Kronick Wino

How Do You Know All This Stuff??

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 | Wine Stories, wine, wine educator | 3 Comments

It’s come to my attention these past few weeks at the winery that folks are ever curious to know how I know so much about wine. And my story is always inevitably a little different. So, I feel it’s about time that I explain a little of my history in the wine world. Here we go:

It all started about 7 years ago…….actually, let me back up to 7th grade French Class. Mrs. Rice was my French teacher who was a tad harsh, but knew her stuff. She was delectably French in so many ways (but not really French). She had this cute little bowl haircut, wore these very ‘teachery’ spectacles and was your mom. She spoke French to us all day long, even in the hallway and would try to get us to use it outside the classroom all the time. One day, she came to us with a project: Pick a Provence in France and report on it to the class. Well, guess what I got? Bordeaux. Yep, little did I know what i was about to throw myself into……at such a young, illegal age. (NO - I didn’t drink any Bordeauxs….I know what you’re thinking. That lusciousness came later.) As many of you may know, the Bordeaux region of France is one of the most well known wine regions in the world and in history.

So here I am standing in front of the classroom with a giant map of Bordeaux talking about all the regions of this part of the world, the Garonne river that feeds most of the land there, Medoc, Haute-Medoc, Graves, the types of grapes grown where, the temperatures, the landscape. Man, I should have ditched my whole dream of engineering right there! I should have been a wine educator!

Back to present day - It all officially started in 2001. I got a job as a hostess at a pretty trendy restaurant in South Norwalk, CT - Barcelona - some of you may have heard of it. Well, the theme of the restaurant was Spanish and tapas and wine were the name of the game. I was 21. So, I hadn’t been drinking for too long, not wine anyway. My night of drinking probably only ever consisted of LI Iced Teas and Beer or Madori Sours (I still wonder why I ever drank those, btw…). I had no idea how delicious Spanish wines were. I would normally sit down each night and have something to eat and try a new wine every night. While I started to know what I liked, whenever I looked at the wine list, it was just a list of nonsensical lines of text. That all changed the day I knew I would start waitressing.

I picked up a copy of Andrea Immer’s “Great Wines Made Simple“. MY EYES HAD BEEN OPENED! I still tell anyone looking to learn a bit about wine to pick up that book! Remember when you were in school and in math and the teacher would show you something on the board and go ‘don’t worry about how this works, it just does. One day you’ll understand why.” Well that’s what I felt when I read that book. I didn’t know that Sauvignon Blanc was a grape! I didn’t know what regions were, let alone how water affects grapes and the flavors….it’s all in there. And it’s not super technical, so you retain a LOT of information in little time.

I walked back into Barcelona after I read that book, grabbed the wine list and felt like I knew almost everything possible about how each wine should taste, and what to expect. It was like I turned into a wine translator or something! (We’ll just leave it at me selling lots of great wines for the next few weeks!). And it didn’t stop there, I was on a mission. Now I wanted to go to Napa. It’s like a pilgrimage for anyone wanting to get into wine (domestically speaking). I went for my 24th birthday and just drove up and down Highway 29 through Oakville, St. Helena, Silverado Trail, Yountville, all the great regions of Napa just tasting and tasting and touring and soaking it all in for 3 days straight. It’s a lot to take in. But like learning a language, the best way to do it is to immerse yourself in the culture. So I did. And I still do.

I will leave it there for now, but I have more to come on this subject…….

In the meantime - my wine recommendation of the week:
Viu Manent Cabernet Reserve 2005
Dark chocolate flavors definitely come out on this wine. But the leather and dark jammy berries are also accentuated, while still relatively dry. Drink with some balsamic grilled NY Strip Steaks! YUM!

Tags: Andrea Immer, Barcelona Wine Bar, Bordeaux wine, Napa, Norwalk, sommelier, Viu Manent