If you find it useful when someone suggests a specific food to pair with a specific wine, you aren’t alone. I appreciate the advice and often make my own suggestions.
Robert Nicholson grew up in southwest England and joined Paul Jaboulet in the Rhone Valley as a “cellar rat” in 1972 before starting his first serious job in the wine industry at Louis Eschenauer in Bordeaux in 1973. Then he moved to the U.S., working for Seagram’s in New York and Christian Brothers in Napa Valley. In 1989 when Christian Brothers sold to Heublein, a forerunner to DIAGEO, Nicholson established IWA, representing Heublein to sell Napa Valley assets that they no longer needed because they already owned Beaulieu Vineyard (BV). The Greystone Building was sold to The Culinary Institute of America and a winery in Oakville, now known as Napa Wine Company, was sold to Andrew Hoxsey. Fifth generation Sonoma County native Josh Grace joined Nicholson at IWA in 2002, after working in finance with Robert Mondavi. As IWA celebrates more than 30 years in the M&A business, Nicholson says that the company has been involved with $2 billion in transactions in the wine space