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BUBBLES

Paul Ahvenainen
Paul is the Director of Winemaking at Korbel, let say „Maître
de Cave“. Paul began his career at Korbel Champagne Cellars
in 1985, shortly after his graduation from the University
of California at Davis . Paul was promoted to the position
of Winemaker prior to the 1996 harvest, named Senior
Winemaker in 1998, and eventually Director of Winemaking in
2003. As Director of Winemaking, Paul works closely with the
entire winemaking staff and is ultimately responsible for all
Korbel California champagnes, wines and brandies.

Margie Healy, vice president of commu- Unfortunately, due to travel restrictions
nications for F. Korbel & Bros., contacted and general issues with gatherings, the
me with the head winemaker Paul Ahve- tourism and hospitality parts of the winery
nainen, BTW first ever Finnish winemaker I are pretty much shut down. Hopefully this
met on my wine tours over the world. And will change soon.
Paul answered all our questions. How has the pandemic affected the
work of your house?
How have bans and travel restrictions The actual work of harvest and sparkling
affected the last harvest, and the con- wine production has been challenging. For-
sumption? tunately, Korbel took Covid seriously from the
There is no question that the closure, or very beginning. Masks, hand washing, Zoom
limited operation of restaurants has had a meetings and social distancing just became
large impact on many restaurant workers, the normal way to work. While we all miss
owners and many wineries. Particularly hard tasting wines together and having team me-
hit are the small wineries that are family etings together, we have found ways to make
operations that were selling to similar small good wines, working safely in a pandemic.
family owned restaurants. I think it will take An important reminder of the nature of life
several years for this market to recover. On came with harvest. Apparently nobody told
the other hand with people staying at home, the grape vines that there was a pandemic (or
the sale of wine for home consumption is up major local fires). The grapes ripened just as
significantly. always, and we just had to figure out how to
In the US, sparkling wines are largely a ce- make harvest work on nature’s schedule.
lebratory beverage. What Korbel experien- How do you see the future of sparkling
ced is a significant downturn in sales in the wines, what changes do you expect?
spring when Covid first became a big issue. In the short term, I think sales will continue
People were just not celebrating being stuck to be strong for reasonably priced sparkling
at home. But by summer people figured out wines sold for home consumption. In the
that life goes on, even if they are stuck at long term, restaurant sales and wine-tourism
home. There are still family celebrations that will come back, but it will take time. Overall
can be held at home. Korbel sales quickly re- I feel good about sparkling wine for the long
covered in the second half of the year, and we term. I particularly think that Korbel’s lighter,
ended up with normal sales for 2020 overall. easy to approach style is a winning way to go.
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