Why We Started Encountr

To understand why we started Encountr, that is Valérie and I, I have to take you back to 13 September 2015.

At the time, I was living in California and running a software business based in Palo Alto and Seattle. On this particular, glorious Sunday, I was hosting a wine lunch for about 30 of our clients, at the Clos Pegase Winery just outside Calistoga, in the wonderful Napa Valley.

The day could not have been going better, we drank amazing Chardonnay from the winery, we ate like kings and queens, and the company was lively, both personally and professionally. I actually remember sitting back in my chair, in the middle of the vineyard, looking down at the long table of guests and thinking…. ‘life doesn’t get much better’.

It was at about this moment when three US Airforce jets flew over at an incredibly low height, with the thrusters roaring. The jets literally swept us all off our feet (although with the wine consumption we didn’t need much help).

After a frantic search online, we learnt that the jets were heading towards Cobb and Middletown as ‘The Valley Fire’, which had started the day before, now roared out of control with a serious risk to life and property. We also found out that residents were being evacuated to Calistoga, just a mile away, the wine town where a very good friend of mine had a vineyard.

We all decided to pack up our lunches and wine, and head to Calistoga to see what could be done.

What followed was an evening I will never forget. Calistogan shopkeepers, restaurant owners and residents alike opened their doors to the evacuees, setting up tables all along the main street on which they offered food, supplies, water, blankets and all manner of goods to help the evacuees find sustenance and shelter.

We couldn’t help but join in, laying out what food we had recovered from our lunch, along with a couple dozen bottles of wine and inviting everyone to help themselves. During the evening and the following day, shopkeepers gave away provisions endlessly, restaurants fed everyone at their own expense and residents welcomed the evacuees into their homes to sleep.

What I witnessed not only brought tears to my eyes, tears of both sadness and joy, but it showed me in the most powerful way just how kind, supportive, tireless and generous the wine community was. Calistoga made me feel proud.

What I witnessed not only brought tears to my eyes, tears of both sadness and joy, but it showed me in the most powerful way just how kind, supportive, tireless and generous the wine community was. Calistoga made me feel proud.

As I headed home the following Monday afternoon, I felt a sense of belonging, a sense of meaning and a sense of gratitude. More than that, I felt an urge to become part of this community, to be able to not only support others, but to learn from these people, to become a better person and to have a sense of direction and ambition that never left me.

So, when I had the opportunity, in 2020, to leave the corporate world behind me and do something new and challenging, I didn’t hesitate. It simply had to be wine, and I very quickly formed Wild Boar Wine Events.

Wild Boar gave me that sense of belonging to a community of special people. My clients supported me and as I met more and more like-minded wine makers, importers, sommeliers and wine professionals, the business grew. It really felt like a band of brothers (and sisters).

Throughout my five years running Wild Boar, I observed that whilst the people serving the industry from all sides (winemakers, negociants, importers, retailers and restaurateurs / sommeliers) were indeed a strong and supportive community, I felt that there was something missing in the experience. Customers’ knowledge remained limited, wine was playing second fiddle to the food guests were enjoying and 80% of customers purchased wine on grape variety alone, with little deviation from Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot or Shiraz. I wanted to curate a wine-led experience beyond what was on offer in traditional hospitality; where enjoyment of the wine matched that of dining, where its legacy and craftsmanship met individual tastes and preferences, where an intuition of wine and all its nuances could be cultivated without prosaic educational formats. I wanted wine to bring people together, to gain more from their enjoyment and the natural meeting of curious minds than any traditional tasting might produce. I also wanted to introduce elements of luxury and intimate access, opening doors that wouldn’t be possible for individual enthusiasts alone. In short, I believed that the industry was ripe for change.

That’s when I realised that what I wanted to achieve was bigger than me alone, so I needed a business partner.

I was fortunate to have met the irrepressible Valérie C Whitacre some six years previous, so I didn’t hesitate in picking up the phone and inviting her for a glass of wine.

The rest, they say, is history.

Cin cin!

David Alexander