For Yuri Vanetik, Wine Has Turned Business Into A Cultural Experience

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For Yuri Vanetik, Wine Has Turned Business Into
A Cultural Experience
Yuri Vanetik was appointed by Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger to be the California Lottery
Commissioner. And prior to that, the celebrity
governor appointed the Ukrainian-American lawyer
to serve on the California Criminal Justice
Commission. Vanetik is a political operative and
a Washington insider who occasionally lobbies
congress and represents foreign businesses and
political leaders some of whom have become
lifelong friends. But with all of the people hes
met and all of the places hes seen having
traveled throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia,
and the Caucasus Vanetik says that his most
fascinating encounters have been with people who
hes met through a shared love for wine. A wine
collector for over 22 years, Yuri Vanetik has
tasted wines in Israel, Greece, Cyprus, Ukraine,
Poland, Turkey, Moldova, Germany, China, Republic
of Georgia, Canada, and some 20 different
regions that would never come to mind when you
think about wine.
Yuri Vanetik credits his successes in life,
business and relationships to wine His wine
prowess isnt exactly a secret having been the
subject of a feature in Robb Report but outside
of the occasional magazine interview, Vanetik is
private about his wine preferences, the places
he visits, and the relationships he cultivates
through a mutual passion for wine. Vanetik says
that wine has not only led him to new business
projects, but has also helped him to resolve
complex problems for his clients.
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Whether Im meeting with a candidate for
president from an embattled Eastern European
nation or a corporate executive in the South of
France, the discussion often digresses to wine,
smiles attorney-cum-political strategist. The
reason is simple, he explains. Many alpha-type
people who search for meaning and want to have
an impact on the world around them drink and
collect wine. It is a magnet for the curious and
the passionate. I remember a meeting I once had
with an influential religious leader in Israel.
He was stern, difficult to penetrate and relate
to, and the negotiations were going nowhere,
until the topic of Israeli wine came
up. Vanetik vividly recalls the tangible shift
in energy when his business adversary
affectionately recommended a 2016 Gvaot Masada
Bordeaux-style blend, fondly describing its notes
of chocolate ganache and cigar tobacco and
intimating, as if to a close friend, that the
blend can age better than a Bordeaux red. We
instantly connected. Vanetic laughs
whimsically. Discovering wine with someone or
sharing a passion for a certain region or even
vintage is like discussing your puppy playing
with your grand kids, Vanetik continues. People
smile and their guard is down. But to earn a
seat at the most exclusive of tables, a mere love
for wine wont quite cut it. You have to have
the taste and the knowledge of a fine
sommelier. Vanetik makes it clearyou will be
measured by the type of wine you drink. I was
recently discussing terms with a potential client
from Eastern Europe, Vanetik recalls. He
promised that if our work together was
successful, I would be gifted a case of 1992
Screaming Eagle a rare California cult wine
that for many is prohibitively expensive. The
businessman who boasted of drinking Screagle
as he referred to it, was surprised that I
appreciate Domaine de la Romanée-Conti or DRC as
it is known for short, and began to treat me as
an equal rather than as a service
provider. Vanetik asks me if I know of DRC. I do
not. But rest assured, I am not alone. Domaine de
la Romanée-Conti which prices its 'entry-level
wine Corton at more than 1,000 and the Monopole
La Tache for more than 4,000 euros selectively
opens its doors to exclusive importers or the
most pedigreed fine wine journalists and only
produces a few thousand bottles a year in order
to preserve its rigorous quality standards.
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A case of Domaine de la Romanée Conti, considered
as one of the best wines of Burgundy. The
vineyard ... If you are thinking about
stopping by the winery, don't waste your time
because you won't get in, he smirks.
Ironically, the adjacent street is called Rue de
Temps Perdu, the street of lost time. Wines
like these become the story of legends. Ownership
alone is a purveyor of status. For this reason,
some who buy do not intend to drink, but to
collect or acquire for investment often to the
dismay of producers. Wine in business can make
you equals and can turn rivals into
collaborators, the oenophile tells me, as he
describes the old guard of business people and
bureaucrats in Eastern Europe, who frequently
think of professionals as a concierge with a
graduate degree. For the authentic few who share
the passion and the palate for exquisite wine...
its stories and its history... the joy of
sharing it with others... the highs of collecting
it... When they find one another, it breaks down
walls and creates bonds... it is the great
equalizer and transforms doing business into a
cultural experience. I recall visiting Moldova
and meeting with various business leaders there,
shares the avid storyteller. The businessman
who later became a client took me on a tour of
the famous cellars and told me of the historical
genesis of his favorite wine, Negru de Purcari.
He told me a story of how the baptismal act was
established in 1827, when Tsar Nicholas I issued
a special decree establishing the first
specialized winery in Bessarabia at
Purcari... He goes on.
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Some time ago, I negotiated the acquisition of a
hotel in the Caucasus. The opposing counsel an
Austrian attorney started to talk about Georgian
wine, and how the unique way of making wine in
Qvevri is the oldest known method of wine
production... Well, we talked for a while and it
turned out that he collects a rare California
wine popular with adherents to wine critic Robert
Parkers preferences and scores. The rare
concoction is called Sine Qua Non... Once the big
law firm partner learned that I also collect his
favorite wine, he melted with excitement. Now we
refer business to each other. This love for
wine... It has opened tremendous doors in
business for the Ukranian-American. It has been
a superior negotiating tool, and a means of
showing gratitude and respect to those with
elastic resources, who are not easily
impressed. Wine in business transcends culture,
he says.
Winemaker, Manfred Krankl, native of Austria and
resident of Ojai,