Guy Woodward: Winning personalities

By Guy Woodward

Published: 09 July, 2026

At first appearances, Gina Gallo and Jean-Charles Boisset make an unlikely couple. She, the third generation of the famous family – quiet, reserved, and very much at home away from the public eye in the winery and the boardroom. He, also from a family dynasty, arriving in California via Burgundy, and a man for whom every day is a photo opportunity – ideally in monogrammed velvet slippers, complemented by his own brand of jewellery and fragrances.

Together, though, they are the power couple of California wine, with a perspective on all aspects of the market – grape-growing, winemaking, marketing, branding, sales, exports – that is unrivalled in its scope. So when Liberty Wines told me they were in town to promote a new project – Flora Springs, a Napa winery the couple purchased last year, and the first time they have worked together – I was there in a flash.

It’s unlikely I would have been so quick had it been merely a tasting of the wine. JCB and Gina G were, for me, the main draw. Yet when I mentioned their presence to some fellow wine types – both professional and amateur – I was met with a shrug. And the event itself had a modest attendance, in terms of both quality and quantity (though I’m sure Liberty’s invite list would have been stellar). It’s fair to say my enthusiasm for an audience with the Gallo-Boissets wasn’t mirrored elsewhere.

“People don’t drink people, they drink wines,” said one nonplussed colleague by way of explanation. Very true. But if you look at most creative industries – food, film, fashion, music – they are sold on the personalities behind them as much as the product. With wine, you would think such an approach would be even more appealing. We all know, after all, that wine has a communication problem, and is notoriously difficult to bring alive in the media. One way to do so is by force of personality – something that Boisset, with his constantly colourful Instagram feed, knows all too well. By way of rejoinder to my colleague, people don’t engage with wine – they engage with people.

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Harnessing wine talent

So why, as an industry, do we not make more of the talent in our ranks? The effectiveness or otherwise of the mostly rather formulaic wine feeds on social media is a debate for another day, but I do wonder if the glut of opinion-formers, rabble-rousers and other noise-makers has inured us to the worth of authentic, expert commentators. These days, it seems to take the flamboyance of someone like Boisset to get noticed – yet most producers and winemakers tend to have more in common with the introverted Gallo than her more extroverted husband.

And it’s not just winemakers. At the Flora Springs event, while my fellow press were focused on our hosts, the trade – mainly sommeliers – had eyes only for the wine. I see this often. At 67 Pall Mall (a client), the sommeliers are constantly exposed to a string of starry winemakers passing through its doors, who often run tastings for the team. I’m always struck by how, in such circumstances, these diligent, disciplined somms are resolutely focused on what’s in the glass, often to the exclusion of any wider interest in the host.

Is it any wonder, when the WSET, MS and MW syllabuses focus largely on viticulture and vinification rather than the personalities who have shaped wine’s past and present? The result is that the trade ends up talking more about soil, vines, grapes and barrels – all elements which are much harder for consumers to relate to – than it does people.

Everyone can relate to people. I had dinner with Lamberto Frescobaldi last month. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, what with the aristocratic lineage and buttoned-up demeanour. Yet the marchese couldn’t have been more engaging as he opened up on his love of motorbikes and off-piste skiing, how breaking seven ribs on a recent dirt track meant his wife thought he was “an asshole”, and the importance of humility, since “most people who have success in life are lucky”.

The Frescobaldi website shows little of such character, instead talking of how its “commitment to viticulture and agriculture has been a hallmark of the Frescobaldi family… for 700 years”. But I couldn’t help feeling that if more people saw this side of the man behind Ornellaia and Masseto, the wines themselves would seem more accessible. Not everyone has Boisset’s charisma or Frescobaldi’s heritage, of course. But most people have something to say – and want to say it. We just need to listen…

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