Paul Hobbs' wine story began with a secret.

His mother didn't allow alcohol at the family dinner table. But one winter evening in 1969, his father arrived with Dixie cups filled with a mysterious yellow-orange liquid and asked the family to taste it. Paul's mother declared it the best juice she'd ever tasted.

The bottle was 1962 Château d’Yquem.

Paul was headed toward medical school, not the wine business. But his father's interest in vineyards and an influential professor at Notre Dame helped redirect him toward UC Davis. In 1977, his research into French and American oak helped land him a position at Robert Mondavi.

What followed was an extraordinary career.

In this episode of Uncorking What's Next, Jeff Zacharia talks with Paul about working with Robert Mondavi, joining the team behind the earliest vintages of Opus One, and experiencing firsthand the collision between California's questioning, experimental culture and Bordeaux's deeply established winemaking traditions.

From there, Paul's search for great vineyards took him around the world.

One of the most consequential stops was Argentina. Paul recalls questioning the accepted wisdom that Malbec was primarily useful as a blending grape. Working with Nicolás Catena and experimenting with old vineyards, different farming practices and barrels, he helped produce a Malbec that attracted the attention of the first wave of American wine press visiting Argentina in the early 1990s.

The conversation travels further, to Armenia, where Paul encountered the challenge of developing wine in a place without the modern infrastructure or trained workforce he was accustomed to, and eventually back to the Finger Lakes, bringing his career remarkably close to where his father's original wine ambitions began.

But this isn't simply a retrospective.

Paul and Jeff discuss what the wine industry needs to do differently today: how younger consumers discover wine, why traditional critics no longer control the conversation as they once did, and why the industry has to adapt its communication to a world of social media, smartphones and new voices.

Paul also reflects on how his own definition of success has changed. After decades of pursuing vineyards, countries and new challenges, he argues that the next generation should pursue what matters to them, take risks while they can, and be willing to break rules.

In this episode:

• Paul's first wine: 1962 Château d’Yquem served in a Dixie cup
• Why he nearly became a doctor instead of a winemaker
• UC Davis and joining Robert Mondavi
• What Robert Mondavi understood about building Napa Valley
• The fascinating cultural clashes behind early Opus One
• Challenging accepted thinking about Malbec in Argentina
• The risks behind some of Paul's biggest breakthroughs
• Making wine in Armenia and the impact wine can have on a community
• Returning home to the Finger Lakes
• How the next generation is changing wine communication
• Why Paul's definition of success has evolved
• His advice on taking chances and breaking rules
• Why wine, ultimately, is about connection

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Email: jzfinewine@gmail.com

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