Obsessives: Winemaker

Published on Tuesday, February 24, 2009, by Meredith Arthur, Eric Slatkin, and Blake Smith / Edit Post

Obsessives: Winemaker

By Meredith Arthur, Eric Slatkin, and Blake Smith

Sean Thackrey is a winemaker, indeed, but he is so much more: an archivist, historian, linguist, photographer, art collector. Thackrey shares his views on the importance of barrels, respect for ancient techniques like letting grapes rest, the word terroir (he hates it), and much more. For wine aficionados, he’s an inspiration. For wine novices, he’s a deep source of knowledge.

This is a regular series called Obsessives, in which CHOW explores the worlds of singularly focused food-industry figures. These are the people with the dirty hands, answering detailed questions about the work they do.

ALLObsessives
POST A COMMENT |15 Comments

COMMENT

  • Dear Meredith,

    This is a priceless video. I posted the link on Robert Parker's website and it was well received. Many wine enthusiasts are looking for more great video like this. Some even nominate your video as the video of the year. I would love to inform you that if you are interested in doing another one of this video, I like to nominate Terrence Leighton of Kalin Cellars for that. If Sean...+READ

    Dear Meredith,

    This is a priceless video. I posted the link on Robert Parker's website and it was well received. Many wine enthusiasts are looking for more great video like this. Some even nominate your video as the video of the year. I would love to inform you that if you are interested in doing another one of this video, I like to nominate Terrence Leighton of Kalin Cellars for that. If Sean Thackrey is obessed with making wine as an art form, then Terrence Leighton is obessed with aging wines until it is ready to be released. His philospphy is one that is not practiced in the wine trade. I hope that you will receive this message and have the opportunity to do a little research on Terrence Leighton. Thank you for producing this video.

    Sam Chen-COLLAPSE

  • PLEASE sent/email me adress of SEAN Thackrey - I am an importer in Europe who would like to get in touch with Sean and buy some wine !!

    Email: nordicwinetraders@gmail.com

    Thanks
    Anders

  • Dear Meredith,

    Lovely to see Sean getting some recognition; he really has an amazing amount to share, as you've discovered! My partner and I are working on a feature documentary about Sean's unique philosophy, the creative process and the power of art that we started shooting in late harvest 2006. We hope to have the film out later this year or early 2010. It's fiscally sponsored through the...+READ

    Dear Meredith,

    Lovely to see Sean getting some recognition; he really has an amazing amount to share, as you've discovered! My partner and I are working on a feature documentary about Sean's unique philosophy, the creative process and the power of art that we started shooting in late harvest 2006. We hope to have the film out later this year or early 2010. It's fiscally sponsored through the non-profit Center for Media Change and we have a trailer for the upcoming film at http://www.mindmademedia.com/documentary.php. It has been a privilege and true joy to spend time with Sean and his team and we look forward to sharing the results of that time with everyone very soon. And finally getting to drink the bottle of '03 Orion we've been holding onto until the film's completed!

    All best,

    Alexandra Austin
    Producer & Co-Director, "Sean Thackrey: Pleasure Architect"-COLLAPSE

  • Thackrey is one of my heroes, and he seems to inspire a truly devoted following. I stumbled across his wines in a British shop over a decade ago, and they mesmerised me, from the signature Orion down to the Pleiades. The people in the store adored them: they'd paid a visit during a trip to California that became more of a pilgrimage.

    Those wines are now rarer (and costlier) back in Britain, but...+READ

    Thackrey is one of my heroes, and he seems to inspire a truly devoted following. I stumbled across his wines in a British shop over a decade ago, and they mesmerised me, from the signature Orion down to the Pleiades. The people in the store adored them: they'd paid a visit during a trip to California that became more of a pilgrimage.

    Those wines are now rarer (and costlier) back in Britain, but living in the US gives me the chance to sample every year's releases as they becoms available. I never tire of his work, and never expect to do so. The Pleiades is my mainstay, which I describe to friends as a "silly" wine, but ought to qualify that by saying it's more like having a joyful, playful friend. I like this comment from a blogger who tasted the Sirius: "Thackrey's wines are a little crazy, and it seems you either like the crazy or you don't." I adore it.

    Thanks indeed, CHOW. While you can get a good taste of the winemaker from the glass, it's wonderful to hear him speak about the process.-COLLAPSE

  • A simply beautiful piece on a simply beautiful man. Looking forward to savoring his wines. Thanks CHOW.

  • I used to live down the street from Sean Thackrey in Bolinas so in 2001 I bought a special bottle of Orion for my parents anniversary. That bottle of wine is etched in all our memories. The way it opened up and changed hour after hour and even the next day was astounding. My mom still brings it up. Its one of my best wine memories....Thanks Sean!

  • wow. so interesting. thanks for this.

  • I've only had the Pleiades, so far, but it's a great wine at any price and particularly at the price point (about $20)

  • Meredith, Thank you for this. Mr. Thackery is just an absolute treasure and such an amazing human. It's so rare to find the combination of an innately brilliant soul AND winemaker with such humility and connection with the universe and human kind. The blindingly honest and sensitive nature in which he expresses his methods, findings, experiences and the candid way he explains the connection...+READ

    Meredith, Thank you for this. Mr. Thackery is just an absolute treasure and such an amazing human. It's so rare to find the combination of an innately brilliant soul AND winemaker with such humility and connection with the universe and human kind. The blindingly honest and sensitive nature in which he expresses his methods, findings, experiences and the candid way he explains the connection between the life of a modern time wine maker/ farmer to that of one in the 16th century via an ancient book was astounding and eye opening. Thanks again.-COLLAPSE

  • The 2005 Pleiades if F****** BRILLIANT.

  • Thanks, next time I'll use your video tip to watch! Mr. Thackrey's website is a treasure!

  • Hey HillJ,

    So glad you love the obsessives and thank you so much for the kudos. I think the issue may be that with the longer videos the streaming is more of an issue than with the smaller CHOW Tipish ones. What I recommend is that you load the video and then hit pause, then once it's fully loaded (which you see on the scrolling bar), click play. You should not have loading problem, or those...+READ

    Hey HillJ,

    So glad you love the obsessives and thank you so much for the kudos. I think the issue may be that with the longer videos the streaming is more of an issue than with the smaller CHOW Tipish ones. What I recommend is that you load the video and then hit pause, then once it's fully loaded (which you see on the scrolling bar), click play. You should not have loading problem, or those "sticky" parts when playing. If you think you see something besides that, let us know, but when we watched it before uploading there were no sticky nicks.

    Thanks again for your note, Meredith-COLLAPSE

  • Meredith, I noted a few nicks in the tapes run. Might want to check tape quality.

    Bravo, these obsessives are my fav area of the CHOW side.

  • wow, so fascinating. thank you, Mr Thackrey and Chow.

  • He's nutters...fabulously so!