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Domaine Becquet Winery
Charles Becquet de Mille, owner and winemaker
Charles Becquet de Mille and his wife Roswitha met with us at their tasting room in Murphys. It was early—well before wine lovers started their weekend rounds of the Main Street wineries and Domaine Becquet Winery. This small window of time afforded us the chance to get to know this wonderfully funny and sincere couple.
Throughout our conversation, which covered many more areas and topics than what you’ll read below, we learned that the de Milles give freely of themselves and rarely ask for anything in return. An international political and business consultant for over 30 years, and an author, too, Charles has helped countries all over the world, especially those that are economically depressed. One recent project he excitedly shared had to do with developing a medical center in China like the one he helped established in Columbia, which is so advanced the center can even do liver transplants.
Their concerns about our travels and how we managed such a crazy lifestyle were much appreciated; we’re sure if we asked for anything, they would not have hesitated whatsoever. And the banter between the two was colorful (in a good way!) and endearing. Theirs is a love story, this much was obvious.
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Why did you settle here?
We were all over the world, so why not here? I’m a third generation Californian, although not raised here (raised in France). My grand uncle was president of Finland. The world for us is a small world.
How so?
I just opened a world trade center in Afghanistan.
We’ve opened them all over the world, but this one is quite a challenge.
I had a meeting yesterday to assess if we should do a training center
for women so they could acquire job skills and education. That’s my real
job, international business. We have a center in Sacramento, which is
different than the one in Oakland. The San Diego one is much more
active. We opened one in Africa. What’s business for these people? It’s
not global business, it’s not CEOs and golden parachutes, it’s
“micro-credit,”—$100 that they don’t have to repay necessarily with
interest.
So why did you open a winery?
My kids thought I was a CIA agent when they were in
college. My family, for five generations, has been in the wine industry,
so we thought, “Let’s go back to basics.”
They thought you were a CIA agent?
Yes, I was working with George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson (both past California Governors), the Queen of England, King of Belgium.
Your family history is interesting.
Yes, our family’s involvement in wineries goes back
to Thomas Becket of Canterbury. He died in 1170, and we have here the
same coat of arms (pointing to
their wine label) as you would find in Canterbury, except the cross
that was added about a century and a half later.
Thomas Becket is your great, great, great, great, great
grandfather?
Oh, more than that, the oldest one, almost 1000 [years]. Divide that by 20 or 30 for the generations. That’s a lot of generations, but he’s my oldest ancestor. (For more of the story, read his winery’s listing.)
I love what you wrote in the survey about your wife. Did you
read this? (Question was directed to Roswitha)
No.
It says, “My wife works with me. We look at the challenge of serving our
customers and in doing so, renewing our own relationship, discovering
new qualities in each other after 43 years of being married.
Roswitha: Wow, I’ll have to give him a double kiss for that (winking at her hubby).
Roswitha, what do you think about working with your husband?
I like it. I like it because each time I say, “I need you,” he’s coming right away. It’s not like, “Oh, can we do this later.” And he’s always good humored. And he knows everything.
Domaine Becquet tasting room gift shop.
So who talked whom into opening the winery?
She mentioned it when the kids thought I was in the CIA. “Your family’s in the wine business, why don’t you go back? Why don’t you do something practical?”
Roswitha: I have to tell you this. I was from East Germany. When I was raised, there was nothing. When we had a little bit of wine, it would have been once a year. I would take all the glasses and empty them and drink it and I would say, “Oh dear God, give me a husband with lots of wine.”
Charles: She started drinking
before we had the winery. (Charles
smiles at Roswitha, maybe realizing he made a joke.) We took about a
year to get up to standard with wine before we could live anywhere like
Paris. So we went to the French Riviera and we spent a year going to the
best dinners. I was a journalist at the time. . .I had to discover the
real world. And we had our table every night in the best places because
we were with the press and had the best food and the best wines. And
then she could meet my friends comfortably, coming from a foreign
country. She has a very good palate now. (Roswitha
nods with pride.)
Can you speak to the differences between California’s winemaking
and that of Europe?
It’s hard to speak . . . let’s say, on the “positive side.” Here is the high-tech side, like Mondovi using computers for fermentation, for everything, not just the commercial, but for the production side as well. We are not seeing much of that here in Murphys because we are small, except maybe for Ironstone. Even wineries in Lodi, some are high tech. That’s what we have to share with the world. We are so much advanced in that field.
Now, the downside; we use concentrates a lot—not
us—but some California wineries, they use concentrates, they use
sweeteners, they use sulfites. You can make wine without doing that, you
can make wine with less alcohol, with less oak. California can learn and
it can share with the rest of the world.
How so?
You have in France right now, developments that are also interesting and don’t come over here. I have a cousin making wine in Bordeaux, and he came over here and we had a great discussion about all the differences. He was showing us that here in California when we grow grapes, we have a root system that is central, and on that we graft whatever variety we want. In Europe, especially France, they have a whole book about the rootstock that is best suitable to Cabernet, and that’s a different one than Merlot and a different one than for Sauvignon Blanc. So they have a catalog of rootstock for each different item. They also look at the ground, one that is rich in lime would use a different rootstock than if it’s rich in something else. That’s the kind of thing I think we would benefit by having an incubator of some kind for research and development where the people from Europe, Australia, Argentina, and us would pool together to share the best of what we know. That’s something I’m trying to do.
Now, I’m a little vague about the history, but didn’t native
California rootstock save much of the European wine industry in the 19th
century when phylloxera invaded and destroyed much of the continent’s
vines? Is that rootstock still being used there?
The research in Europe is often funded and sponsored [by government]—the funding is the most important side—so their research in agriculture has been very advanced. Because of that, those root systems have been improved and changed. I’m not necessarily speaking of smaller wineries in the Rhone region, for example, but I’m speaking mostly of Bordeaux which is the high-end of France. Some of the best of Burgundy is in that stage of high research levels, where they can improve tremendously the quality of the wines.
Isn’t that an expensive proposition, changing your root systems?
Yes, but we do that all the time because we have
problems. Today, at least the last ten years, we’ve had to remove a lot
of vineyards so you can use a different rootstock. Because of the
expansion of viticulture here, you have a lot of new vineyards going in,
so you can use that system to plant new vineyards. I think it’s an
ongoing thing, certainly in France. France knows the value of old vines,
so we don’t pull as easily as we’ve done here. In the Lodi area, a lot
of wine people regret that they have pulled out so many grapes that
today would be fantastic.
Is one practice better than the other—Europe or California?
I’m not taking any sides! (laughing) I’m not saying that one country produces a better wine. I think we all have good and bad wine, but if we were pooling our efforts together then, we would improve for everyone.
At the end of the day, you’re tired, you want to relax, what do
you drink?
That’s a good question. I’ll be very frank with
you—beer. We go to a high-quality restaurant usually on a Saturday night
and drink a high-quality beer, which is usually a Belgium beer. And we
are very happy to have a restaurant here with a wonderful selection of
beers. So that’s what we do on Saturday nights, because we have tasted
so much wine that there is a limit.
You strike me as being young at heart.
When you see the world, the world is always young at heart. We die, but not the world, fortunately, so far.