AN INTERVIEW WITH
MATTHIEU FINOT OF KING FAMILY VINEYARDS

He grew up in a family of viticulturists, so you could say he’s carrying on the family business—except on an entirely new continent. Born in France, Matthieu Finot studied his craft at Beaune, a school in Burgundy. Then it was off to Italy and South Africa to work with wine there.

In addition to his taste for wine, he’s always had a taste for adventure, choosing such hobbies as rugby, rock climbing, and snowboarding. His intrepid nature brought him here in 2003. Lucky for us, Virginia captured his heart, and he has since settled in as winemaker at King Family Vineyards near Crozet. We talked with Finot recently to find out more about his travels, his hobbies, and his wines—and how they all inform one another.

Edible Blue Ridge: You've been all over the world—why Virginia?

Matthieu Finot: I don’t think I chose Virginia, but Virginia chose me. When I arrived in 2003, I wasn’t planning to stay. That was my first harvest in Virginia, and we had a lot of rain and a hurricane. It was the worst I have ever seen. But in fact, I liked the challenge.

EBR: Does working here give you a freedom you couldn't have elsewhere?

Finot: Virginia was interesting to me because it was a new wine region, where they’re still trying to improve everything, where there are still no rules. In places like France, Italy, South Africa, they’ve been doing it for centuries, and you can’t bring anything new. From the viticulture up to the winemaking, there’s new you can bring here.

EBR: What is the biggest misconception about being a winemaker?

Finot: People think it means being in the winery drinking wine. I would like it even more if was like that. But it’s not as romantic as that. I’m not going to say it’s a dirty job, because it’s quite pleasant to be stained by wine, but you can’t just sit in your office and drink wine. You need to go out into the field. You need to do some work.

EBR: What do you strive to do with your wines?

Finot: The ultimate goal is to be able to make some wines that are world-class. I want to make wines that can stand up internationally. For a long time, Virginia wasn’t considered a premier wine producer. Now that’s changing. On a more personal level, I’m always looking for balance and subtlety in wine—it should always be balanced.

EBR: What are your favorite grapes?

Finot: For white, viognier, which is proving to do very well in Virginia. And it’s a unique product because there aren’t so many viogniers in the world. There’s chardonnay everywhere. In red, I really, really like petit verdot. We’re getting very good results with it in Virginia. It’s a grape that grows well with the climate.

EBR: You like to rock climb. What would you choose to drink at the top?

Finot: To be honest, I sometimes just like to have a beer. I drink a lot of wine, but for me, there’s a time and a moment for everything. I prefer wine with food.

EBR: It seems that your hobbies involve instant gratification. Is that because your professional life requires a lot of waiting?

Finot: Yes, I know how to be patient. I’ve got some good wine in the winery that I’m very excited with. But it’s not yet time to sell or bottle it. So I get no feedback from customers yet. After I’ve made a wine, there’s a year or two before I get feedback. By that time, the wine is long gone from my head. I’d have worked on another two vintages since that one.

EBR: Is there a competition among winemakers here?

Finot: Winemakers have big egos. We need to have big egos, because we work by ourselves and make big decisions by ourselves. But I don’t see it as a competition. At the end, we all want to do good wines. We have more strength if we work together. I can explain my process and can even give a fellow winemaker the same grapes—and he or she would come out with something different. It’s just like if you give the same color to two painters and tell them to do a painting—they’re going to come out with different results. A big part of the quality is the vineyard and terroir, but the other part is the human factor. That is the winemaker.

For more about Finot and King Family Vineyards, go to www.kingfamilyvineyards.com.

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