John Beaver Truax
Wine Specialist, Wine Buyer
"Burgundy, vintage by vintage, since 1982."
Burgundy
Beaujolais
John Beaver Truax has been in the wine trade since the early 1980s — Ronald Reagan's first term, if you're counting — with a career that began in Washington D.C. and eventually led him to Flatiron Wines & Spirits, where he serves as a Wine Specialist and Buyer.
But if you want to understand what drives him, look at the calendar: John has been traveling to Burgundy since 1982, often several times a year, and he hasn't missed a beat. Every November, he makes the pilgrimage to the Hospices de Beaune auction, held on the third Sunday of the month for the past 165 years. It's part ritual, part reunion — Burgundy obsessives from around the world descending on the medieval wine capital, population 25,000, to taste, bid, and argue over vintages. Beaune itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its streets lined with Middle Age and Renaissance architecture, but John isn't there for the buildings. He's there for the wine and the people who can't stop talking about it.
That kind of dedication — four decades of return trips, relationships built vintage by vintage — is exactly what you want in someone helping you navigate one of the world's most complex and rewarding wine regions.
But if you want to understand what drives him, look at the calendar: John has been traveling to Burgundy since 1982, often several times a year, and he hasn't missed a beat. Every November, he makes the pilgrimage to the Hospices de Beaune auction, held on the third Sunday of the month for the past 165 years. It's part ritual, part reunion — Burgundy obsessives from around the world descending on the medieval wine capital, population 25,000, to taste, bid, and argue over vintages. Beaune itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its streets lined with Middle Age and Renaissance architecture, but John isn't there for the buildings. He's there for the wine and the people who can't stop talking about it.
That kind of dedication — four decades of return trips, relationships built vintage by vintage — is exactly what you want in someone helping you navigate one of the world's most complex and rewarding wine regions.