souptonuts

Yes, I am a wine nut…
Almost twenty years ago I became part of the wine world. As I stood there as an assistant manager at Pasta Mesa Restaurant in Costa Mesa Ca, I remember sipping a white wine, I believe it was pinot grigio. I was scared senseless as the salesman described the wine to me. When he asked me what I thought of it I had to find a quick reason to run back to the kitchen,
The truth was that I really liked the wine, but I did not know how to say it to this person whom I was apparently vastly more educated in wine then I. Frankly I knew nothing about wine. I had drank some wine in NY, mostly white or blush wines from the Finger Lakes region, or French White Whites… but never an Italian, and I was Italian, so how embarrassing was that?

The salesman had cued me in one some of the items on the menu that might go well with the wine so later that evening as I stood tableside and was asked by a patron for a fruity yet dry white wine that went when with the Fettuccini Alfredo, I was able to give him a suggestion It was later in the evening and the cable radio station was playing an old Credence Clear Water Song…instinctively I described the wine by saying the Pinot Gregio is “rocking“…What better word is there to describe a wine that you like?

It was not long before I became submerged in the intimidating world of wine; until I was working for Wolfgang Puck as a manager/trainer, as a Banquet Server at the Beverly Hills Hotel and then as the General Manager and Wine Buyer for the Bungalow Prime Steak restaurant in Corona Del Mar Ca. and then finally helped open Robert Mondavi’s Golden Vine Winery at Disney’s® California Adventure. 

While at the Bungalow, I remember at a Wine maker Luncheon with Bo Barrett of Chateau Montelena, Napa Valley, the wine maker was asked a question by I upscale patron, “what type of yeast did you use to ferment the 1998 such and such chardonnay?
Bo chuckled and said: “Lady I don’t really remember, I was drinking way too much beer back then” … blush blush she sat back down,  Bo went on to say
“really folks, don’t be so uptight about wine…after all it is just fermented grape juice…if you look at it that way it is easy…no pressure, no qualms…”

I soon realized:
Whether it is a consumer at a theme Park or a wine connoisseur dining at a white table restaurant, to speak in that person’s language was the best approach

Take this advice to your local wine shop, grocery store, restaurant or a friends in home wine tasting and it will be okay

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