20 Years of Gary Westby!

Gary Westby has been a part of K&L’s team for nearly half of the company’s history. He’s seen it change and grow, and has put his own mark on K&L by creating one of the best Champagne programs on the planet. He’s put his mark on this blog, too, by being a prolific, fascinating writer full of stories of lavish meals and friendly visits with winemakers. To top it off, he’s a genuinely nice person and has a lot of fans around K&L. Today marks his 20th anniversary, and we’re celebrating! Gary indulged me a few questions, so below you’ll find a bit about the man behind the Champagne curtain.

KS: What were you were doing before K&L? Have you always been in the wine biz?
GW: I have been in the wine business since I was 21, always on the retail side. Before that, I worked as a bass player and in the bicycle business. I am the only person I know who got a raise by taking an entry level job in wine! My father gave me a bottle of 1970 Fonseca Port for my 21st birthday, and it changed my life. I quickly became obsessed with wine, and was in the business within three months.

KS: How did you get interested in Champagne?
GW: By tasting too much young red wine! I think that many of us in the industry come to love the combination of maturity on release and refreshment that Champagne brings us. It didn’t hurt that the ladies seemed to like it too.

KS: Speaking of ladies, your wife Cindy—or Cinnamon in your blogs—told me you met on the floor at K&L. She said she was shopping for her boyfriend at the time, and you sold her a bottle of Kistler Chard and Monte Bello Cabernet Blend—and took her business card.
GW: Cinnamon told the story pretty well—but I have a good punchline for it: when I followed up with her about the wines (she was working at Wine.com at the time, back in 2000), she told me by email that she didn’t drink them since they’d broken up. I told her that I had a tasting group for young wine professionals that was about to meet and asked her if she would like to join us. When she said yes, I created the tasting group! We did a vertical of Château Chasse-Spleen and Trey came, as well as a few others who ended up becoming master somms… It was a great tasting, but it wouldn’t have happened without Cinnamon!

KS: She looks like such an amazing cook from what I can see on your blogs.
GW: Her cooking has always been excellent. The first meal she ever cooked for me was Fred Steak, a marinated tri-tip from the famous Schwab’s butcher in Palo Alto. I brought over Ridge, and a few years later she went to work for them! She has taken some classes in Burgundy and assisted in teaching some over here. It drives her a little crazy that I like to have the same old man food every Friday—she is a better cook than I am an eater sometimes.

KS: How has Champagne changed in the 20 years since you’ve been involved?
GW: I don’t think it could have changed much more that it has. When I first started, selling a bottle of grower Champagne was like pulling a tooth. We were among the first to promote grower Champagne vigorously in the area, and curiously enough it was the “dot bomb” mini recession that helped get it started. People became interested in drinking something very good that cost less money and was less ostentatious than the big brands. The vineyards have changed drastically, when I first started visiting you could still see trash from Paris spread in the fields. Now growers are getting certified for all sorts of sustainability programs, from HVE to biodynamics. Barrels have made a big comeback, single parcel wines have flourished and the dosage amounts have plummeted with more and more super ripe vintages. I think that one morning soon I will wake up and half of the big houses will have women chefs de cave—so many of the 2nd in command at the houses are women now!

KS: What about K&L? You’ve probably seen it morph into a whole different animal in 20 years, especially with technology, but with personalities and trends, too.
GW: It has changed a lot—I do miss my old price gun, but the new one has a laser! I certainly don’t miss the bad old days of doing inventory with a pencil and a huge stack of paper. I never would have guessed that we would sell beer by the single bottle and Champagne by the case, but we do. The team is undoubtedly the best we have ever had with passionate professionals in every category—they make me excited to come to work each day.

KS: What is your desert island Champagne? And if you can’t bring a Champagne?
GW: I don’t have a favorite Champagne, but on a desert Island, I would have to bring a couple of refrigerated containers of Aspasie Blanc de Blancs. Nothing makes me feel transported to Champagne quite like that single-vineyard wonder from Brouillet, and it is restrained elegance is something I could never get tired of. If I couldn’t bring Champagne, I would have to bring Anchor Steam.

KS: Your favorite style of Champagne?
GW: Aged Champagne—especially aged non-vintage magnums. Sadly, it is very difficult for me to keep it. Young Bordeaux does not tempt me, but I had to rent a locker to keep myself away from the Champagne that I buy to lay down.

KS: What do you like to do when you’re not Champagning?
GW: I have my steak and claret on Friday. I like to serve it sur planche, on a wooden cutting board, just like at a casual restaurant in France, with potatoes and brussels sprouts. It is such an old man meal—but it is so good, and Clyde always finds the best deals on older Bordeaux. I like to “bring up something from the last century”—last week it was the 1999 Lestage Simon that we were selling for $19.99 a year or two ago. I also love listening to records. We have a little group of colleagues that meets once a month for a record party. I love the outdoors and have taken to hiking since I can’t ride my bike like I used to. We live in such a blessed part of the world, it is just a short drive to up into the mountains that surround Silicon Valley, and under the Redwood canopy, in the company of no one but birds, I feel like I could be on another planet.

KS: Your favorite part about your job?
GW: I love the variety. Last year, freshly out of the dumpster after jumping up and down on cardboard to make space for more, I enjoyed a sublime taste of the Domaine Comte de Vogüé Musigny from 1955. Where else can you do that? I also love the relationships, it feels important to me to be a good partner to the producers that we help support in Champagne, just as it feels important to me to bring great value to the customers who trust me.

Cheers to 20 more, Gary!

- Kate Soto