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Being a Winemaker

I read the Wine Spectator today. Turns out that the current CEO of AIG Insurance is also a winemaker.

You'll recall that AIG is the company that almost sent the American economy into a total disaster. To stabilize the company, they enticed Robert Benmosche to join the company over a year ago.

This Benmosche, who is a New York native who used to run Met Life, turns out to be a "winemaker." Not in someplace nearby like the Finger Lakes, not in Long Island but all the way in Croatia.

I know lots of winemakers and I don't know any of them who could make wine in Croatia from the Board room of AIG in downtown Manhattan. This is biblical imagery -- perhaps someone on Wall Street can turn derivatives into Grand Cru Burgundy!

Winemaker is a term thrown around quite a bit. Robert Benmosche owns a winery. Robert Benmosche owns vines. Robert Benmosche owns wine.

But Robert Benmosche is not a winemaker.

Please don't bother me with arguments about négociants and larger domaines. Robert Benmosche has an investment and good for him. Lots of celebrities have winemaking investments and there is nothing wrong with that. I'm not sure, but I believe I read somewhere that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are also winemakers.

Chacun son métier, as they say in French (look it up), and journalists making a barrel or two somewhere, bored or impassioned businessmen, investors and wealthy wine drinkers looking for a personal angle are not winemakers.

Please, cut out the nonsense.



- Joe Dressner 12-22-2009 11:41pm
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Joe Dressner - Captain Tumor Man!


Hi, I'm Joe Dressner the famous wine importer and I have brain cancer!

I already have a wine blog and frankly wine is such a luxury business that I hate to mix my cancer problems with my wine observations. I think it would be a general downer for the lifestyle crowd out there.

Furthermore, we in the wine trade always claim there are tremendous health benefits to drinking wine. I've already had cardiovascular bypass surgery over eight years ago and now I got a tumor aggressively rattling in my brain. My colleagues in the glamorous wine industry want me to keep it quiet.

So, I've started this wonderful new blog to discuss wine, brain tumors, my life and to give you hot tips on handling the cancer stricken around you. There will also be practical wine/radiation pairings when I start radiation therapy and chemotherapy next week.

Having brain cancer means I might both physically and intellectually decline. So, I will be using this blog as a venue to pursue petty vendettas against relatives, acquaintances and people in the wine trade.

I might also lose touch with reality and say things that are not true or are only half true. The important thing is to have fun and enjoy this rare and precious time in my life.

One of my pet vendettas is my cousin Dr. Barbara Hirsch. Dr. Barbara Hirsch is a very important Great Neck Endocrinologist, who was raised and nurtured by my parents. Dr. Hirsch waited until my father was near death and my mother was suffering from a rare neuromuscular disorder, to write them a seven page letter denouncing them for being horrible to her for the entirety of her life! Despite my concerns, Dr. Hirsch still refuses to apologize.

Last night, I drank a beautiful bottle of Bourgueil Clos Sénéchal 2005 from Pierre Breton. It was sublime and reminded me that I used to be healthy. Not only that, the vineyard used to be there before I existed. It exists independently of my having cancer and will continue to exist. You ought to buy some.

August 2009 Postscript: Not only does it exist independently of my cancer, it also exists independently of Louis/Dressner Selections. After 18 years, they have dumped us for Kermit Lynch. Oh well. At least I'm alive!