Thatcher’s Wine – Interview With Thatcher Baker-Briggs

In this exclusive interview on Glass of Bubbly, we speak with Thatcher Baker-Briggs, the founder of Thatcher’s Wine, based in California, United States. Thatcher’s Wine is an online bottle shop and importer highlighting wines from some of the world’s most dynamic Domaines and emerging winemakers, you can discover exceptional everyday bottles of wine to the rare finds, so without further ado, let’s discover more about Thatcher’s story, how he became involved in the wine industry, some of his most memorable bubbly moments and what the future has on offer.

It’s Great To Speak With You, Thatcher, Can You Tell Us A Little About Yourself & How Your Journey Into The Wine Industry Began?

It all started in kitchens. I got my first job as a dishwasher at age 13 and then was a chef for 10 years. During that period I was working at a restaurant in San Francisco called Coi, which was a two-star Michelin. If you’ve spent time in restaurants, you know glasses of wine appear from time to time, and that was really my first introduction. As I was tasting more and more wine, I was inspired by what I didn’t know and wanted to learn. I decided to start doing some reading, going to tastings, and asking questions. Before I knew it, I was hooked. I never wanted to stop cooking, but I saw an opportunity to learn. I ultimately decided to take the sommelier exam and kind of jump so that I could to start working in the front of house as a Somm or Wine Director.

After working in that space for some time, I built organic connections and relationships with people. They started asking me to help build their wine collections at home, and I didn’t think much of it. I quickly realized how much work goes into that, which is what inspired me to start Thatcher’s Consulting. My goal was really to help make people’s lives a bit easier. As the consulting business grew, I started to realize there were some missing points in the wine industry. Everyone who is successful has been doing it for a long time, and I wanted to come in and look at things differently. Specifically, to apply my skillset working at three Michelin-star restaurants to a broader audience. I started Thatcher’s Wine to help me introduce really unique bottles to the next generation of wine drinkers.

Do You Remember Your First Experience With Sparkling Wine? When It Was And What Kind Of Label It Was?

I remember the first time that I got to drink an incredible bottle of Champagne. There are moments of tasting things and then moments of drinking things, and there’s a big difference.

It was late after work one night, and the Chef and I went out for a drink. We were in Canada at the time but drove just across the river to Detroit to this restaurant called Roast.

I was just starting out in my journey, but the Chef I was with was really into wine and knew I was getting into it. He ordered Crudo, which is one of those things you always hear about, but it’s several hundred dollars a bottle—not something you can afford on a cook’s salary.

I remember sitting there in Detroit, and we drank this bottle. It was unlike anything else that I had ever really experienced in terms of champagne. It has this luscious texture, body, and richness that you can’t find in many other large-produced champagnes. It was a pretty extreme experience I think to be so young sitting there seeing the bottle change as you go. I remember thinking, “What the fuck have I been drinking my whole life?” This is wine. I understand that.

How Rewarding And Challenging Is Managing Thatcher’s Wine?

It’s incredibly rewarding, but it’s also a lot of work. I’m the type of business owner who likes to be involved in the details. I spend a lot of time looking at systems and efficiencies, whether it’s the way that we email, send offers, communicate, or manage our warehouse.

When you’re building something, there is a lot of go-go-go, particularly in this line of work, which requires traveling to meet clients or winemakers, going to events to network, and searching for the next bottles of wine. On average, I probably work about 16 hours a day, with enough time for tennis and mezcal in between. I don’t sleep much, but at the end of the day, it’s an enriching line of work.

It’s cool because it’s maybe not instant gratification in terms of working in a restaurant where you open a bottle of wine and at that exact moment are like, “Oh my god, this is amazing”. This work kind of accumulates. I spend a lot of time going to different cities and sitting down with winemakers who are 27 years old, 30 years old, or 60 years old to say, “Hey we really love what you’re doing”. And then, because we’re the official importer of many wines—particularly ones nobody’s ever tasted—we get to introduce customers to something new. Telling the story of the winemaker is cool because not only are you building somebody’s palate, but you’re also articulating somebody’s story that has worked hard cultivating this wine It’s a really unique, special thing.

You Hand Pick Every Bottle Available On Thatcher’s Wine, What Are The Key Factors That Inspire You To Choose Certain Wines?

For me, the defining factor of the wines we sell is are they delicious. It’s really as simple as that.

Second to that, we look at the history and story of the winemaker. I like to work with people that create things that are singular. They respect the rules and tradition and how things are done but it’s exciting when you make wine for yourself as a winemaker in the style that you want.

We want to have things that have an interesting story so that we can have a selection of wines that everyone is going to be interested in trying. For some customers, that might mean stepping out of their comfort zone a little bit. We can introduce them to something they will ultimately enjoy as much or maybe potentially even more than what they’re used to drinking.

At the end of the day, every single bottle we sell at Thatcher’s Wine is what I personally want to drink when I’m sitting down at the end of the night. People have to put a little bit of trust into what it is that we’re doing. We’re going stick to that ethos focusing on the elements that we really care about. People come to us to drink cool and interesting things because that’s why I drink with my friends and family.

What Future Plans Can Fans Of Thatcher’s Wine Look Forward To In The Coming Years?

We just opened our wine shop in Brentwood, California in Summer 2024. That’s a big one for us that’s going to be an exciting extension of what we’re doing now. If it’s successful, it’s an interesting model because, in a way, we’re going backwards. A lot of wine shops started as brick and mortar, and then as the world changed and technologies came into play, they moved into e-commerce. We started in e-commerce, and we’re kind of going backwards to brick-and-mortar.

I think there’s something that you can do in person that you can’t do online. It’s a really exciting thing to have a place for people to come and understand what it is that we do—talk stories and try to take themselves out of their own comfort zone.

Can You Share With Us One Of The Most Memorable Experiences You’ve Enjoyed With A Glass of Bubbly?

This is a fun story. It was very late at night after Lap Palais. At the end of the event, we went to an afterparty at Charlie Bird. There were probably 150 people in this tiny restaurant. People were pouring wine over each other, like, “Taste this, taste this.”—it was chaos.

I was in the middle of a conversation and somebody poured something into my glass. I wasn’t paying attention when I tasted it but it just kind of floored me. Immediately I was like this is the most incredible sip of Champagne in my entire life. Everything stopped.

Come to find out, it was 1979 Krug Clos du Mesnil. Which some people would argue is the best bottle of Champagne ever made.

Here we are at like 2:30 in the morning after a lot of wine, having this really special blend of Champagne. It was a remarkable moment because I’ve been very lucky to drink so many of the rarest bottles of wine throughout my career, but that was one I had been chasing. To have it in this context, where you have absolutely no idea what this glass of wine is, was incredible. No context or nothing, just my nose palate in the glass. Turns out to be probably the best bottle of champagne that I’ve ever had in such an interesting situation was beautiful.

Thank you Thatcher, for sharing your story and experiences with us and we at Glass of Bubbly wish you the very best for the future!

Images belong to Thatcher Baker-Briggs. Glass of Bubbly was granted permission to use them.