Honoring Bill Blatch, an Icon in Bordeaux and a Dear Friend

Bordeaux, the wine world, and K&L Wine Merchants lost a very special friend and mentor a few weeks ago with the passing of Mr. Bill Blatch.

Outstanding tributes to Bill appear online from some of the most famous and knowledgeable people in the wine industry; people like Jancis Robinson, Jane Anson, and the Wine Doctor, I would urge you to check them out.

Bill was indeed a great champion for all of Bordeaux wine, but especially for the wines of Sauternes and the petite châteaux for which he had great passion and love.

My tribute to Bill is a bit different and deeply personal. I have written hundreds of short articles for K&L in my 45 years here, but none anywhere near as difficult to pen than this. It has taken me weeks to find the nerve to write this about my close friend and mentor and the tears still flow at 5 AM this morning.

The other mentor in my life of wine, K&L owner Mr. Clyde Beffa, met Bill in 1985, and Bill was instrumental in the success of K&L Wine Merchants. When Clyde decided to take me to Bordeaux to evaluate the 1989 vintage—the first of my 60 visits to Bordeaux—I met Bill Blatch on my first working morning in his office at Vintex in April of 1990. He changed my life.

I will never forget that Saturday when I walked into that building for our first Bill Blatch tasting. There were hundreds of freshly opened bottles of petite châteaux and very few famous names. Corks started to be pulled at around 5 AM. By 10 AM the place was packed with buyers and wine writers from all over the world. It was incredibly intimidating for a tall, shy, fresh-faced young American.

I was then 35 years old and very nervous about the daunting task of tasting all this wine with these serious professionals. I tried the international language of smiling to say hello; it did not work! Very few smiled back. I remember breaking out in a sweat.

Thank goodness for Bill—he was so nice, and it made me feel a lot more comfortable. He showed me around the many tasting rooms, the current vintages room, the Sauternes and sweet wine room, and the older vintages room. When I walked out of that building later that day I felt great energy. I believed I was at the pinnacle of the wine business and that I wanted to do this the rest of my life.

That Monday we began the château hopping—tastings started, with a caravan of cars with about 20 buyers from around the world. We had appointments with 15 to 17 estates a day—the record was 23. On arrival at each, Bill would give us a brief introduction: the history and his opinion of the current state of the châteaux along with technical information. It was incredible and we did this for decades. We were always late!

In the early days Clyde would say, try to get in Bill’s car, and I did. It was an awesome experience. I must have asked Bill a thousand questions in my life, and he always gave me a thoughtful and straight answer. Thanks so much Bill!

Every year Bill wrote an unequaled, in-depth vintage report that with his permission was the base of K&L’s excellent vintage report written by Clyde. Every year I looked forward to this report more than anything I could possibly read, as it broke down the vintage by its weather, day by day and month to month. I called it The Bible. I could not wait to take it home and carefully read every word. To understand every nuance, I had to read some paragraphs over and over. Later in life when I told Bill this he just laughed and said, “You are not alone, I have to read some of them over and over myself!”

Bill found the First Growths a bit of a waste of time. He gathered most of his vineyard information not from a fancy lunch at the châteaux with the owner but by watching the weather and dropping into vineyards to see the development, chat with the vineyard guys and the cellarmasters. He knew everyone, and everyone (except maybe a few château owners) loved him. Everyone respected his knowledge.

I would share with my colleagues and all K&L customers that in today’s world, in my opinion the greatest current vintage report from Bordeaux is written by Mr. Gavin Quinney, owner of Ch. Bauduc. He is fantastic and I had the great pleasure of a superb tasting with these two great Bordeaux men, just the three of us in the dining room at Ch. Duseuil in Ceron a few years ago. Be sure to check out his fine work.

Bill was a mentor and educator to so many of us worldwide not just in Europe and the U.K., but here in America, Canada, and Asia.

He traveled to K&L many times and I know he traveled to New York around 260 times! He loved driving all around America, to many states, with a trailer full of petite châteaux samples, exposing retailers to the wines they would never have known, educating staff, and selling the wines while filling up containers. I think his record was 16 containers in one day! His most famous customer was Trader Joes. During all of his travels, he made sure to mix in fishing stops.

When Bill retired, he moved full-time to his beach home in Lacanau where his lovely wife Tita lived full-time. It is here where they let me into their private lives and our friendship grew even deeper. This is something I will be eternally grateful for. I feel the exact same way for the Allison family—Nicola, Sean and their three sons at Ch. Duseuil. When I conduct my yearly château tour with customers each June, I would arrive a few days early to get over the jet lag. They both picked me up at the airport and took me into their home so I would not have to stay in a hotel and made me a part of their family.

In the last six to seven years the Allison children have been off at college, and Bill insisted I stay with him. We would talk and sip Bordeaux non-stop for three days, and I would continue to pelt him with questions! We would play Pétanque, hike the marshes of the Lac, walk the beaches Bassin d’Arcachon, and lunch at the oyster beds of Ares with Tita. I loved every second!

On Saturday the tour would start, and he would drive me to the hotel. By then I would have talked him into joining me the following Friday for our day in Sauternes. He would charm the pants off of my customers and give us a great tour of the Sauternes landscape on our way to taste at Ch. Doisy-Vedrines and then to lunch at Ch. d’Yquem.

It is truly fitting that our last glass of red wine together was a bottle of 2014 Ch. Cissac at the Lynch-Bages–owned Café La Vinal in Pauillac. The last glass of wine we shared together was at lunch a 1990 Ch. d’Yquem.

Bill Blatch was a humble legend, a great teacher, mentor, and the greatest ambassador of Sauternes and petite châteaux that Bordeaux could ever have. Clyde and I, as well as our staff at K&L Wine Merchants, send our heartfelt condolences to Tita and their family.

Thanks for everything Billy Boy and God bless you.

- Ralph Sands, K&L Bordeaux Specialist