The vintner side of leading venture capitalist Carl Thoma

             It was one of those typical cold days in Chicago, the sort where the clouds are colored a medium gray and threaten snow, when the wind, which makes my fair city famous for all the wrong reasons, was whipping around buildings and lending an unpleasant bite to the day. I walked into the Randolph Street Wine Cellar in the west loop to meet with Carl Thoma, owner of Van Duzer vineyards located in the Willamette valley of Oregon, in the Van Duzer corridor, for which the vineyard is named. It was a lively meeting place adorned with red brick walls, an ample selection of wines to taste and rather comfortable seating. I selected a table with two comfortable high backed cloth chairs and waited for his arrival. When Mr. Thoma arrived, I was greeted by a warm countenance, an affable smile, and a look of a man who looked at home surrounded by wine and the jazz music that was playing over the speaker system. We began by ordering a glass of wine, which all conversations concerning the subject should, and sat down for what became a rather informative conversation concerning his vineyard, as well as a brief history of the valley and the enormous effort that went into creating a vineyard, which has since 2002, produced some fantastic wines.

          Born on a ranch in Oklahoma where he attended Oklahoma State University, Carl Thoma earned a degree in accounting and agriculture economics, after which he attended Stanford University and received his MBA from the Graduate School of Business in 1973. Carl Thoma is the founding partner of Thoma Cressey Equity Partners (TC/EP), an equity firm in Chicago, serves on the board at Northwestern Evanston Hospital, and also serves on the board and executive committee for Copia: the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts.

          In 1998, Mr. Thoma purchased the vineyard and immediately set out to ensure his niche in the Oregon wine industry, by overhauling the vineyard, re-grafting or planting over 70 acres. His philosophy: “Do it right or not at all.” With this in mind, I set out to determine what separates Mr. Thoma from the rest of the herd. We began by discussing a brief history of Oregon vineyards and how they differ from the larger vineyards located in California to the south:

Mr. Thoma: Oregon vineyards are almost 100% owner operated and managed, which makes for a smaller yield, producing some ten to forty thousand cases per growing season, compared to California which can produce upwards of two to three million, making the Oregon industry small by comparison. Many of the growers in Oregon originally came from California and were able to purchase vineyards at a relatively low cost. Not possessing a lot of money, these original owners were not able to purchase irrigation systems and were not getting high prices for their wines, and therefore were heavily reliant upon Mother Nature. 1997 and 1998 were so-so years and 1999 began to produce better vintages. 2001 began to produce some really good wines but it was not until 2002 that the region soared to new heights. 2003 showed a slight drop over 2002 in that the rains were heavier at harvest but ’04 seemed to be showing a lot of promise for a return to ’02.

Dave: How much work did you put into the vineyard after you purchased it?

Mr. Thoma: It took four years for the vineyard to get to where it is today. When we bought the vineyard, 35 acres was chardonnay, so we grafted the pinot noir vine onto the root, which is fine, but what it means is, that for the next couple of years, you have fruit that you can’t use. For some reason, the rootstock in the grape clone, are never on their own roots, it’s as if they are oblivious to what’s above them. The rootstock matches the soil, and that’s the reason the soil terroir is a little less relevant that it used to be. If you have heavy clay you would want to get rootstock that does not absorb a lot of moisture, whereas if you’re in a desert like place, like in Amador, you want a rootstock to draw a little more water. Usually you can do this [grafting] in a greenhouse, but we did it in the field. I would say that if someone gave you a run down vineyard, it would take three to five years to attain harmony. Grape plants are temperamental, they can’t change overnight, you need to achieve a balance of foliage to the right number of berries on the vine, get the soil right and get the roots working properly. You have to work with all that and then attend to temperature and weather.

Dave: I guess it’s like what my mother used to say about raising a child.

Mr. Thoma: That’s right, it really is; bad habits take a long time to correct.

Dave: What sparked your interest in getting into the wine business, besides dreams of deep profits?

Mr. Thoma: (laughs) To me what the wine business represents is the stimulation and complexity of agriculture, but yet it’s a product and business that imparts a sense of celebration, or good feeling on the part of the consumer, used in moderation, so it seems like there is more of a sense of satisfaction than say growing wheat and making a loaf of bread. Every year is different, there are always things going on. So in that sense, it’s the combination of the outdoors and the intellectual stimulation. You take a lot of pride in it, and you immediately take offense if someone does not like your product. Even if the other is better, you still have pride.

Dave: I want to ask about better farming practices, in particular the LIVE (Low Input Viticulture and Enology) a voluntary program in Oregon, which develop and evaluate wineries against a rigorous set of international standards. What compelled you to become a member? Not that I advocate their use, but it would seem that the use of chemicals would be more efficient or at least expedient? Seems like the quick fix would be better.

Mr. Thoma: Actually once you have the program established it’s better because any time you can get Mother Nature to deal with an issue it’s better than chemical induced behavior. When you introduce chemicals – like any of us taking medicine – we get a quick reaction whereby we don’t know what we have killed off in the process: good exercise, eating the right foods and sleep is the way to take care of ourselves, getting sick, and then taking an antibiotic does not really address the larger issue of an unhealthy lifestyle. However, where this process is the most painful is on the front end, once you get all the mold and bacteria and weeds out of the vineyard, it’s not much of an issue. Hard to believe but like you try to keep you kitchen sanitized, you really try to keep the vineyard sanitized as well. Pull the weeds out early rather than put a weed killer on them. Once you get the program set up, it’s fine, and actually it’s becoming more and more prevalent in the smaller wineries. If you look at the larger vineyards say in the Central Coast, it can be rather hard to do. But you have to remember that these vineyards here are hand kept. You have to be diligent. If when you are walking around the vines after an early rain in August, and you see a berry that is diseased or has a mold growing on it, you don’t just leave them there, you pull them off and put them in a bucket. You can’t just throw them on the ground. You dispose of them so you control the bad apple, which has the potential to ruin the whole basket.

Dave: You mentioned earlier the effects of weather on a vineyard. Can you clarify the effects a little more?

Mr. Thoma: Here’s what happens in Oregon, it can either rain during harvest, which can hurt you, or it can get real hot, which can hurt you as well. What the Oregon growers have done to compensate for this, is move the stages back and forth to help them avoid the rain, and using better farming practices to produce two tons per acre, rather than one ton per acre. What happened in ’01 it started raining in the middle of October, and the harvested brix (editors note: the term “brix” indicates the amount of sugar present in the wine) were one or two lower than we’d like. A lot of things went right in ’02, at harvest; there was little rain to speak of, and in’03, it began to rain at harvest. Some vineyards chose to pick before the rain; we chose to pick after. Temperature is also a main component, we don’t like to see temperature over 100 degrees. What happens is that when the temperature gets over 95 degrees, the vine shuts down. So the main thing in Oregon, is the climate, it is the best component of terroir.

Dave: What effect does that have upon the wine, when the rain comes early?

Mr. Thoma: The root system has much to do with the quality of the wine we produce. My vines have extensive roots, there is seven feet of spacing between the vines, but the roots are far reaching. If the temperature rises to 85 in the day and then cools to 45 or 50 during the night, the sap rises and then falls back into the root system, which influences the flavor of the wine. You want the roots to stay dry, so you want soil where the roots can dry out in; otherwise the vine wants to produce vegetation, not fruit, which is why the hillside is so important. Harvest time is a two week period, which is a lot, and we can get a 10% higher yield, which is what everyone in Oregon is trying to do; something you don’t have to worry about in Napa, because it does not get as cold, nor does it rain as much during this time either.

Dave: I’ve read about winds being a factor in growing grapes. Can you explain the effects of the winds at Van Duzer?

Mr. Thoma: The winds come in through the Van Duzer corridor and goes out in two direction, north and south, whereas in Napa, the winds move out in one direction. The winds come in about four in the afternoon and give us about an extra hour of cooling. The main thing about our region is that we are getting down to 45 degrees at night where as in the Northern Willamette Valley they are reaching lows of 58 degrees. We are in a cooler region. What that means is, when you taste our wines the terroir gets defined in two ways, the first is what I call fresh fruit flavors, and the other is what I like to call cooked fruit, which is not a negative label. What I mean is you can eat a tart that has fresh berries or you can eat one, which has been baked. Ours are going to be fresher tasting, which means the acidity is going to be higher and is going to come across a little richer, and this alcohol will be 13.5% and the other will be closer to 14.5%. So, that’s what drives terroir in Oregon, and that’s all going to be dependant on where you are in the Willamette valley, and so, you develop that, and because we have a little higher acidity.

Dave: You mentioned temperature earlier and its’ effect on a vine, solar incidence I think it’s called. I read that the more direct sunlight, the more tannic one can expect in the finished product to be. When I think of Pinot Noir, I do not associate it with being tannic, is this something you have to cope with?

Mr. Thoma: Yes and no, tannins are driven by the thickness of the skin. Pinot Noir is a thin-skinned grape unlike Cabernet, which has a thicker skin. The seeds in the grape if they are not picked at the opulent or optimum time can impart tannins, and then the style of oak one uses. All of those things being considered what’s left is how you make the wine and how much filtering it may go through. If you go all the way to the Central Coast, whereas our wines here – all Oregon wines – are lighter and crisper; than in the Central Coast where they are heavier; more fruit…for sure more of the more cooked fruit flavor, and when you get into Napa into Anderson Valley they are more like Oregon Pinot’s. What can happen is that wind can dry out a grape; it’s part of what else drives tannins, what’s called juice to skin contact. If we have two grapes that look like the same size, but one weighs .8 grams, and the other weights 1.1 grams, the heavier one is going to have more juice in the middle of it, so this one is going to be slightly less tannic. The wind in the Central Coast will dehydrate the grape. So if you speak to someone in the Central Coast, they will tell you that the temperature is the same as ours, but then ask them to factor in the wind. We don’t really have any winds to speak of.

Dave: I’d like to move away from terroir and speak a little bit about wines and their association with dining. What sort of food would best be paired with your wine?

Mr. Thoma: We like to suggest that our wines are best served with food that may have something like a creamy sauce, something with a low acidity. If you are serving something that already has a lot of acid in it already, like a steak where you would want something that has a more mature flavor, which I suppose is a better term than cooked fruit, whereas the cooked flavor, or better yet, full bodied wines might be better served as an aperitif, but of course it all depends on what you serve it with.

Dave: So I am inclined to ask, if we can switch gears for just a moment, in past years you produced a sparkling wine, and have discontinued the line. What were the contributing factors to your halting of the production? I have read that in some cases insurance was an issue with vineyards, with bottles exploding due to the pressure in the bottle itself? Was this an issue or was there something else?

Mr. Thoma: It has more to do with better farming practices. In the old days, when you dropped down under a certain performance level, the grapes did not produce a good Pinot, so we diverted that into sparkling wine, so what’s happening is, that everyone has gotten to be better farmers so less product is being diverted. If Pinot gets below a certain level on the growing scale it becomes too bitter. With sparkling wine, remember, you can add sugar to it. Also, for some reason, people don’t want to pay much for sparkling wine. You can sell a bottle of Pinot for $25 or $30 a bottle, whereas the sparkling sells for $15 a bottle. If you can make Pinot Noir that’s your first choice, but if you have marginal fruit you would divert that to sparkling, as far as the exploding bottles, I have not heard of people having problems with that (laughs), is that a big problem?

Dave: It’s just something I picked up somewhere. One thing that I admire about wine is the conversation that usually accompanies drinking it. I never drink wine alone, it seems to be a sociable drink, and therefore I need to ask about the movie “Sideways” and I can’t help but wonder how its’ popularity has impacted your vineyard.

Mr. Thoma: What a great movie. It’s simply amazing we have sold out of our 2002 Pinot Noir. The scene where Paul Giamatti’s character is speaking to Virginia Madsens’, late in the evening, about the essence of Pinot Noir is absolutely amazing. If I could have that running on a continuous loop in my tasting room I would not have to sell it myself, the film would do that for me; the demand for Pinot Noir has more than doubled, and its industry wide, again it’s simply amazing.

          I could not have been in more agreement with Mr. Thoma, and as the evening was beginning to shroud the city with its dark cloak and couples began to fill the empty chairs around us, we were both reminded of the need to celebrate Valentines Day with our better halves. As we parted, Mr. Thoma presented me with a gift of his yet unreleased 2003 Pinot Noir, which I eagerly await uncorking, and bid one other a fond farewell. I set off into the cold weather only to be greeted by small bits of snow that drove through to the bone, but was warmed by the conversation and company of a great man and the promise of a red that would warm me from the inside out.

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         Currently an English teacher in Chicago, Dave enjoys sitting back with a nice bottle shared between friends while reading snipets of poetry and pondering the nuances of life and the small joys that accompany it.