Meet Some of the Sons and Daughters: Bob & Ethan Lindquist

Jasmine Hirsch never believed she’d end up working with her father, David, at Hirsch Vineyards on Sonoma’s remote far coast. Olivier Berrouet didn’t have a second thought when he was offered the job his father, Jean-Claude, had held for more than forty years—making the wine at Château Pétrus in Bordeaux. Working with—or separately from—a famous father may not be the simplest career path—but the sons and daughters in the pages that follow have worked it out brilliantly.

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Qupé‘s Bob Lindquist has two grown sons. The younger of the two, Luke, was drawn to winemaking and viticulture at an early age, but has gone on to other things.

Ethan, meanwhile, sought another path entirely, even as his vinous sensibilities were established early on in the recesses of his father’s cellar (and that of their neighbor, Jim Clendenen). When he was younger, Ethan spent little time in the winery, focusing instead on snowboarding and music (the latter interest instilled by his father, who took him to his first concert, an R.E.M. show at The Forum, when Ethan was 14). He lived in Tahoe for seven years, snowboarding 130 days a year and kayaking, hiking and fishing the rest. Eventually, he says, “I knew I had to move off the hill if I was going to get a career.” He ended up in Sonoma County, where he worked with Greg La Follette at Tandem, in Sebastopol, where he founded his own label, Ethan, before returning to the Central Coast in 2003.

In addition to making his own wines, Ethan works closely with his father at Qupé; he recently took on a role in national sales for the brand. But clearly, Bob’s biggest influence has been aesthetic. “He started out with a few vintages on the ripe side,” says Lindquist pére, “but he saw the error of his ways, you might say. He grew up tasting balanced wines, and he’s come around to them.”

TOP-PERFORMING WINES
93 ‘08 Qupé Santa Maria Valley Nielson Vineyard Syrah $35 (02/11)
91 ‘09 Qupé Central Coast Syrah $18 (02/11)

This story was featured in W&S Fall 2011.

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This story appears in the print issue of fal 2011.
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