‘Bear’was a ‘cowboy’ with passion for fine wine
Charles M. Dalton, whose bushy beard, nickname “Bear” and ever-present Stetson, became synonymous with fine wine in Houston, died Saturday after a lengthy battle with colon cancer. He was 61.
Dalton’s love of wine, and knowledge of same — particularly Bordeaux — was matched only by his passion for horses. Until back issues forced him to stop riding a few years ago, he was equally comfortable on a Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo trail ride as he was tasting privately with the owner in the cellar of a Classed Growth château.
The RodeoHouston’s interna
tional wine competition was one of Dalton’s most far-reaching achievements. Thousands of dollars have been raised for scholarships since its founding in 2004, with Dalton as the driving force.
“He deserves every kudo as our founding father,” said Carol Sawyer, who helped get Rodeo Uncorked! off the ground.
“Bear was our resident cowboy,” said Spec’sWine and Spirits owner John Rydman, who met Dalton in the early 1980s when Dalton was working as a wine rep for Kobrand Wine and Spirits. Rydman hired him in 1996. Dalton would serve as the chief buyer for most of his tenure with the company, helping expand its wine department into one of the nation’s most expansive and eclectic.
“I turned the Bordeaux aisle over to him and sent him to France,” Rydman said. “Then I could hardly get him back.”
Calling Dalton, “a friend with good counsel,” he added, “I’ve known Bear through many facets of our lives, the business, the church. Wine was the business part, but it wasn’t the crux of our relationship. He was special, someone I trusted implicitly.”
Ralph Castellano, a longtime Spec’s colleague and an assistant when Dalton was teaching wineeducation classes at Rice University, said Dalton was a master at demystifying wine for the novice taster.
“With Bear, everybody got invited to the party,” Castellano said. “He made it a fun, positive experience. Obviously, the knowledge was there, but his enthusiasm made it work.”
Dalton’s visits to Bordeaux — there, he always stood out as “the man in the hat” — led to the launching in 2012 of a first-of-itskind-for-Houston annual grand tasting of the region’s wines in the Rice Hotel’s Crystal Ballroom. The event forged a bond between Dalton and Ivanhoe Johnston, whose family firm, Nath. Johnston & Fils, has been among the most prominent negociants in the famed region since the mid-1700s.
Reached by phone in France on Saturday, Johnston grew emotional talking about Dalton, whom he praised for being his own man when it came to wine.
“Bearmade something unique, a friendship between the château owners and the customers of Spec’s. Not a business relationship, a friendship. It is magic, what he created. He was such a gentleman who paid attention to others, to how they felt. Everybody respected Bear for who he was.”
Through tastings he organized and personal donations of time, wine and his formidable cooking expertise, Dalton lent a helping hand to charities and causes that were important to him, none more so than the Houston Women’s Center, the primary beneficiary of the Houston organization Women of Wine.
One of its original members, Karen Singley, remembered how Dalton had founded the group “by inviting a bunch of us downto Spec’s — some in the trade, others just serious consumers — in 2008, saying, ‘I don’t know what this is going to look like, but I want you guys to figure it out. He poured everybodywine and left the room.’”
WOW has since raised nearly $600,000 for the Houston Women’s Center.
“I have so many great memories of Bear,” Singley said. “It’s hard to believe he’s gone. He leaves such a huge legacy. He brought so many people together. We want to continue to drive these missions that were dear to his heart.”
Another beneficiary has been the Church of the Epiphany’s ECHOS program, a nonprofit ministry dedicated to helping the uninsured access health care and social-service systems. A congregant, Dalton organized a successful annual toy drive using Houston’s Alliance Française, located in Montrose, as a venue.
And Dalton’s tastings there, although for profit, had become one of the language school’s largest sources of outside revenue in recent years.
It was with the kitchen staff at the River Oaks Birraporetti’s, where Dalton worked while he was attending the University of Houston, where he developed his love of wine. That’s also where he picked up the nickname “Bear.” Co-wokers thought the burly young man’s countenance and facial hair made him look like a bear.
“Many people, myself included, have never seen him without the beard,” said longtime friend Kyle Britt.
Dalton is survived by his wife Carol, who married him in 2006, and two sons from a previous marriage, Chip Dalton and John Thomas. Funeral arrangements are pending.