Alex Gambal - Gambal is among the most successful Americans to make wine in Burgundy, the learning curve was steep and the obstacles were nearly insurmountable. The challenges and pleasures of his journey are admirably laid out in his book Climbing the Vines in Burgundy

Having sold his successful wine business and written a book about his experiences as a groundbreaking American expat négociant/winemaker in Burgundy, Alex Gambal tells our correspondent about starting out in the 1990s, the problem with current Burgundy prices and his go-to wine

- By Charles Curtis MW - Photography by Michel Joly, Jon Wyand

American vintner Alex Gambal appears to be enjoying a happy retirement skiing in the mountains of Wyoming, but the path that brought him here was anything but direct. Although Gambal is among the most successful Americans to make wine in Burgundy, the learning curve was steep and the obstacles were nearly insurmountable. The challenges and pleasures of his journey are admirably laid out in his book Climbing the Vines in Burgundy (£18.99 Hamilton Books, August 2023).

‘Archetype of a small négociant house that is both demanding and trustworthy, Maison Alex Gambal, created by an American who fell in love with Burgundy, has emerged in barely a decade as one of the steadiest and most quality-oriented of the Côte de Beaune.’ This 2015 quote, from French wine magazine La Revue du Vin de France, typifies the reception his wines received in France. Gambal’s work was welcomed – celebrated, even – in a remarkable fashion in a nation that has sometimes been chauvinistic about its local produce, his wines appearing on lists in some of France’s finest restaurants. Despite his success, however, in 2019 Gambal sold his domaine to Boisset Collection, the powerhouse wine group based in California but with it roots firmly in Burgundy, and headed by Jean-Charles Boisset.

Forty years earlier, having graduated with a degree in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gambal had returned to Washington DC to work in his family’s real estate and parking business. He married young and his first child was born when he was 25, leading to a settled domestic life instead of 20-something adventures. Gambal indulged instead in vinous adventures and was taken under the wing of Washington-area wine maven Sidney Moore, proprietor of Mayflower Wine & Spirits, whose shop was a magnet for local collectors.