The passion of Jean-Charles Boisset: ‘Wine is who I am’
Part 2 – ‘We want India as a great wine region, not just as a great food region’
Boisset expounds on his great affinity for all things Indian, how Indian wine can be very good indeed if made with passion and pride, and his future plans for J’NOON.
It is easy to attribute adjectives like audacious, flamboyant and media-astute to Jean-Charles Boisset. He has proved he is all this and more. But underneath those glittering Alexander McQueen and YSL suits beats a heart filled with a singular passion for his all-consuming raison d’être – wine. (Don’t miss how he personifies himself as a living, breathing vine plant, below).
Then, there is his avowed intent to make J’NOON the best wine in India. Yes, we can, he says.
In Part 2 of the interview, he explains how India is ready to take its place among the upcoming wine regions of the world and produce wines of ‘insane quality’ like J’NOON, to go with the food that India is already famous for.
Whom do you see as the typical consumer of J’NOON?
Someone who is passionate about India, passionate about the expression of India; someone who is proud of India, someone who wants to discover India, someone who is audacious and who wants to feel a different emotion than they have never felt in the traditional world of wine!
You are known as a consummate marketing maven – along with your winemaking skills. How important is it for you for both to co-exist? Also, what are the benefits your Napa/Burgundy crossover background give you, and how it has helped in general?
Prized: Jean-Charles Boisset, photo credit Jeremy Ball. Main photo credit: Alexander Rubin
The essence of a successful, high-quality venture is to be very authentic and to have the will and the resources to make a great wine. Luckily, we have all this as well as a wonderful team who is passionate to execute the long-term success of this incredible expression of India! Therefore, it is important that we maintain insane quality, and that the wonderful spices stay in the wine because we want to create a territory for India. We want to promote India as a great wine region, not just as a great food region. We want to make sure people see it as such — wines with their own identity, own personality, own style and their own world; creating their own circle. This is very exciting because this is the first time it has been done.
I was very fortunate to have been born making wine; wine is who I am. Imagine me as instead of my legs, having roots going down in the soil; imagine me as instead of my blood, having red wine flowing through my veins… We represent the history of wine, the heritage of wine, the finest regions of wine, the development of wine, which is Napa Valley, and then a new way of looking at great wine in a wonderful new country like India. We combine French tradition with the American ideal! We are expressing it in our latest book, Passion for Wine: The French Ideal and the American Dream.
India will benefit from our core historical tradition of centuries of winemaking tradition in France, where luxury, fashion, and senses are the utmost expressions, combined with the American way of life and the fascinating new regions of Napa, Sonoma, and California at large. The combination of the two is vibrational and synergistic and contributes to the vision of the new India!
You have visited India several times now, first for your wines from the Boisset Collection, now with J’NOON. Your observations on the Indian market, any growth you may have observed?
I fell in love with the people, with their genuine interest in food, wine and the local culture. And I fell in love with the genuine, authentic willingness of the people to see India shine around the world. We need to see Indian people becoming very proud of what they do, what they make and what they create besides the traditional knowledge of what India is all about – engineering and many other great brain exercises. India needs to be ‘lifestyle’ and has proved it with Bollywood and many other avenues; ventures like hotels and restaurants. India has an incredible history that will take food and wine to the next level. Food has started in a big way, now we need to see wine coming together with food.
Luckily the Indian people are very interested in it, very proud of India and to see India becoming this great new place for food and wine pairing and discovering how to associate wine and spices and becoming a real region for wine. When you look at the territory of India which is a continent on its own, how could we not produce great wine in such a large territory when the wine belt is so close?
What next for JCB and J’NOON+Fratelli? Or is there something new in store from you both?
We need to make sure we are contagious about our passion for wine to everyone… and that our friends in India are genuinely in love with J’NOON and obsessed by the willingness to see wine become a success and are passionate about what we are doing! We feel the 2017 and 2018 vintages will be even better than 2016, even though it is a great start, and want to make sure we continue to transcend what we started. We need to make sure we are disciplined and focused and we get many Indian people becoming ambassadors of the great future of this great country!
It is very important to be audacious, to be pushing new territories and going beyond the limits we know to produce the best wine in India; it is important to break preconceived ideas and be adventurous and be pioneers. We are bringing three cultures together to create something that is greater than the sum of their parts. People need to have trust, confidence and belief in the long-term of what we have started with J’NOON. We need their support, endorsement and passion – and we need their lips to drink this wine, serve this wine and make it discovered. We want everyone to become a great and spontaneous ambassador of our vision!
To buy J’NOON wines in India, see here.
Jean-Charles Boisset’s book ‘Passion for Wine’ written in collaboration with wine educator Marnie Old deconstructs wine tasting and different styles of wine.
It is available at his wineries and online here and on Amazon.
