vines, and that many thousands of dollars are going into research to solve the critical issues that climate change is bringing. Elin asks what he thinks is his greatest success. His family, Tor replies, his wife and two children. “I’ve been doing what I love to do now for 50 years…the wine industry allows you – if you are a person that is a curious person, which I consider myself to be – it allows you to be curious all your life.”
At a recreation of the famous Paris Tasting, Tor Beckstoffer To Kalon 2016 took top place, beating Screaming Eagle and a host of international names. Tor was thrilled to have been selected as one of the 10 top Cabernet blends to compete – he had never expected to win. Another thrill was his book, “Reflections of a Vintner: Stories and Seasonal Wisdom from a Lifetime in Napa Valley,” being favourably reviewed by “Good Morning America,” one of the leading US TV shows. He concludes, “If you told me I was going to be making wines that sold for several hundred dollars, wines that would win Paris tastings and that my name on a book would be on the marquee in Times Square 50 years ago, I would have said, ‘What are you smoking, because you don’t know what the hell you are talking about!’”
Running Order:-
-
0.00 – 20.23
“A friend had a wine store and loved jazz and wine.. he ripped a lot of corks on these great wines and it changed my perspective on almost everything.”
– Elin introduces Tor Kenward, owner of Tor Wines, which produces brilliant single-vineyard wines from the Napa Valley.
– Tor’s new book, “Reflections of a Vintner: Stories and seasonal wisdom from a lifetime in the Napa Valley has just been published.
– Growing up in Southern California and discovering wine through a friend while running a jazz club.
– Visiting the Napa Valley in the ‘70s and deciding to move there in 1977.
– What the Napa Valley was like in the ‘70s.
– Getting a job at Beringer Vineyards and travelling to Europe.
– Starting the Beringer programmes, including one for chefs.
– The importance of celebrity chefs and his friendship with Julia Child.
– The beginning of the food and wine movement in the US. -
20.24 – 31.29
“I’ve worn every hat there is to wear in this business.”
– Tor discusses his wine idols.
– The discussion of what makes great wine with Bob Mondavi, Jack Davies, Louis Martini, Myron Nightingale and Andre Tchelistcheff.
– Experimenting and making wine with viticulturist David Abreu.
– Working on the Beringer culinary programme for chefs. -
31.30 – 51.00
“It is the producer/grower relationship that exists in Burgundy that we live with in the Napa Valley, more so than the Bordeaux business model.”
– Tor starts to make wine while at Beringer.
– The importance of relationships in obtaining the best plots to buy grapes.
– Making the first vintage of Tor in 2001.
– The vineyards Tor makes wine from and those he would like to in the future.
– How the style of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon has evolved. -
51.01 – 1.07
“I’ve been doing what I love to do now for 50 years.”
– What success means to Tor – his family.
– Matching wine and music.
– Taking first place int the 2021 recreation of the Paris tasting with Tor Beckstoffer To Kalon 201.
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