An Interview with A Wild Idea wines owner Conrad Johnson

We had a conversation with Conrad Johnson to find out more about his AWI brand and how he gets such positive results in all the wine competitions, among other vinous topics.

1. How did you first find The Vines of Mendoza and what is the story behind your wine brand?

AWI, which stands for A Wild Idea, is my brand. Like most people I happened to be passing through Mendoza and stumbled across the original tasting room back in 2008. That’s when the wild idea occurred to me and I pulled together a few friends and family and bought a few acres. 

2. What is the winemaking philosophy or style behind AWI wines?

Well, I started out with typical bold Bordeaux red blends, but in 2018 I had another crazy idea and bought an acre of Viognier so I’m now making some fun white blends (like my “Mitad-Mitad” barrel fermented and my Awi white blend), playing around with those different styles. I’m really liking the whites coming out of those vineyards.

3. What is the grape varietal that has most surprised you as you’ve made wine over the years with VoM?

The Viognier was obviously a surprise in that I didn’t really know the grape but honestly,  Malbec is a tremendous grape and I think the blends coming from Malbec are surprising in their own way. It’s always fun doing the blendings – Pablo and Mariana always come up with fun options. The only problem is trying to remember what you’ve done!

4. What is your commercialization plan/strategy and how are sales going?

As I mentioned, we bought the vineyard acres in 2008, and in 2014 when we couldn’t drink all the wine we were making we started commercializing. I got my winery license in Texas so I can bring in the wine myself – my brand as well as the brands of other owners in the region. We now bring in about two full containers per year. It’s never going to be my retirement fund, but I want to see how it continues to go, and I love the experience and the people I continuously meet through it.

5. How did your wines come to compete in the TexSom competition? Do you often submit for competitions and do you feel they help sell more wine?

Bill Graham, owner of Chiflados, sends his wines into the US through my warehouse and we’ve become friends, so we decided to submit our wines together. But yes I have submitted to many wine competitions! I submit to the Houston Rodeo International Wine competition every year. And the San Antonio Rodeo also has a wine competition. And, the wines always place well. Honestly some of the competitions are like soccer games: everybody gets a medal. So I sort of discard the bronzes but silver and above goes on the website and it does help sell the wines.

But you have to take it with a grain of salt: my Gran Corte 2018 got 90 points from James Suckling but only got a bronze medal in the Rodeo competition. I have a very small tasting room at my second warehouse and it’s nice that you can lay your medals around there. People want to know you’ve submitted your wines somewhere but it’s not cheap ($50-$100 per wine to submit, plus the bottles and shipping). I make 5,000 bottles a year but across several different wines. Some people make 25 cases and they want to submit…might not make sense.