An invitation to dine with the 89-year-old composer and Napa vineyard owner Gordon Getty? Our editor jumped at the chance, and it was by far one of the most memorable nights of the year.
The 54-acre CADE Winery in Napa
When Gordon Getty invites you to dinner to discuss his life, you go. And when the fourth child of J. Paul Getty suggests dinner in New York at The Grill in the iconic Seagram building, you arrive early.
It’s that kind of night.
When I walk into the restaurant, Getty is already there. It’s a Wednesday evening, and the exquisitely designed space is in full buzz; every booth and table in the cavernous dining room is occupied with the Big Apple’s glitterati.
I spot the billionaire standing at the edge of the room. He doesn’t look like a man who’s nearly 90. Instead he’s taking in the scene and grinning like someone who’s been in countless rooms populated with countless stars exactly like this over the decades.
Getty, a San Francisco native, wears a gray sport coat with a lavender gingham shirt with an unbuttoned collar. His hair is no longer the unruly Julius Caesar-meets-Bob Dylan look I recall spotting from Google searches; instead, it’s close cropped and silver, with enough hair tousled to look a bit like a working composer. Which is exactly what Getty is, as he’s created many works, most recently Goodbye, Mr. Chips. He’s even been inducted into the Opera Hall of Fame, and his work has been performed in New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Royal Festival Hall, Vienna’s Brahms Saal and Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall and Bolshoi Theatre.
The tasting room at Odette Winery
But we’re here to talk about something Getty might not be known for: his vinous pursuits. We’re joined by John Conover, one of Getty’s two partners (the other is Gavin Newsom) in The PlumpJack Collection (plumpjackcollection.com), which includes Napa’s PlumpJack Estate Winery, CADE Estate Winery, Odette Estate Winery, Adaptation and 13th Vineyard by CADE; the latter is a recent acquisition. The wine venture also recently purchased Oso Vineyard, a 129-acre Pope Valley property—making The PlumpJack Collection estate portfolio one of the largest in Napa Valley.
We’re escorted to a corner booth and handed a War and Peace-size wine list. Getty and Conover study it like graduate research fellows. They quickly find wines from The PlumpJack Collection, and the ordering begins.
Conover hints at a contest we’ll play later in the meal: He’ll secretly order a bottle of wine from anywhere on the planet, and once served a glass, Getty and I are supposed to guess the region and vintage. Intimidating, for sure, especially given Getty’s legendary wine palate and nose.
I mention my concern. “It’ll be like a 49ers competing against an ankle-biter football team,” I say. “Not much of a contest.”
Wine partners at The PlumpJack Collection John Conover and Gordon Getty
Getty waves away my comment and laughs. “Drinking a glass of wine is joy, nothing else,” he says. When the wine-guessing contest commences, one of the bottles Conover orders is a 2000 Chateau Beychevelle from Saint-Julien in southwestern France. Getty nails his guess. Forever the homer, I guess Napa and the year I got married.
But I know I’m among California wine royalty who continue to innovate. After all, CADE is the first LEED-certified Gold winery in Napa Valley (winemakers in Italy, New Zealand, Australia and France have visited CADE to learn how to match these standards back home). PlumpJack also was the first Napa Valley winery to put screw caps on high-end wine—proving, via extensive research and partnership with UC Davis, that the contents fare better than they would when capped with cork.
There’s much for the duo to celebrate, including the 10-year anniversaries in 2022 of the estates’ three head winemakers, Aaron Miller of PlumpJack Estate, Danielle Cyrot of CADE Estate and Jeff Owens of Odette Estate, so I take it as an opportunity to ask Getty and Conover about a range of subjects, from the challenges of wildfires to where the industry is headed.
CADE Winery showcases the work of winemaker Danielle Cyrot.
I’ll invoke Simon Sinek here and simply ask, what’s your why when it comes to wine?
GG: Well, I’m a wine fan for one thing, and I just love trying to make the best. It’s the same thing with a composition; you’re trying to make something that’s absolutely beautiful.
JC: I’m looking at you right now. There’s a smile on your face as you sip this incredible wine. That’s my goal. And I want to deliver something with a story behind it. There are the aromatics. There’s the midpalate. There’s the finish. And there’s a story about people and the land. And vintage Mother Nature agriculture is so different from a can of soda. Sure it’s a commodity, but it’s a story—much like a great piece of music.
Gordon, I’m fascinated by your choice to get into the wine business. Why did you make the leap decades ago?
GG: It all comes down to passion and a sense of stewardship. Those are two things that drive me in music and wine. I’m a caretaker of these pieces of land during my lifetime. And that’s an approach we’ve taken, knowing everything from organic farming to the rigors of certification. It’s about being patient and fanatical about quality.
Your winemakers are becoming legends in their own right. And they stay with you. What’s the secret?
GG: It sounds corny, but we’re a family.
JC: Jeff Owens at Odette has gotten 100-point Parker scores. He’s worked with us for 17 years, right out of college. He’s now married and has two kids. He’s grown up with us. His success is a byproduct of our company making you feel good about what you’re doing every day, allowing you to evolve and experiment as a professional.
You all were the first to implement screw caps on high-end bottles. You did it on the PlumpJack Reserve cabernet sauvignon in 2000, when you bottled the 1997 vintage. Were you terrified it would flop?
GG: Not really. We had the UC Davis science behind us.
JC: Robert Mondavi, who was maybe the greatest innovator in the wine industry, gave us the ultimate compliment at an event. He said, ‘I’m glad it was you and not me, because it took a lot of courage to do it—and do it right.’ Especially for wines with 95 to 100 Parker ratings. And here’s the thing: We didn’t have to do it, but Gordon said, ‘Yes, we have to do it.’ So, we put screw caps on half of the bottles.
Winemaker Aaron Miller at PlumpJack Winery recently celebrated 10 years at the Napa vineyard.
And it changed everything, yes?
JC: It really did. It changed the industry. And there wasn’t much left to be changed. Gordon was the last guy to suggest doing something different, because we’d looked at grapes, vineyards, trellising, fermentation methods like concrete, but no one had looked at the closure of a bottle. And now it’s all accepted.
I hear your field trips for the winemaking-team trips are legendary.
GG: They are [laughs]. But they’re also strategic. Our goal is to learn and get better.
JC: We recently returned from the Rhone Valley, and we came home with plenty of ideas about fermentation, among other things.
Why would you want to change anything about your 95- to 100-point wines?
JC: I once heard something interesting about the kitchen team at Noma in Copenhagen. After it was ranked the best restaurant in the world, instead of resting on their laurels, the executive chef ditched the menu and started from scratch. They do that every year. So brilliant. We believe in pushing ourselves every day and every year. While a chef has a chance to do something amazing every night, we have one shot each year, so why not raise the bar and keep innovating?
Climate change will impact winemakers, of course. How are you adapting?
JC: We’re doing everything from using misting canopies to shade cloth. But global warming means we need to innovate to continue to make great wines. And guess what? We’re in the best region in the world—the Bay Area—for coming up with breakthrough ideas. Plus, we’re really good at adapting in this country.
Parting words, Gordon?
GG: We’re talking too much, so let’s drink this idle wine. Cheers!
Photography by: COURTESY OF THE PLUMPJACK COLLECTION
