Tag Archive: Sommeliers

Masters of Food and Wine

Passport Magazine
December 2008

Masters of Food and Wine
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Masters of Food & Wine 2008It shouldn’t surprise anyone to find out that there are a whole lot of gay wine geeks and collectors in the world; and they were out in force at the Masters of Food and Wine 2008 in Buenos Aires. Upon arrival, I found myself amidst the swirl of hors d’oeuvres, flagons of wine, internationally acclaimed chefs, sommeliers, restaurateurs, and collectors who were willing to ante-up the air fare, hotel costs, and entrance fees-all of which added up to somewhere around $6,000.

The five-day extravaganza opened with a wine and cheese tasting at the Park Hyatt’s Palacio Duhau in Buenos Aires, a stunning, converted mansion that takes up half a city block. The Duhau’s staggered levels and twisting staircases gave a certain Escher air to the space. The courtyard and surrounding wine bar and salons were perfect for introductions and a chance to sample a range of some of Argentina’s most interesting cheeses and wines.

The next night’s “Rarities” dinner offered an exclusive group of wine gliterati tastes of treasures from the cellars of 25 Argentine wineries. Then next day it was off on flights to Mendoza, 700 miles west in the foothills of the Andes Mountains.

At the posh Park Hyatt on the town’s central plaza we kicked off a trio of days with a wine and hors d’oeuvres party, catered by two dozen chefs from all over the globe and wineries pouring hundreds of bottles, to a mere thousand attendees. The next two days passed by quickly as we broke up into smaller groups and headed out to Mendoza’s amazing countryside, each group visiting a trio of wineries per day, and dining our way through multi-course lunches and dinners cooked by the visiting culinary stars.

The event culminated with a Gala dinner back at the Park Hyatt where each of us vowed to return again next year.


The Masters of Food and Wine 2009 will be held February 10-15. For more information visit www.mfandw.com.ar


Passport magazine is a relatively new, ultra-slick, ultra-hip gay travel magazine. My friends Don Tuthill and Robert Adams, respectively the publisher and editor-in-chief, who have owned and run QSF magazine for many years, launched this publication recently. It has received industry accolades. They asked me to come along and write the occasional article for this venture as well.

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No Apology Necessary

Outlet Radio Network
September 13, 2004

No Apology Necessary

What is it about wine that makes people think they should know about it? I’m not referring to the basics of being able to tell if it’s white or red, or even whether or not one likes it. I’m placing my attention squarely on the prevalent view that one “should” know vast amounts of data on the subject.

This topic has been noodling around in the back of my mind for some time, but was brought to the front this weekend. A woman came into the shop to purchase a bottle of wine for dinner. Based on her manner of dress she was clearly what one would call a “career woman”. She opened the conversation with an abject apology for her complete lack of knowledge of wine – a situation which clearly made her feel inadequate as a human being. The apology showed signs of turning into a several minute soliloquy.

I stopped her and asked what she did for a living. It turned out she was an investment banker. Now, investment banking is a topic on which I could wax poetic for all of two seconds. I told her this. Her response was “but I should know about this!” My response – she spends her entire work day focused on investments. The people who need investment banking done rely on her judgment and expertise to handle it for them. I spend my entire work day focused on wine and food, as do the rest of my colleagues worldwide. She doesn’t need to know the topic, all she needs to do is rely on our judgment and expertise.

I can’t say that my answer completely satisfied her, but she did see the point, relaxed, and we talked about her dinner and picked some wine to go with it. I can’t say the answer will satisfy anyone else, but I really do mean it. You don’t need to know this stuff in some deep hardwired way. It’s why I write about wine and food – it gives you some ideas, some suggestions, and hopefully you’ll try them out. Because it really is what I do all day long.

I taste a lot of wine (and a fair amount of food). That doesn’t mean I open a different bottle of wine each night with dinner. It means I sit down with winery, import, and distribution representatives every work day and taste through numerous samples. On the order of well over one hundred a week. I taste good wine, I taste mediocre wine, I taste blatantly bad wine. It’s part of the job. Then I pick the ones that I not only do I like, but that I think my customers will like, and, that I think are fairly priced.

So when I’m asked about a wine off the shelf, I can actually talk about it. I really did taste it. Yes, at some point, I tasted every one of those hundreds of selections that I make available. I took notes, I reviewed them, sometimes I go back and taste the same one again to make sure. And, in any good wine shop, or good restaurant with a sommelier (or at least someone who is really responsible for the wine selection), they do the same thing.

So the next time you stop in to pick up a bottle for dinner, take a minute to get to know us. You don’t need to apologize for not knowing about wine. We don’t care. We’re going to take care of you anyway.


[Update] My column earlier this month elicited several responses, all positive, but all with the same request… if you’re tasting so many wines, why don’t you share them with us!? So, from now on, I’ll include a couple of favorites from recent samplings at the end of each column. My only caveat, of course, is that not all wines are available everywhere, though any good wine shop ought to be able to track down a source for you – I will try to include information that will help them do so. Prices vary from area to area, not to mention shop to shop, but I’ll try to give you a rough estimate.

Both of this column’s wines were selected out of a tasting from local distributor Martin-Scott Wines.

Torii Mor Winery Pinot Gris, 2003, $15

Famous for it’s high-quality, handcrafted Pinot Noirs, Oregon’s Torii Mor has become a recognized label amongst the wine cognoscenti. This was the first time I’d tasted their Pinot Gris (which is the same grape as Pinot Grigio – just a difference between the French and Italian names for the varietal) and I was totally blown away. This is the best domestic Pinot Gris I’ve tasted in years. Rich and ripe with flavors of pear, melon, and just a hint of sweetness, this is a fantastic match for spicier foods… maybe a nice five-spice crusted salmon filet… Winery website

Pagor Tempranillo, 2002, $15

The classic grape of Rioja and Ribera del Duero in Spain, tempranillo is generally a medium-bodied, spicy, earthy red. It is a great match with lamb dishes and hearty stews. The plantings of this grape are few and far between outside of Spain, with, to the best of my knowledge, only about half a dozen wineries in California growing it. I know little about Pagor Winery itself, but I’ve been impressed with this wine vintage after vintage. The 2002 shows bright cherry and berry fruit with a touch of dark chocolate and spice. (Pagor Winery: 800-484-8100)


I started writing food & wine columns for the Outlet Radio Network, an online radio station in December 2003. They went out of business in June 2005.

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Putting It All Together

Santé
The Magazine for Restaurant Professionals
April/May 1999
Page 59
Putting It All Together

The Veritas team, back row from left, Sommelier David Singer, Sommelier Ben Breen, Owner Gino Diaferia, front row from left, Wine Director Dan Perlman, General Mananger Ron Lybeck

The Veritas team, back row from left, Sommelier David Singer, Sommelier Ben Breen, Owner Gino Diaferia, front row from left, Wine Director Dan Perlman, General Mananger Ron Lybeck

The phone rings early. The voice on the line says, “X told us to call you. We’re opening a restaurant. We have a private collection of 70,000 bottles of wine to create a reserve list, but if you want to add to it, you can buy what you think you need. We’re going to do low markups to attract people who are into wine. The chef is really talented. Even though it’s a 65-seat restaurant, you’re going to have two assistant sommeliers. We’re opening in four weeks. Interested?”

I’ve just finished my first pot of coffee. The caffeine hasn’t quite kicked in. I’m highly susceptible to both flattery and intrigue. At least I can go talk to these guys. It’s not as if I’m committing to anything… Yeah, sure.

I go chat. Two weeks later, I’m at 20th Street in Manhattan, sitting in the basement of a construction site that will become Veritas, wondering just where I’m going to put 1,500 selections of wine. I have room for 500 – if I squeeze.

Taking Stock

Reality can bring tears to your eyes. There are personalities involved – four owners, three of whom are offering their personal wine collections for me to cull through. What complicates matters is that each of them has their own idea about what should be on the list. One partner hands over his entire collection. A second sends a list of what he is contributing to the restaurant. Partner number three knows what he has – it just isn’t written down anywhere. I make a trip to his cellar, and we comb through his collection.

I end up with over 1,200 selections of wine. They are heavily concentrated in “trophy” wines – top-growth Bordeaux, Burgundy and Rhône, California cult Cabs, Barolo, scattered selections from Spain (a large vertical of Unico) and Australia (ditto for Grange). There are few whites, lots of big bottles (25 percent is in magnum or larger) and virtually no half-bottles.

My two cellar rooms are both temperature controlled. I create “red” and “white” roooms, with double-depth, single-bottle racking. Initially, my reaction is one of dismay; how am I going to create bins?, there’s a lot of wasted space, etc. When I stop to think about how the wines are coming in, however, I realize that this configuration is necessary. Traditional bins would end up with five or six different wines piled on top of each other. On the other hand, because of the “selection” process, I can’t preassign bin numbers and spacing to wines. I end up creating bin number categories (e.g., 2000-2200 for red Bordeaux) and then assigning the bin numbers as the wines arrive.

Collaboration

There are two assistants to hire, one capable of creating the bar that will carry eclectic and interesting selections, not “well” brands and not even standard “call” brands. Also, I want someone who can manage a small, constantly changing, wine-by-the-glass program. We interview and hire, and we put one of the assistants, David Singer, on payroll and get him working. Between the two of us and General Manager Ron Lybeck, also a sommelier, we hammer out the concept, and Singer starts making selections. My second assistant, Ben Breen, joins us. He not only will handle floor service, but also much of the restaurant’s computerization, including the redesign of the preliminary web site where our wine list and menus are posted.

Lybeck and I come up with the concept of a “market” list. We approach it like a chef going shopping, finding ingredients and then creating a menu. I’m not going to worry about filling holes in this list. I look for wines that I like, that I can get at good values and offer at prices that beat the competition. We collect wine lists from all over the city and start comparing prices. If someone bought something years ago, we may not be able to beat the price. Instead, we go for giving the best value that we can.

There’s the menu to consider. Executive Chef/Owner Scott Bryan and I worked together years ago in another restaurant. Initially, his menu looks like typical fusion cuisine, but he has his own twists. Aiming for simplicity in a city where more is better, he pairs a minimum of ingredients to create a maximum effect. We taste through the menu with the staff – the food is amazing! From my perspective as Wine Director, however, most of what’s on the reserve list doesn’t pair with the food. A huge percentage of these are big, “chewy”wines. The food is lighter and simpler with touches of Asian spices. There are lighter, more elegant wines to add.

I’m a huge fan of half-bottles. We already have a ton of large bottles. I start collecting halves, and I ask one of the partners to do the same. He heads for the auction houses and starts bidding.

Presentation

I wish that I could remember the thought processes that went into the list design. I do remember waking up in a cold sweat at four in the morning and jotting down nightmares. Some of the presentation was dictated by prior decisions; a designer already had selected the physical book that would contain the list. It’s a half-width ring binder holding sheets of paper that are 4¼ by 11 inches. I decide to print pages on one side and fold them in half. The physical design allows me to update the list daily, a necessity given the wine-crazed clientele that we attract. Customers expect that the wine they see on the list to be there; being out of one item is guaranteed to convince them that we’re all smoke and mirrors.

veritas3I decide on a reference section for the list. Customers are always asking questions about bottle sizes, geography and wine trivia. I create a chart of bottle sizes, and I add some maps. Inspiration strikes, and I spend a couple of days researching an idea. I gather reviews of a recently released wine. As we all know, wine reviews vary considerably. I insert a blurb about the importance of trusting one’s own palate and quote from the reviews. Every flavor profile is different and the ratings vary widely. I show it to colleagues. They love it.

I want color on the list – just enough to accent the pages. I purchase an inkjet printer, which means slow printouts and regular replacement of pages when someone smears the ink with wet or greasy fingers, but we all like the look. I want to feature wines by the glass up front. A last minute call to the designer yields a pocket added to the inside cover.

We decide that we’re going to have the market and reserve lists in the same book. We want a certain level of impact in dining and wining here. We don’t want people to feel intimidated asking for the reserve list.

I gather a hundred selections or so as an opening market list. Given our “market” approach, I opt for separating them by varietal, not geography. I write a one-sentence blurb for each wine, but as time goes on, we’ll use commentary from staff tastings.

[Veritas – marketlist]
veritas2The reserve list requires a different approach. I go after it with a copy of a wine atlas in one hand. I try different formats until I find one that we all like. The page width requires certain decisions. I don’t want individual wines to take up two or three lines of text. My solution amounts to an outline of the wine world; true, customers must look at the top of the page to know where they are on the planet, but my scheme gives a simple categorization to the list.

Training

I have to deal with staff training. I decide that, over time, we will cover the equivalent of a sommelier’s course for the entire staff. Most of the wine education will be handled by me. I decide to leave the spirits education in Singer’s hands; though he’s new to managing a bar and teaching, it is a perfect opportunity for him to grow into a position.

The chef is approached. He’d love to have the kitchen staff participate. We plan classes and tastings, a demanding schedule that will tax the staff’s time and energy. The waitstaff is hired with that in mind. We look for people wo are personally into wine right from the start.

First Returns

Opening day arrives. The reserve list will open with holes intact. It will be a constantly evolving list, as any good wine list should be. Everyone says that their list is constantly evolving, but most aren’t. They become static creations because no one has the time to constantly update them. Our approach has to be different, and my assistants will free more of my time to do that.

I wish I had months to add more whites and to add wines from other parts of the world. I’d like to see more wines representing the lighter side of life. Balance will come with time. On the other hand, we know that the public, and the critics, will come looking for the holes and, finding them, will assume that we haven’t thought it through.

I add an opening statement onto the first page of the wine list, explaining our concept and evolutionary approach. It has no effect on a restaurant critic who arrives before we open, looks at a draft of the list and pronounces judgment on it. One shows up the day after we open and announces that we don’t have the wine that the reviewer wants. We have 11 other vintages of the very wine, but… yawn… well, an interesting list. A neighborhood restaurateur comes in, combs through the list and asks for an obscure wine. “You don’t have it? I thought you were going to cover everything.” He leaves, no doubt to return to his own restaurant and pass the word about Veritas’ inadequate wine list.

After a day or two, I realize that when you come into the New York City market with what we are offering, this reaction is unavoidable. Most patrons and colleagues are excited for us. There are always going to be those who feel that they have to criticize. We have over 1,300 wines on a brand new list. We’ll never cover everything. If we tried to cover everything in a list this size, we’d have one selection from each appellation, and that’s about it. Who’d be interested? Who’d be excited?


Santé is a glossy format trade magazine for restaurant wine buyers and educators. I wrote as a freelancer for them on and off from the first issue in November 1996 until November 2002 when they decided to stop using freelance writers.

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