In Memoriam: Bill Blatch (1948-2005)
Many giants of the wine trade are totally unknown to consumers. It’s inevitable, given that they are the middlemen (and women) who are the conduits for funneling memorable wine from the vintner to the end user.
William John Beachcroft Blatch was born in England in 1948 and first came to Bordeaux in 1974. He worked for various négociants before starting his own firm, Vintex, in 1982. He sold his company in 2006 and supposedly retired, but he spent the next segment of his career representing Christie’s in Bordeaux and promoting the wines of Sauternes through another project, Bordeaux Gold.
For many people in the trade, Bill will be best remembered for his remarkable Annual Vintage Report, an in-depth examination of the background, weather, and harvest conditions throughout the Gironde region. It became an essential document for understanding the realities of what had transpired in Bordeaux during a particular vintage year.
Personally, I’ll always recall his kindness, generosity, incredible depth of knowledge, and his willingness and ability to share it with others. I have a mental picture of him drawing a map of Bordeaux on a chalkboard, explaining the geological history of how the region was formed to an audience of sommeliers and wine buyers, in a way that actually made it seem interesting. He joined me many times to work the market, and he participated in launching the original Palm Beach Food and Wine Festival at the Four Seasons.
Bill had an uncanny knack for sniffing out the best tanks and barrels at any particular estate. He was the quintessential négociant-éleveur, someone who buys wine at the early stages of production and is responsible for its maturation, blending and aging until bottling. He specialized in small family properties where, many times, the owners knew they had superior batches within the vintage but really didn’t care—they would traditionally mix it all together and sell it as a homogenized product. Bill would visit, isolate the cream of the crop, and supervise its transformation into a hidden gem on the market. Insiders used to joke that he was not only familiar with the people working in the wineries, but knew the names of their spouses, children and pets as well.
During his 50-year career, he had a profound impact on the overall quality of Bordeaux wine. In an industry that is sometimes viciously competitive, I never met anyone who didn’t admire Bill. My sympathies go out to his wife Tita, who has lost more than any of us. It will be quite a while before someone like him comes along again.
