You might now know his name, but his contributions to California food and wine are innumerable.
In 1964, just one year out of college, Corti decided that his dream of becoming a professor of Romance languages didn’t match the reality of teaching Spanish. He joined the family business, which his father and uncle had founded in 1947, as Corti Brothers’ wine buyer.
Sacramento wasn’t a big enough, or interested enough, market for such obscure luxuries, so Corti started a newsletter in 1965. At the publication’s peak, Corti Brothers sent out copies to 5,000 recipients around the country. That might not seem like much — but they were the right 5,000 people. After encountering old-growth Zinfandel vineyards in Amador County, Corti became the then-unknown region’s booster, bringing it to the attention of winemakers and oenophiles all over. An even bigger discovery would dominate convenience-store shelves for decades to come. Under Corti’s influence, Bob Trinchero, winemaker at Sutter Home, had been bottling Amador Zinfandels and pressing some of the grapes into blush wine.
“He’d tell you what you wanted was wrong, what was better, and what you should use,” says Joyce Goldstein, chef-owner of the now-closed Square One in San Francisco. At a time when most Americans she encountered had never tasted the foods of Italy, Greece and Israel she was serving, she found in Corti a palate she could trust. “I’m sure he puts off people, but he’s so brilliant that you want to hear what he has to say.
The California wine world has continued to be shaped by his tastes. In 2007, the Sacramento Bee reported on Corti’s decision to stop carrying wines whose alcohol content was higher than 14.5%, which he found overbearing and boring. The article ignited a debate that spiraled into the hyperbolic, and big-Cab proponent Robert Parker, at the time the world’s most famous wine critic, called Corti’s decision “appallingly stupid.
“For the future of Corti Brothers, we need to cement his legacy, and the way you cement his legacy is audio and visual,” Mindermann says.
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