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The thing about wine clubs is that you don’t always get the story behind the wine. What I’ve always admired about Upper Glass (since graduating from Wine Press customer to VP of Tasting Notes) is that you get to learn about each winery through the lens of the curator. Every month a new Boston chef or sommelier sits down and talks to us about a different part of the world, the people they’ve met there, and why the wines they’ve chosen are special to them.
I’m lucky enough to hear the stories of our curators and get their take on the Boston wine scene. I learn how they made their way to the industry, how they fell in love with wine, and why they love working the floor each night. This week I wanted to share some of my favorite snapshots from the past year not only to share these fantastic wines with you, but to remind us all how important it is to continue to support your favorite restaurants as we veer, yet again, into uncertainty. So enjoy some of the most memorable responses from some of my favorite curators. Cheers!
When did you first become interested in food and wine?
I’ve always been passionate about food. In fourth grade I had a pastry internship and my dad would drive me to the bakery on Saturdays at 4am. In high school I started working in a restaurant. I spent one day in the kitchen when the owner came up to me and said, “you’ll do fine back here, but you should be out front.” In college I worked at Craigie on Main and came to Clio six years ago before it was UNI and have been running the wine and sake program for three years. I didn’t know anything about sake until I started working at UNI. I still joke that I thought all sake tasted the same before I got here.
What role should wine play at the table?
I’m always looking at whatever the kitchen is making and how our wines work with the food. Wine programs should be the dedicated lieutenant to the commander in chief that is the kitchen. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I think the whole idea of the Rockstar Sommelier as an individual who showcases their wine is great, but it should really serve to highlight the food that’s being made.
How did you get into wine?
At CIA, we had wine parties in our room. We had no money, but we would go to the wine shop down the street and get the coolest stuff we could afford. Then when I was at Neptune, I started learning what I liked. When I opened Select, I said I’m just going to run this like a little bistro, and I’ll figure out the wine list. I’ll pick wines that I like and do what makes sense for this place, and it worked. People really liked the program, then we expanded a little, expanded our range. But it really made sense for the restaurant.
Sometimes an unhealthy mentality translates into the lives of the front of house staff. How have you tried to combat that?
The attitude that restaurant employees are expected to have a lower level of self-care and work-life balance isn’t right. Too often you’ll hear restaurants refer to their staff like ‘a family.’ I think that can be so toxic because my staff doesn’t owe me anything. They work for me, I’m their boss. That emotional manipulation is something I’m really trying to be aware of and coach my staff and the rest of the management to move away from because it can be so problematic in the industry.
How do you feel about accommodating requests for things that aren’t on your menu?
I think the customer should get what they want. I’m not a big fan of Pinot Grigio but I have one on the list because some people ask for it. What people are used to drinking is a comfort zone for them. But I do serve all our white wines at 45 degrees and all our red wines at 55 degrees. Many people are taken back by the cooler temperatures of our red wines, they ask, “why is this cold?”. What I say is that you can always let it warm up but it’s very difficult to cool back down. So, if you want it warmer, just wait a few minutes.
Do you ever offer a side-by-side comparison with wines at different temperatures?
I did that quite a bit at wine tastings before the pandemic. I would do three different white wines and three different red wines and with one of the red wines I’d serve the exact same wine, one at 55 degrees and one at 75 degrees and nobody ever guesses. And very rarely does anyone like the warmer wine better. Room temperature is 75 degrees now, but two hundred years ago when people started tasting wines like these, room temperature was 55 degrees.
How did you build your Satellites Imports portfolio and start to make connections?
The way we have it split is that my brother is the French satellite and I’m here in the US. He handles all the meetings with the winemakers, and I trust him and all the wines he brings in, and of course we do talk about it. He does all the tastings and makes our connections. But it’s really a passion. That’s how we decide, we taste a wine and ask, “Does it move you? Does it make you vibrate?” You can talk about what you smell or what you taste and that’s fine, but how does the wine make you feel inside? Is it something different? So that’s how we do it.
Do you still find natural wine to be a helpful term because, now, there are so many categories under the umbrella? How do you categorize all of these wines?
Sophie: I think that the term is confusing because it doesn’t explain anything about what’s in the bottle. In the food industry, “natural” is a fake way of saying “healthy,” even though it’s not. It’s tough because there isn’t a system that defines anything.
Anne: I hope the conversation continues and people do see the difference between organic and unsulfured. Organic in the US is such broad category compared to Organic Certified in Europe. So, I think there has to be differentiation there.
What was the inspiration behind Grand Tour’s wine list?
I’ve been to Paris a few times to eat and drink. They showcase French food and wine, they’re proud to show off their product and what they do. I think Americans here, we want to talk about a cool Italian or Spanish wine. I wanted to showcase American wines in a bistro setting. I decided that all of our by-the-glass were going to be American, and that was really challenging. But we found really cool wine.
Did you grow up in a food and wine family?
All my family is in restaurants. My grandfather has been in restaurants forever, he worked at the Waldorf. Then my dad, my uncles were all chefs. My parents had a catering company. They had regular jobs and did catering on the side. Catering is so hard though. I prefer it when people come to me. All Cuban food, Cuban American food. My dad had places in Miami, I grew up there in my early teens working summers down there which is where I got the bug.
How did you find your way to Giulia?
I heard that Michael Pagliarini was opening his own restaurant. I must have gone on thirteen interviews with him and his wife. I was twenty-six, had never been a General Manager, never opened a restaurant, and had never run a beverage program, but I was going to do all three. It was a hard sell. I didn’t know what I was doing, but that’s the secret to life. You just figure things out, and I was hungry. Our Chef de Cuisine was twenty when we opened and we’re both still there.
What’s new at Forage right now?
We always did wine dinners, but then instead of doing pairings I got these six-ounce bottles and decided to focus on certain wines like Chenin Blanc or Chardonnay. So, you’d get four great wines with your meal. You get to see the difference, like what does oak do here? What makes this wine different? So, I want to continue offering that with dine-in now.
What is the primary focus of your wine list at Krasi?
Indigenous Greek varietals with a handful of international varietals. We want it to be as diverse and far-reaching across the country as possible. We also want to work primarily with organic and biodynamic producers. I could say that we want to focus on small producers, but everyone is Greece is a small producer! Most make only five or six thousand cases a year.
What’s one of the positive changes you’ve seen in the past year?
One of the most satisfying things to see as someone in the restaurant industry is that we’re more able to advocate for our staff and say ‘no’ when we need to. That’s been one of the most positive things for me and our staff because they feel like they’re not just expected to take whatever behavior is thrown their way.
