Vonadeau Wine Shop Hosts Joseph Carr, Wine Maker Extraordinaire
by David Flint
Vonadeau Wine & Spirits in downtown Berlin was pleased to host winemaker Joe Carr last Friday afternoon at a wine tasting. Carr is a local boy made more than good. He graduated from Berlin High School in 1978. “I think I was 76th in a class of 80 – My twin sister was third,” said he with his characteristic self-deprecating humor.
People remember his father, also Joe Carr, as the likeable guy who was Town Supervisor in the early 1970s
and who fixed their lawn mowers and small engines in the little shop at the back of his house on Park Avenue.
Young Joe worked at both Cowee’s and Seagroatt’s during high school. He also helped with the Youth
Commission teaching local kids how to swim. From high school he went on to SUNY-Geneseo thinking to be on the wrestling team but instead became a fine arts major with a special interest in modern dance. He worked for a time in dance and dramatics including at The Egg in Albany and on a PBS kids show, but since his college days, he said, “I was always around the wine thing.” Carr had to get a job in college, “To buy books and beer,” he said, “not necessarily in that order.” He was hired as a bus boy at the Big Tree Inn in Geneseo but soon became a wine steward, and it was there that he received his initial education in fine wines from innkeeper Fred Robinson. Carr went on to work as a highly respected sommelier at a succession of high class restaurants and hotels, starting out in Florida and ending up as the Wine Director for the Sagamore resort in Bolton Landing on Lake George where he won the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for his wine list design.
At the age of 39 he became President of the North American division of Mildara Blass, one of the largest Australian wine producers. But running a large business was not what Carr wanted to do. “I wanted to do this,” he said, pointing to his own excellent wines on the table and the pleasant talk with friendly people about the craft. Carr says a quote attributed to George Eliot has been his guiding motto, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” So in 2005 he struck out on his own to create his own company, Joseph Carr Napa Valley, with the aim of crafting world class wines that are elegant yet affordable. He can make them affordable because as a “Negociant” he does not grow his own grapes but purchases grapes, or sometimes barrels of wine, from small growers, mostly in the Napa Valley of California. Carr crushes the grapes at Larson Vineyards in Sonoma, ages the wine a couple of years in oak barrels and then carefully blends the different varietals to create his own unique wines. He produced a thousand cases of wine the first year which received immediate wide acclaim. He now produces 35,000 cases a year, mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, his “flagship wine” which he describes as a traditional Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. He produces smaller amounts of wines labeled as Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. The Pinot Noir is a recent addition to his repertoire and it sells out within eight months.
Carr also produces a wonderful Cabernet Sauvignon labeled “Josh,” a “winemakers wine” that he jokingly
refers to as “vin de garage.” He describes it on the back label as “A wine that is bold and expressive but unassuming, and approachable. Funny how these characteristics seem to remind me of someone that I knew. It’s a wine I made for my family, my friends, and a man I called Dad.”
Though his winery is in California, Carr still lives not too far from home with his wife and daughter in Schodack Landing. He will soon have another residence on Cape Cod. Commuting frequently to the West Coast he takes in his stride. “Each year, I think, we are making our wines a little better,” he said, “We’re learning something every year.”
Vonadeau proprietor Cheryl Thibodeau said she was pleased with the turnout of people from the area. She continued the Joseph Carr wine tasting into Saturday, though without Joe. She said she sold a good amount of his wines and now has put an order in for some of that fast selling Pinot Noir.
