Bernard Lacroute

The Path

Training at Ecole Nationale d’Ingenieurs, the University of Grenoble, and the University of Michigan gave Bernard Lacroute a technical base before wine entered the frame. In industry, he moved through Digital Equipment Corporation (1969–1983), then Sun Microsystems (1983–1989), where he rose to Vice President of engineering, served as Executive Vice President in charge of engineering, manufacturing and marketing, and held a board seat over the same span. He then became General Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (1990–2000), carrying an engineering and operating discipline into a different kind of production problem. Today, Bernard is founder of WillaKenzie Estate (since 1991) and owner and Chief Wine Drinker of WillaKenzie Estate Winery (since 2000).

The Work Today

The title is playful, but the work is not: in wine, the final standard is still whether what is grown, made, tasted, and judged earns its place in the glass. Bernard keeps that standard close to the craft. Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris are his specialties. For a French vintner born in Burgundy and shaped by engineering in the United States, those grapes mark a clear line of focus: method carried over from one field to another, with attention redirected from systems and scale to vineyard and cellar.

Signature

Bernard's signature wines include 1995 Gamay Noir.

In Their Words “Since I like wine, I like to grow things; why not start a vineyard and winery?”

Acclaim

The public titles that remain attached to his wine work are Founder, Owner, and Chief Wine Drinker. Taken together, they point to a maker whose résumé did not start in wine, but whose second career is now read through Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and the Burgundy-born logic behind starting WillaKenzie Estate at all.