A Tribute to Clyde Beffa
I can safely assume that I speak for everyone at K&L when I say that there’s no proper tribute to encapsulate the magnitude of Clyde’s impact on K&L. Notwithstanding the fact that there would be no K&L without Clyde, there’d also be a much different company. The warmth and friendship that Clyde has brought echoes throughout. He practices what he preaches: we get to sell really cool, rare, aged, allocated, and special wines—but, thanks to Clyde, we’ve gotten to taste those too. Never has there been an event where Clyde is present without some exciting bottle he’d dug up from the cellar. He’s showed us the joy of collecting wine: it’s saving a bottle for the perfect moment, and then sharing it with people who will enjoy it too. In doing so, he brought us together, off of the sales floor and around a table over good food, good drink, good company. That is Clyde’s presence in a nutshell.
In 2021, he invited me to go along with him to Bordeaux, just as the world was opening up again after the Pandemic. I think we were on the 2nd plane that went from SFO to France; he was so eager to get back to his beloved Bordeaux! We were among the first Americans many French had seen in a year, and we were greeted like heroes returning home… Clyde has been traveling to Bordeaux since the ‘80s, and he’s made lifelong friendships there. Clyde knows everyone in Bordeaux, and they opened up châteaux doors, their private cellars, their kitchens for us so we could eat and drink and reminisce over some absolutely momentous wines. Wherever he goes, Clyde builds bridges, and it’s the reason K&L has such deep connections in Bordeaux.
Though it’s hard to write the perfect homage to such a person, several of us have tried! Below, you’ll find a few notes from staffers in tribute.
From the moment I came of age, I have had the privilege of learning and working around Clyde. Since my very first wine tasting led by Clyde and up to his retirement I have been a fortunate recipient of his legendary generosity of time, wisdom, wine knowledge and friendship. Clylde’s reputation in the business is epic—and rightfully so—he has been truly admired by me and the rest of the wine world with his amazing encyclopedic knowledge of wines, incredible memory, and warmth, caring for all around him.
Not widely known, he also helped set up a wonderful charity in Half Moon Bay called Table of Plenty. Under the radar and never one to broadcast his own accomplishments, Clyde was instrumental in creating this organization to feed the hungry in a dignified and no questions asked manner out of pure kindness. It’s just one of many examples of his true goodness and concern for all, both within his career and personally.
Through the years it has been a pleasure to get to know Clyde, Kay, Trey and Kerri—the amazing Beffa family team and I wish Clyde the most wonderful retirement possible. He is absolutely deserving of all the best.
For as long as K&L Wine Merchants may exist, Clyde Beffa will forever be known as “The Wine” in K&L Wine Merchants. Clyde’s passion for wine, his incredible non-stop work ethic (and schedule!) along with his endearing personality is legendary in the business of wine.
The University of California at Davis has produced a Hall of Fame list of graduates that have greatly shaped the wine world we live in today, but few have touched more lives, nurtured such fantastic relationships, and so positively influenced our wine world than Mr. Clyde Beffa. He is indeed a “First Ballot” Hall of Famer, and I’ve been blessed to have worked with him for 45 years and to have accompanied him on 30 visits to our beloved Bordeaux.
I have a lifetime full of great memories with Clyde: lots of laughs, all the fine wines, lovely lunches, dinners, and people. For me it all started at our first dinner in Bordeaux in April of 1990. Clyde hand carried a magnum of 1970 Ch. Lynch Bages and told me, you must start with a great one! This is a great memory, and my life has never been the same since! All I can say is a heartfelt thank you to Clyde and his trusty partner Mr. Todd Zucker who always let Clyde do his thing.
As the word of your retirement spreads through your loyal customers and friends, they will reflect on the incredible business you have built and the enjoyment you provided through your hard work. You can be assured that thousands of glasses will be raised while toasting you, from Half Moon Bay to the Bay of Biscay.
“The wine business is all about relationships”—this was the first thing that Clyde told me about doing my new job as the Champagne Buyer at K&L, almost 25 years ago. And what relationships he has, from the starry heights of Châteaux Latour and Pichon-Lalande in Bordeaux and Billecart-Salmon in Champagne to incredible people making jaw dropping values like Franck Millet in Sancerre and Baron de Montfaucon in the Rhône. He has done right by all of his producers, and they have done right by him and our clients. He also has great relationships with those customers—organizing trips to Bordeaux, always doing his best to make things right if there was a problem, and keeping his eye always on value for them. For his employees, he could not be more generous, half of the greatest wines that I have had in my life has been at his table, both here and in France. His passion is contagious—I haven’t been able to shake my Friday night ritual of steak and claret for decades and doubt I ever will. He has done more work and given more to our business than three good men, and he deserves a rest. I doubt he will take it—look for him at the Bordeaux events; knowing Clyde, he will be “semi-retired.”
When I step out onto the parking lot of the SF store and see the towering steel and glass buildings I wonder—how many employees of these companies can warmly greet an owner with a kiss on the cheek? In the modern and cynical world we live in, it’s simply unheard of.
With Clyde's retirement, I wonder how things will change at K&L and the winosphere in general. There’s truly no other master-level wine professional like Clyde. Just look at any photo of him and you’ll see everyone around him smiling. He has an extraordinary ability to make everyone feel special, welcomed, and appreciated.
I first got to know Clyde during staff Bordeaux tastings when I started at K&L. The company encourages growth and experience through extensive tastings, and I had never encountered such focused opportunities before, so I asked many questions. Of course, Clyde had all the answers, and it touched off a profound appreciation of Bordeaux at all levels.
Less than a year into my time at K&L, I asked Clyde for a special wine recommendation for my 50th birthday. When I mentioned I was born in 1972 and lamented feeling old, he cheerfully crushed my middle-aged pity party with a, “You’re just a kid! Your best years are still ahead of you.” He noted that though 1972 may have been a fine vintage for people, it wasn’t particularly great for Bordeaux. He said he'd see what he could come up with. I assumed he would send me a suggestion via email or set aside something for me to purchase.
A few days later, a good friend at work told me to pick up bottle of wine that Clyde left for me on his desk. I assumed it was for me to purchase. When he handed it to me he said it was a gift. I slid the bottle up from the brown paper bag—it was a 1972 Pichon-Lalande. I could not believe it. At the time, Clyde barely knew me. Generous of a gift as it was, Clyde humbly suggested that I have a backup bottle just in case. His son Trey picked out a 2009 Malescot-St-Exupéry for me to purchase as a second bottle. Both bottles made for a splendid celebration.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve notice signs of Clyde everywhere through the company culture that he helped create. The first sign was when SF manager Dulcinea Gonzalez noticed I wasn’t eating at Clyde’s retirement party. I told her that my stomach was in knots and I was too sad to eat. She smiled and joked, “Eat your feelings, Kerry. Eat your feelings.” That gave me a good laugh. I ate, I drank, and I was even slightly merry. I knew right then that things were going to be alright.
The signs continued— the powder pink Laurent-Perrier beret left on my desk by an incredibly thoughtful coworker, knowing my love for hats and Champagne; the lighthearted but illuminating banter just yesterday about tasting notes where I asked a question and three knowledgeable colleagues generously chimed in; or the moment our astute Spanish wine buyer quietly set down a fantastic glass of Rioja for me to taste while I was writing; or when another brilliant coworker offered to open an interesting new wine so we could discuss it; and most importantly, the patience and support of management as I learn new skills in an expanding role.
I have never worked in such a joyful environment that fosters growth and creates an overall sense of belonging and camaraderie. It's basically Clyde in summary. Though I will miss working with him, his kindness continues to resonate every day at K&L, and for that I am forever grateful.
- Kerry Kirkham, Marketing Writer & Editor
My start working at K&L SF was an introduction to Bordeaux in a fascinating way, thanks to Mr. Clyde Beffa. My first staff educational tasting was the best of K&L’s Bordeaux, the most highly rated direct imports the staff should know about. I was excited but also hesitant. Mostly because I wasn’t that much of a red wine drinker, and wasn’t familiar with aged Bordeaux as much as I was with aged Burgundy. It was kind of an area I had avoided in my studies. But here we were tasting 23-plus wines, and then we had a 24th that was blind at the end. I knew I would be toast; I was nowhere near guessing the correct bank of the river, but I did correctly guess that the grape was Cabernet and very old, somewhere in the early ‘80s. I did not like it, but I knew then I was going to have to get my chops up because I am competitive, and, hell, this was the owner's passion. I knew I had to step up my Bordeaux game.
So, I want to thank Clyde for instilling in me a thirst for knowledge and making me see how passion can be transferred by just sheer exposure to the many styles of Bordeaux wine. His enthusiasm is the reason K&L started so successfully and has continued to be so. I am forever in gratitude to you Clyde for the abundance of wine over the years, and for the fact that I got to taste my first First Growths from Château Haut-Brion, Château Mouton-Rothschild, and Château Lafite Rothschild. Thank you for all the beautiful farm-to-table produce you have shared: garlic, tomatoes, Fava beans, spinach, rainbow chard, pole beans, and more. I have created some super delicious dishes from these and have personally “hoarded” the bulk of what was left behind. Words cannot express how much you will be missed; customers, coworkers and French Club members, you have made a very extraordinary stamp in the world of wine and the world of Bordeaux, I just wish I had a chance to go on a buyer’s trip with you…maybe sometime in the future.
Cheers to a great retirement and spending the rest of your time raiding your cellar drinking those gems you have saved for that delicious cassoulet I hear about.
Some 30 plus years ago I met Clyde at an industry party, he was standing on top of a table with a microphone singing a rousing rendition of “House of the Rising Sun.” Little did I know that scant years later he’d be my boss! Years later he gave me the opportunity to be the Buyer for what was then a tiny category at K&L—Italy. He held the reins for the rest of the buying, but it was the first step in his mentorship of myself and for other future Buyers. I am not going to say he was all warm and fuzzy—when you made a mistake, you heard about it at full volume, but Clyde was all about business until he was warm and fuzzy!
It was his passion for wine that really propelled the company forward and inspired the staff and customers. That coupled with his business acumen, his relationships with vendors, wineries, and negociants, and his ability to squeeze more allocations out of the bunch of them. His aura will last for a long time at K&L and beyond, the good will he developed, the relationships he fostered, and the people he mentored, we all have a spot for him in our heart. Good luck with retirement Clyde, I know your golf game needs work, you will finally have the time!
- Greg St. Clair, Manager and Italian Buyer Emeritus