Jesse Becker, MS

2614 N Clybourn Ave.
Apt 203
Chicago, IL 60614

Web: jessebeckerms.com
Mail: jesse@jessebeckerms.com
Phone: +1.312.720.2769

Job description:
US Sales Manager for Veritable Wines & Estates

VDP: Where and how did you get the wine bug?

Jesse Becker: I first got the “wine bug” working in restaurants, beginning at the age of 14. I saw that the waiters who knew about wine earned more money! Later, I discovered that wine was tasty and interesting, and began to learn about it more seriously.


VDP: Your first encounter with German wines?

Jesse Becker: After I had the bug, I asked an early mentor for advice about the wine business. He gave me Kevin Zraly’s Windows on the World book and a bottle of Maximin Grünhäuser Riesling. He said: “read the chapter on Germany and drink this wine!”


VDP: What is your favourite story to tell about German/VDP.wine – did you have highly emotional experience with our wines / producers?

Jesse Becker: I visited Steffen Christmann in the Pfalz in 2008 and stood in VDP.GROSSE LAGE® IDIG while tasting the wine. I remember feeling that the wine tasted like the place; it was a real connection to terroir.


VDP: How many bottles of German wine/VDP.wines do you have in your cellar?

Jesse Becker: Too many to count!


VDP: What is your favourite vineyard in Germany – and why?

Jesse Becker: Wehlener SONNENUHR. After you climb to the sundial, you feel you’ve earned a glass!


VDP: If it comes to German grape varieties, what is your favourite? Riesling, Spätburgunder or other?

Jesse Becker: One of my mentor’s told me, if you want to understand a wine, you have to drink it every day. I drink Riesling every day because I’m trying to understand it.