Imagine being an American with a young family and deciding to uproot your life, leaving the comfort of your stable job to chase your passion to the heart of French wine country. Alex Gambal did just that, as the allure of chasing his dream was too strong to resist. In 1993, he, his wife, and two small children moved from Washington, D.C., to Beaune to explore the wine business. After decades of making
wine in France, he has written a memoir about his experience -
Climbing the Vines in Burgundy: How an American Came to Own a Legendary Vineyard in France.
I had an opportunity to sit down with Gambal to discuss his book – a must-read for fans of
Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France, in which Kermit Lynch recounts his many experiences visiting small European family wineries during the 1970s and 1980s. Similarly, Gambal's book offers an insider's perspective into the complexities of the French wine system, presenting a fresh outlook on the perseverance and determination required to navigate the intricacies of the wine industry. Gambal also debunks the idyllic notions of working in the world of wine and vividly describes the dynamic personalities involved in producing wine and putting it on the market. These experiences are shared alongside his life story, which is one of risk-taking, lesson-learning, and soul-searching.
It was in the 1980s when Gambal discovered his love of wine. One of his first jobs was across the street from Mayflower Wines and Spirits, a then-renowned Washington, D.C., wine shop. He went there often to taste wines and became good friends with the owner, Sidney Moore, and her son, Harry. Gambal's introduction to France was equally fortuitous. He and his wife, Nancy, vacationed in France because neither had been before. Moore introduced them to Becky Wasserman, a wine legend and American expatriate wine broker in Beaune. As is the custom in France, Wasserman often took on a
stagiaire, typically a young, single apprentice who wanted to learn the trade. Gambal wondered whether she would break with tradition and hire him. She agreed, and Alex, Nancy, and their children, Tyler and Alexa, moved to Beaune.
After working for Wasserman for several years, studying wine at Lycée Viticole, and making significant connections in the wine trade, he and his family returned to the U.S. so the children could receive a U.S. college education. They moved to Boston as Gambal's family had a summerhouse on the Cape, and they admired the schools. However, the wine bug had taken a firm hold. Just as they planned to return to the U.S. in 1997, Gambal started Domaine Alex Gambal, his wine business in Beaune, which led to severely long commutes. Gambal made eight to ten trips from the U.S. to Beaune for several years. At first, he made wine from grapes he purchased from other winemakers. Brokers helped him source good fruit, and friends he had made
over the years sold him some barrels of finished wine.
In our conversation and the book, Gambal underscored the difficulty of producing fine red and white Burgundy, but noted that it was even more challenging to sell, especially with fluctuating crop sizes, grape prices, economic cycles, and regulations imposed by export markets. In addition to commuting between Boston to Beaune, he traveled extensively in the U.S. to build a robust domestic market to offset his sales in France. Building his business and sustaining his family became difficult and contributed to his divorce. He would later marry Diana "Dee" Williams, a coach for the U.S. Olympic Freestyle mogul team that led bike tours through French wine country in the off-season and launched Hidden France, a boutique travel and tour service.
Gambal would quickly learn that control of vines is critical to making the best possible wines. Consequently, he went from purchasing grapes to eventually purchasing a total of 30 acres of vines that included parcels in Chassagne-Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet, St. Romain, Meursault, Volnay, Pommard, Nuits-St.-Georges as well as a parcel of Batard-Montrachet. The purchases made Gambal the first non-French person ever to acquire a parcel of one of the Montrachet Grand Crus.
After decades in wine, Gambal sold the business in 2019 to Famille Boisset, a major Burgundy house. Sadly, shortly after, his wife, Diana, passed from her complications of colon cancer. After her passing, Gambal created the Dee Williams Freestyle Fund, a charitable foundation to benefit the development and advancement of promising mogul skiers to the Olympic and World Cup levels.
These days, you can find Gambal on the slopes in the Teton mountains, where he is a ski host at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, an avid hiker, and a grandfather. He is also deeply passionate about community development. He recently donated a house to the Teton School District 401, which will be used to provide reliable childcare in the area. He's also still enjoying wine. When asked what he's drinking now, he shared his deep admiration for white Burgundies from the Mâconnais, particularly those crafted by Matthieu Thevenard of Domaine Thevenard.
Gambal's journey may not have been as idyllic as the dream, but he loves France and its people and experienced immense satisfaction pursuing his dream. Moreover, not all his stories have been told. Gambal teased that a second edition of his book could be on the horizon.
