If you happen to visit former Citigroup chief Sandy Weill out in Sonoma, where he and his wife Joan fled several years ago for no particular reason, you can ask him about his new wine label and if he ever gets the urge to take his shoes off, roll up his pant legs, and stomp on some grapes. You can ask him what it's like tooling around the property on his John Deere after decades spent suppressing his inner farmer. You can even ask him what the climate around Casa Weill was like after Joan told a small struggling college to f*ck itself. But do not under any circumstances mention the C-word in his presence. In fact, don't even think it.
Mr. Weill, a quintessential Brooklyn native, and his wife, Joan, have decamped for Sonoma, where the rolling sun-dappled hills are often compared to Italy’s Tuscany region. The Weills spend more than half of their time here now, far from Wall Street’s high-octane environment — and its critical onlookers...“I think he kind of enjoys it out here. Probably he finds it a bit more of a quieter lifestyle than the hustle and bustle of the city,” said Leslie Vadasz, a retired Intel executive whose 200-acre estate is next door to Casa Rosa. The two have become friendly, but there are some topics that are still off limits, it seems. “In a way, he was quite a pioneer on Wall Street,” Mr. Vadasz said in a recent interview, seated in the spacious living room of his own hillside mansion. “But when I mentioned it, either Sandy or Joan said, ‘Look what happened.’ He was not particularly happy about it.” Mr. Weill does not appear to enjoy discussing the topic, Mr. Vadasz added. “There are subjects that I don’t poke at and he doesn’t volunteer.”
As a reminder, Joan told the Times back in 2010 "there are a few people I want to kill," who she blamed for ruining Sandy's reputation, so maybe after a couple glasses of Weill a Way Exposition 3 Syrah she'd be opening to having a chat about the ole C.
Sandy Weill’s Wine Country Retirement, With Notes of Rue and Chagrin [Dealbook]
