Interview with Nick Goldschmidt

Experience is his teacher: An interview with winemaker Nick Goldschmidt – My Full Wine Glass

For Nick Goldschmidt, owner and winemaker at Goldschmidt Vineyards, continuity and consistency matter most when choosing a label. Why then, he asks, do reviewers focus only on young and upcoming winemakers?

“I find it funny that they name the 40 under 40 best. How about the 50 best over 50? Those are the ones I want to drink.”

At 58, Goldschmidt is Exhibit A in his argument for age-worthy winemakers. His career spans more than 30 years in eight countries. In addition to their Healdsburg, California-based winery, Nick and wife Yolyn own properties in Chile and in their native New Zealand. Nick also has long-term consulting contracts in Argentina, Australia, Canada, and Mexico.

Over the last year or so, I had a chance to meet “the girls” – the three Goldschmidt wines named for the couple’s daughters: Katherine and Hilary, two distinctively different Cabernets, and Chelsea, a Merlot. A week ago, just after he returned from Chile, Nick and I caught up via Zoom for a wide-ranging chat on the present and future state of the wine industry. (Please note that comments are edited for length and clarity.)

First, a bit of bio

Nick began his career in 1982 after earning degrees in viticulture and enology. He worked first as a researcher and then traveled extensively to harvests in several new-world wine countries.

In 1990, he became chief winemaker at Simi, a pioneer in the Alexander Valley subregion of Sonoma County, just north of Healdsburg. Simi was first owned by LVMH and subsequently by Constellation while Nick was there. He then moved on to hold vice president and executive winemaker roles at Allied Domecq Wines and Beam Wine Estates overseeing Buena Vista, Clos Du Bois, Gary Farrell, William Hill, Mumm Napa, and other brands.

Nick and Yolyn established their own family winery in 1998. Goldschmidt wines are all single-vineyard, 100% varietal, handcrafted wines intended to express their unique sites. Nick has received a variety of awards and accolades throughout his career. More than 100 of Goldschmidt’s wines have received 90 points and above from Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, and Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, and 20 wines have been included in Wine Spectator Top 100.

Key points and takeaways

“No place in the world has soils like Maipo.”

Maipo is located in the Central Valley of Chile, surrounding Santiago, and is known for its Bordeaux-like soils. Nick has been coming to Chile since 1990.

“A revolution is going on in Chile.” Traditional viticulture has improved, he says, and so has entrepreneurship. “What’s not been explored thoroughly is how far north you can go. The problem is there are no roads. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.”

Besides Chile, there are places in Argentina and in northern British Columbia [north of the Okanagan Valley] to be developed, too, he says. “With global warming, there’s more ability to plant in those regions as well.”

“I can throw a stone from here and it’s a different soil – it’s what makes Napa [and Sonoma] different.”

“Let’s say it’s a 20-acre vineyard. The number of soils can be three or four. Stonemason [the Alexander Valley home to “Katherine” Cabernet grapes] is a hillside – you have three dramatic soil types. We make each one differently, extract them differently. At the end of 18 months, we sit down to a blend of the three. Early harvested grapes are more dense; late harvested grapes are more elegant. We’re not using generic winemaking – anyone can do that. We emphasize site-specific winemaking and making the best wine we can from the site-specific soil.”

“Sustainability doesn’t mean organics.”

“We’re getting rid of herbicides, compaction from tractors running up and down rows, and the amount of lime in water. In stony soils, it’s still hard to use mechanical weeders. Organics are more difficult. There are non-systemic herbicides. There are options besides using Roundup. We may not agree with organics and Biodynamics [Biodynamic farming takes a holistic view of agriculture;  special vineyard preparations eliminate the use of chemicals.] But they’re making everyone rethink the status quo.”

“Getting educated is what growing grapes is all about. New Zealand was the first place to do sustainability; Chile second, then Sonoma. I don’t want that [organics] to be the reason people buy my wine. People don’t understand that wine is one of the most natural products on the market – breathing, evolving.”

“Terroir only exists if you don’t irrigate.”

That high-alcohol Zin you love? Forget about it! That’s just your body tricking you to feel the acidity, but not the sugar. It has nothing to do with terroir at all.

“As we run out of water, as yields go down and the price of land, fuel, and labor are going up, we’ll be looking for more ways to mitigate [through] fresher styles with less alcohol. It’s happening globally.”

Nick has been “fanatical” about rootstocks and deeper rooting – to be prepared to lower the amount of irrigation. You can mitigate dry soils without irrigation, he says. “We’re looking for fresh fruit, so we’re picking grapes with lower alcohol.”

“Every grape in Napa/Sonoma is tainted.”

“We live with frost, hail, and Botrytis,” Nick says. Fire is just another one of those things we’ll have to learn to live with. “Every country is having fires. We will have fires in 2021. I hope they won’t be as significant.”

In California, the 2020 fires were hugely different than their predecessors. First, they occurred a month earlier, and then, they lingered. “The Glass Fire was not a big deal. The Hennessey and Walbridge fires were big, and smoke just sat around in the valley and tainted the grapes. Lateral leaves are the lungs of the vine – they’re breathing in what is around.”

“Early-season grapes and whites are less affected. In fact, in whites, it is easy to make wine without smoke by pressing quickly and not adding too much pressed wine.”

Fortunately, responsible winemakers know how to fix wines to a level below the threshold. “We’ve had significant success in Canada with these wines. We know how to put a good wine in the bottle without it being smoky, but a lot of wineries will take shortcuts.”

And then there’s the consumer. Despite a “phenomenal” 2020 vintage, Nick says, the consumer won’t buy it. “It’s a huge perception issue.”

“The future of wine is two things: direct-to-consumer and négociants.”

A négociant is a wine merchant who buys and assembles the produce of smaller growers and winemakers and sells the result. Nick sees the future of distributorship as being either director to-consumer or négociants.

“Distributors are challenging laws because they’re being challenged. We’re going to end up with super-big companies that have shareholder value. You can’t fight companies like Concha y Toro; they’re not public. They will always have a route to market. Small to medium-sized producers need to spend their time and energy getting wines into the hands of consumers – either get super big or decrease volume and go direct.

“People should be looking for people, not brands.“

“I don’t have anything bad to say about large companies. I quite like the big guys. But the consumer needs to stop being so lazy. What I look for is a person I know, a place I know, a wink to the region. I’m not going to buy a branded product. The average consumer goes to Alexander Valley and Napa. Don’t be safe. Safe is boring.”