Winemaker David Coventry Moves on From Talbott

June 14, 2022 – It may come as a shock to everyone but winemaker David Coventry, that he departed in mid-May from Talbott, the crown jewel of Gallo, where he had been winemaker for nearly six years. 

“When I started with Gallo in 2016, I told them I had a five year plan. And five years came last July,” he says, admitting it was “the best gig in the entire empire.” But it was time to move on. 

Arguably, this 5^th anniversary occurred during a pandemic. He reminded them and began to craft his exit strategy. 

The timing might not have been ideal for the organization to react to the reminder, however. After allowing remote work for the first year of COVID lockdowns, they asked everyone who had been able to do their jobs from home to return to the office. It wasn’t a wildly popular strategy and many employees chose this as a time to move on.

The Talbott cellar crew, though, had been working at the winery non-stop, throughout the pandemic. Because making good wine means being present: there is no such thing as remote winemaking.

Says Coventry, “Working at Gallo is absolutely amazing. It’s an incredible education. They train folks so well, they are very highly sought after. My head cellar guy just took an assistant winemaker position down in Paso Robles, which is a radical step. He has a monster palate and was at Hahn before Talbott. My enologist, who was there for two years, left in April to be a winemaker with the Wine Group in Soledad, and my cellar lead just left.” 

At that point, Coventry had worked 25 years straight in the business. He thought it would be nice to take a week off. Still, leaving such a prime gig was emotionally hard.

“I can’t believe what a trip it was working with Gallo,” he reflects. “I was exposed to such a range of technology and corporate thinking and structure. I had a chance to get that into my wheelhouse. It was an incredible crucible for learning. It was overall very positive, but I was just not going any further in my career staying there. I felt I had taken it as far as I could go, and it was time to move on and do something else.”

Before leaving Talbott, he left things in order. “Talbott is a complex thing and there are a lot of moving parts. Everything is manual: nothing is automatic. I have things set up there. I have replanted the vineyard and I have a 3-year and a 5-year plan with sourcing.”

He says a lot of folks were surprised, even though he tried to give them warning. 

“My marching orders to them were simple: just follow the indicated processes and you have a great chance of success.” 

He wonders if they can they find someone with the right experience to take the reins of this amazing place and continue the legacy of the vineyard and winery. Being a large company, replacing any position is a big thing, and this is a big one. 

Which leads him to an observation about the way a large company works. “Managing inventory, dealing with interest rates and financing, glass management, labor challenges. When a small part breaks, it all falls apart.”

There’s the easy way and the right way—and you have to find the right balance between the two

What’s next for Coventry? He’s considering many options where he can put all his years in the wine business to best use, including consulting gigs. “Small guys starting a brand need to not make a mistake. In fact, you cannot afford to make mistakes at all. There is so much competition and so many good intentions. In Monterey, there are so many grapes and so few wineries! I am going to do this for a while.”

Looking back on his time at Talbott, Coventry reflects, “We had a lot of fun: we worked harder than anybody and we got to enjoy the results. I may have been the last bastion of free rein at Talbott. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”

He leaves Talbott with a cellar filled with treasures and a roadmap for the future: his and theirs.