Although Gibbs does allow for the expression of the art of the winemaker in wine, the artist must work with what the earth produces. He credits his Jesuit education in sociology with shaping his analytical mind. As a sociologist, I study people. On the enological side, I study wine. And he often finds himself using similar criteria to evaluate both.
Wines can often be like people, They both are organic, they live and die, and have personality.
Others, like great wines, are well-balanced with good depth and strong character. Some can be tight, but with time will open up and show you many layers. Gibbs first encountered the Mediterranean lifestyle in 1984 on a vacation to Greece. The following year, a trip to Germany introduced him to the wines of the Rhine and Mosel regions. But the European wine culture really seeped into his skin in the summer of 1986, when he spent a summer doing postgraduate work in the former Yugoslavia, He has since traveled throughout Europe.