Sean Thackrey
Encyclopedia
Sean Thackrey is an American
winemaker
based in the Marin County, California
enclave of Bolinas
. From a background as director of an art gallery, Thackrey has been described as an unconventional winemaker who has done pioneering work in promoting California Syrah.
at Reed College
in Portland, OR
, and the University of Vienna
, but without graduating. He moved to Bolinas in 1964 and for a while worked as a book editor for the Sierra Club
. In 1970, Thackrey, with Susan Thackrey and Cynthia Pritzker, opened the art gallery in San Francisco that became Thackrey & Robertson, by then in partnership with watercolorist Sally Robertson; the gallery remained operational until closed in 1995. Thackrey's particular expertise was in early photography, in exhibiting which the gallery was an internationally renowned pioneer.
After several years in Berkeley and San Francisco, Thackrey moved back to Bolinas in the 1977. Following initial winemaking experiments with Cabernet Sauvignon
grapes purchased from Fay Vineyard in Napa Valley
, Thackrey became a bonded winemaker in 1981, as the Thackrey & Co. winery. Some early problems with lactobacillus
led Thackrey to take extension courses at UC Davis, although he states he has little use for the scientific approach to winemaking.
Thackrey sources fruit from grape growers in Napa Valley, Marin County and Mendocino
, and is prone to employ the unconventional technique of letting grapes 'rest' at least 24 hours outside, fermenting under the stars. Thackrey contends the idea can be traced to the texts of the Greek poet Hesiod
, Works and Days
(circa 700 B.C.). Not employed by anyone else at present, Thackrey claims this method was commonplace in wine literature until the middle of the 19th century.
/Cabernet Sauvignon
blend named Aquila, had an initial production of 190 winecase.
Thackrey's flagship wine is Orion (Sean Thackrey Orion Rossi Vineyard St. Helena California Native Red Wine), produced from 1986-1990 using Syrah grapes from Arthur Schmidt's old vine vineyard near Yountville until this was bought by Clarke Swanson, and since 1992 from the 5 acres (2 ha) Rossi vineyard in St. Helena
, planted in 1905. Thackrey is uncertain what grape varieties are in the field blend, as UC Davis researchers have attempted a vineyard test without certain conclusions."
The experimental nonvintage blend Pleiades (Sean Thackrey Pleiades California Red Table Wine) was first released in 1992. Made from a host of different grape varieties (potentially both white and red, such as Syrah, Barbera
, Zinfandel
, Carignan, Pinot Noir
, Mourvèdre
and Grenache
), potentially from different regions and different vintages. The recipe changes every year, depending on the decisions of Thackrey and the fruit sourced. Thackrey has said, "It's like a chef's special. You trust the chef so you're prepared to order the dish of the day".
Andromeda was Thackrey's first commercial Pinot Noir varietal
, and his first wine to be made from fruit exclusively from Marin County.
Other wines include the Taurus Cline Vineyard Mourvèdre, Sirius Eaglepoint Ranch Mendocino County Petite Sirah and the Aquila Eaglepoint Ranch Mendocino County Sangiovese
. Thackrey has an output of approximately 4000 winecase annually.
. Although Thackrey has never advertised his wines, customer demand for his wines considerably outweighs his small-scale production.
Occasionally voicing opinions contrary to conventional belief, Thackrey does not consider terroir
to be the most important element in creating fine wine, having said, "I'm not saying terroir doesn't exist, there are just a lot of other things going on". Thackrey has described AVAs
and appellations as a "gerrymandered marketing gimmick", and the AOCs
of France as "viticultural racism". Having termed himself an agnostic about terroir, he has also stated he is agnostic about global warming
, adding, "The real story is a greater willingness to deal with cooler regions. Remember that Carneros
was once considered absolutely marginal. Fifty years ago, nobody would have dreamed to plant grapes there".
Thackrey's website holds what is titled "The Thackrey Library", which includes an extensive archive of early books and manuscripts relating to the subject of winemaking and the enjoyment of wine. Having collected ancient wine texts since 1996, the oldest document is a sixth century papyrus receipt for grapevines written in Greek.
Thackrey's media appearances include a segment in the 2007 California season of Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure
, and a documentary film titled Sean Thackrey: Pleasure Architect, scheduled for release during 2010.
fire in a converted military bunker warehouse at Mare Island
near Vallejo, CA
, resulted in a loss of near 4,000 cases of Thackrey's wine. Initially estimating to lose as much as $2 million, Thackrey stated, "This has a major impact on my existence. I only have just barely enough [wine] left to drink myself into the grave". 500 winecase of Thackrey's wines were later recovered, in an event that resulted in the loss of 6 million bottles owned by 43 collectors and 92 various Napa Valley wineries, many of whom lost their entire stock.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
winemaker
Winemaking
Winemaking, or vinification, is the production of wine, starting with selection of the grapes or other produce and ending with bottling the finished wine. Although most wine is made from grapes, it may also be made from other fruit or non-toxic plant material...
based in the Marin County, California
Marin County, California
Marin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...
enclave of Bolinas
Bolinas, California
Bolinas formerly Juggville is a coastal unincorporated community in Marin County, California in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bolinas is located west-southwest of San Rafael, at an elevation of 36 feet...
. From a background as director of an art gallery, Thackrey has been described as an unconventional winemaker who has done pioneering work in promoting California Syrah.
Career
Thackrey studied art historyArt history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
at Reed College
Reed College
Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
in Portland, OR
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, and the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
, but without graduating. He moved to Bolinas in 1964 and for a while worked as a book editor for the Sierra Club
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...
. In 1970, Thackrey, with Susan Thackrey and Cynthia Pritzker, opened the art gallery in San Francisco that became Thackrey & Robertson, by then in partnership with watercolorist Sally Robertson; the gallery remained operational until closed in 1995. Thackrey's particular expertise was in early photography, in exhibiting which the gallery was an internationally renowned pioneer.
After several years in Berkeley and San Francisco, Thackrey moved back to Bolinas in the 1977. Following initial winemaking experiments with Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley...
grapes purchased from Fay Vineyard in Napa Valley
Napa Valley AVA
Napa Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Napa County, California, United States. Napa Valley is considered one of the top wine regions in the United States...
, Thackrey became a bonded winemaker in 1981, as the Thackrey & Co. winery. Some early problems with lactobacillus
Lactobacillus
Lactobacillus is a genus of Gram-positive facultative anaerobic or microaerophilic rod-shaped bacteria. They are a major part of the lactic acid bacteria group, named as such because most of its members convert lactose and other sugars to lactic acid. They are common and usually benign...
led Thackrey to take extension courses at UC Davis, although he states he has little use for the scientific approach to winemaking.
Thackrey sources fruit from grape growers in Napa Valley, Marin County and Mendocino
Mendocino AVA
The Mendocino AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Mendocino County, California. Within this larger appellation are several smaller AVAs, and applications are pending with the United States Department of the Treasury Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau to create new AVAs out of the...
, and is prone to employ the unconventional technique of letting grapes 'rest' at least 24 hours outside, fermenting under the stars. Thackrey contends the idea can be traced to the texts of the Greek poet Hesiod
Hesiod
Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
, Works and Days
Works and Days
Works and Days is a didactic poem of some 800 verses written by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod around 700 BC. At its center, the Works and Days is a farmer's almanac in which Hesiod instructs his brother Perses in the agricultural arts...
(circa 700 B.C.). Not employed by anyone else at present, Thackrey claims this method was commonplace in wine literature until the middle of the 19th century.
Wines
Thackrey's first vintage in 1981, a MerlotMerlot
Merlot is a darkly blue-coloured wine grape, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name Merlot is thought to derive from the Old French word for young blackbird, merlot, a diminutive of merle, the blackbird , probably from the color of the grape. Merlot-based wines...
/Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley...
blend named Aquila, had an initial production of 190 winecase.
Thackrey's flagship wine is Orion (Sean Thackrey Orion Rossi Vineyard St. Helena California Native Red Wine), produced from 1986-1990 using Syrah grapes from Arthur Schmidt's old vine vineyard near Yountville until this was bought by Clarke Swanson, and since 1992 from the 5 acres (2 ha) Rossi vineyard in St. Helena
St. Helena AVA
The St. Helena AVA is an American Viticultural Area located within Napa Valley, centered around the town of St. Helena, California. The appellation covers along the flat narrow land towards the northern end of the valley between the Vaca and Mayacamas Mountains. Charles Krug, one of pioneers of...
, planted in 1905. Thackrey is uncertain what grape varieties are in the field blend, as UC Davis researchers have attempted a vineyard test without certain conclusions."
The experimental nonvintage blend Pleiades (Sean Thackrey Pleiades California Red Table Wine) was first released in 1992. Made from a host of different grape varieties (potentially both white and red, such as Syrah, Barbera
Barbera
Barbera is a red Italian wine grape variety that, as of 2000, was the third most-planted red grape variety in Italy . It produces good yields and is known for deep color, low tannins and high levels of acid...
, Zinfandel
Zinfandel
Zinfandel is a variety of red grape planted in over 10 percent of California vineyards. DNA fingerprinting revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grape Crljenak Kaštelanski, and also the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in Puglia , where it was introduced in the 18th century...
, Carignan, Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir
Pinot noir is a black wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes...
, Mourvèdre
Mourvèdre
Mourvèdre , Mataró or Monastrell is wine grape variety used to make both strong, dark red wines and rosés. It is an international variety grown in many regions around the world....
and Grenache
Grenache
Grenache is one of the most widely planted red wine grape varieties in the world. It ripens late, so it needs hot, dry conditions such as those found in Spain, the south of France, and California's San Joaquin Valley. It is generally spicy, berry-flavored and soft on the palate with a relatively...
), potentially from different regions and different vintages. The recipe changes every year, depending on the decisions of Thackrey and the fruit sourced. Thackrey has said, "It's like a chef's special. You trust the chef so you're prepared to order the dish of the day".
Andromeda was Thackrey's first commercial Pinot Noir varietal
Varietal
"Varietal" describes wines made primarily from a single named grape variety, and which typically displays the name of that variety on the wine label. Examples of grape varieties commonly used in varietal wines are Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Merlot...
, and his first wine to be made from fruit exclusively from Marin County.
Other wines include the Taurus Cline Vineyard Mourvèdre, Sirius Eaglepoint Ranch Mendocino County Petite Sirah and the Aquila Eaglepoint Ranch Mendocino County Sangiovese
Sangiovese
Sangiovese is a red Italian wine grape variety whose name derives from the Latin sanguis Jovis, "the blood of Jove"...
. Thackrey has an output of approximately 4000 winecase annually.
Exposure
Despite Thackrey's fringe profile, he has consistently received high scores from major critics such as Robert ParkerRobert M. Parker, Jr.
Robert M. Parker, Jr. is a leading U.S. wine critic with an international influence. His wine ratings on a 100-point scale and his newsletter The Wine Advocate, with his particular stylistic preferences and notetaking vocabulary, have become very influential in American wine buying and are...
. Although Thackrey has never advertised his wines, customer demand for his wines considerably outweighs his small-scale production.
Occasionally voicing opinions contrary to conventional belief, Thackrey does not consider terroir
Terroir
Terroir comes from the word terre "land". It was originally a French term in wine, coffee and tea used to denote the special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of a certain place bestowed upon particular varieties...
to be the most important element in creating fine wine, having said, "I'm not saying terroir doesn't exist, there are just a lot of other things going on". Thackrey has described AVAs
American Viticultural Area
An American Viticultural Area is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States distinguishable by geographic features, with boundaries defined by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau , United States Department of the Treasury....
and appellations as a "gerrymandered marketing gimmick", and the AOCs
Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée
Appellation d’origine contrôlée , which translates as "controlled designation of origin", is the French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products, all under the auspices of the government bureau Institut National...
of France as "viticultural racism". Having termed himself an agnostic about terroir, he has also stated he is agnostic about global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
, adding, "The real story is a greater willingness to deal with cooler regions. Remember that Carneros
Los Carneros AVA
Los Carneros AVA is an American Viticultural Area which includes parts of both Sonoma and Napa counties in California, U.S.A.. It is located north of San Pablo Bay. The proximity to the cool fog and breezes from the bay makes the climate in Los Carneros cooler and more moderate than the wine...
was once considered absolutely marginal. Fifty years ago, nobody would have dreamed to plant grapes there".
Thackrey's website holds what is titled "The Thackrey Library", which includes an extensive archive of early books and manuscripts relating to the subject of winemaking and the enjoyment of wine. Having collected ancient wine texts since 1996, the oldest document is a sixth century papyrus receipt for grapevines written in Greek.
Thackrey's media appearances include a segment in the 2007 California season of Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure
Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure
Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure is a BBC television programme of which two series have been broadcast. It is presented by wine expert Oz Clarke and motoring journalist James May , with Clarke aiming to educate May about wine while undertaking a road trip. The first season focused on France and...
, and a documentary film titled Sean Thackrey: Pleasure Architect, scheduled for release during 2010.
Vallejo warehouse fire
A October 12, 2005 arsonArson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
fire in a converted military bunker warehouse at Mare Island
Mare Island
Mare Island is a peninsula in the United States alongside the city of Vallejo, California, about northeast of San Francisco. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait juncture with the east side of San Pablo Bay. Mare Island is considered a peninsula because no full...
near Vallejo, CA
Vallejo, California
Vallejo is the largest city in Solano County, California, United States. The population was 115,942 at the 2010 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area on the northeastern shore of San Pablo Bay...
, resulted in a loss of near 4,000 cases of Thackrey's wine. Initially estimating to lose as much as $2 million, Thackrey stated, "This has a major impact on my existence. I only have just barely enough [wine] left to drink myself into the grave". 500 winecase of Thackrey's wines were later recovered, in an event that resulted in the loss of 6 million bottles owned by 43 collectors and 92 various Napa Valley wineries, many of whom lost their entire stock.