Special Episode! Meet the (Wine) Makers #5: Alex Gambal! (An American in Burgundy, Author of Climbing the Vines in Burgundy, A Story of Perseverance and Positivity, What Makes Burgundian Wines Different)

Show Notes

Special Episode! Meet the (Wine) Makers #5: Alex Gambal!  00:00

Today we are going to talk to a person who has done the impossible in the wine world. Alex Gambal not only moved to Burgundy as an American, but he was able to buy vineyards and make wine in what is probably the most exclusive wine region in the world. And he’s written a book about it called Climbing the Vines in Burgundy. It’s a story of hard work, perseverance, and positivity that is truly engaging and somewhat unbelievable, and we’ll discuss it with him.

Introduction to the Interview with Alex Gambal  00:35

Hello, and welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast! I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and for this special episode, I am on my own as my wine pairing partner in crime is busy making cakes for her Baby Cakes micro-barkery, which by the way you can learn more about if you head over to her website lovebabycakes.com.

Now, as a quick orientation to our podcast, what we usually do in each episode is learn about, taste, and review three wines that are reasonably priced, which means under $20, and should be easy to find. However, for this special set of episodes, we will interview people who are involved in actually making wine. Sometimes, like today, those wines don’t necessarily fall into the reasonably priced range. But that’s ok! Because part of what we want to do with our podcast is to educate ourselves and you on different aspects of wine knowledge in a fun, entertaining, and unstuffy way, even fun and entertaining as Decanter magazine has called our podcast, and that is what we are doing today!

A small plug before we get to the interview with Alex Gambal - which by the way is spelled G A M B A L - and talk about his book Climbing the Vines - if you like what you are hearing or are interested in hearing our other “regular” episodes, please subscribe to our podcast so you can hear more - especially since you are only getting one half of The Wine Pair Podcast in this episode! You can also go to our website to send us a note or subscribe to our newsletter, you can follow us on Instagram at The Wine Pair Podcast, and, if you like what you are hearing, leave us a nice rating and review!

Ok, let’s get to the interview with Alex Gambal

Interview with Alex Gambal 02:19

Hello Alex - and welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. 

For all of our listeners we have a really special treat as we are joined by Alex Gambal who was the owner of 30 acres of Grand Cru vineyards in France - something you Chardonnay lovers will appreciate - and has written a book about how an American was able to be successful in a place that is not very open to foreigners.

Thank you very much for joining us, Alex.

I’m very excited to learn more, but why don’t we start out with you telling us a little bit about you - your background, family, etc. and then we can talk about your fascinating wine adventure. 

Interview Questions:

• Tell us a little about yourself - your background, your family, etc.
  • Parking lot and garage. Scranton PA.
• Tell us about how you got into winemaking. You were doing a very different job, and then decided making wine was something you wanted to do. Was this something you had planned for and pursued, or did it "find" you?
  • Why did you choose Burgundy and making white Burgundy or Chardonnay?
• Did you have a mentor, or someone who taught you the ropes? 
  • How much effort and time did you also have to spend on figuring out how Burgundy works?
  • You were technically a négociant, correct? Was that more challenging or easier in terms of getting into the winemaking business?
• What do you think defines you as a winemaker and makes you and your wines special?
• Do you lean more towards the art or the science of wine (or both)?
• What’s something surprising, interesting, exciting, or funny you have learned about yourself when you were involved in making wine?
• You are still making wine today called Gambal Work, is that right? How did that come to be?
• You have also written a book called Climbing the Vines - and writing a book is different than making wines. What inspired you to want to tell your story that way, and what was that experience like?
• Are there any important or interesting stories about your wine or the people you work with that you think would be important for our audience to know?
• Your book focuses a lot on not just wine, but wine and food, and wine and people. So clearly eating meals is important to you, and it is important in our family as well. If we were to invite you to Sunday Night Dinner (a tradition in our Italian American family), what of your wines would you bring to pair with the food and why?
• How can people find your wines and follow you, and where can they find your book (your website, social, etc.)?

Outro and How to Find Alex Gambal 47:04

Well,  thank you very much for listening to our interview with Alex Gambal, winemaker and now author

Just in case you are worried about memorizing all of this, don’t worry, you can find out all of this information on our website thewinepairpodcast.com in our show notes for this episode

You can find Alex’s book on the web at climbingthevines.com
Climbing the Vines in Burgundy - Alex Gambal Book

You can also find Alex on Instagram at (G A M B A L)
Alex Gambal (@alexgambal) • Instagram photos and videos


And on LinkedIn
(11) Alex Gambal | LinkedIn


And on Facebook at Alex.Gambal
Alex Gambal | Facebook

And, we hope you will subscribe to our podcast The Wine Pair Podcast and follow us on Instagram, and visit our website at thewinepairpodcast.com where you can reach out to us and sign up for our newsletter, and you can also reach out to me at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com if you want more information, and we look forward to hearing from you!

But for now it’s time to go, and as we like to say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.