Last week we received the sad news that our friend, and a personal mentor, Bill Blatch, had passed away in February. In the U.S. Bill’s name is not ubiquitous to the wine industry like our own Kermit Lynch, but for those of us who are fans of petite chateau Bordeaux he was no less important. Working more than 50 years in the Bordeaux trade he was a bonafide expert in the Classified Growths, but his business in this country was championing the smaller estates who fall outside the spotlight of those famous properties.
I first met Bill in 2002 when he came to town to show his portfolio of 20+ wines from the smaller estates he had discovered primarily in the rolling hills of the Entre-Deux-Mers. My staff and I were blown away, so much so that we organized a consumer tasting and pre-sold the wines, many of which sold for less than $15 a bottle. For the next fifteen years we would eagerly anticipate our annual meeting with Bill, often after hours with pizza, where he would dazzle us with his knowledge and wine selections. He was always honest in his assessment of how each property performed in the current vintage, often un-selling the occasional wine he found did not translate from barrel to bottle. Of course our customers gobbled them up, each year selling more than the previous.
My last meeting with Bill was after he officially retired, when we ran into each other at the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux tasting in Pessac-Léognan, pictured below. We chatted briefly but he later sat down next to me at lunch where we spent a good half hour chatting. He made me feel like a real VIP as one industry luminary after another came by to say hello to him, and he introduced me as “the most important wine merchant in Florida.” His hyperbole not withstanding, the time he took to tell me about his fly fishing adventures and semi-retirement projects made me very happy for him. At 77 he left this world too soon and I hope that his eternity is spent drinking the wines he loved, particularly Sauternes, from vintages past, present and future.
