Do you remember where you were when the wine bug bit you? I am fortunate enough to remember my exact moment – walking the estate vineyards of Montefioralle in Greve in Chianti, a small medieval village nestled in the heart of Tuscany, drinking a glass of 1995 Chianti Classico Riserva, chatting with the patriarch, Fernando Sieni, about the family history, and the history of the vineyards and the village it resides in, and it dawned on me… my life would now revolve around vino. The epiphany hit like a heavy wave; I couldn’t stop thinking about the experience, and I knew I wanted to be able to convey that same passion and love that Signore Sieni had for his story onto my own.
Let’s back up a bit… My story starts in Long Island, New York, as a young go-getter who wanted to make some decent money working the summer breaks from high school. I became a server and bartender at a prominent beach club on the south shore, schlepping chairs to the sand, taking food and drink orders, essentially being a personal concierge for the families on my row of cabanas. It was my first taste of the hospitality industry, and I fit right in. Flash forward a few years, past tons of amazing memories, a few forgettable jobs, a college graduation, and I found myself working as a bartender and server at a restaurant on the water in Freeport, New York. It was there that I met an up and coming young chef who was looking to staff up his soon to open NYC restaurant. He told me he liked my service style and he wanted me to come work for him. I said I would, but under one condition; I didn’t want to serve, I wanted to cook. Here starts a small chapter of my life as a line cook in the big apple, albeit a short stint, but one that would stick with me throughout the rest of my journey. I hate to say “thankful”, but I was certainly not upset when Hurricane Sandy flooded the subterranean kitchen just a few short months into my gig, as it eventually led me to Italy, to Chianti, to that incredible vineyard at Montefioralle, and of course, to wine. To be clear, I still love to cook, and I find myself in my own kitchen 4-5 nights a week making dinner for my wife, always trying to better my craft, but the main difference is now I get to do it on my own time, and it is never a 16 hour shift standing over a flame, or hunched over cutting hundreds of onions and mushrooms for prep.
I digress, where were we? Ah, yes, the superstorm. With my job in the kitchen coming to an abrupt pause, I changed paths to working as a laborer for my step-father’s construction company. I spent the next 365 days doing demolition, framing, sheet-rock, concrete, dumpsters, electrical, plumbing, roofing, you name it, and by the end of it all I was itching for a vacation. I teamed up with a college friend and decided to backpack through Europe for a month. We planned a tour of 7 countries in 37 days, a truly unforgettable experience, and it was on this very trip that I had my run in with proper wine. Contrary to my experience with the swill from bags we had unrelentingly consumed in college, I discovered there is much more to wine encompassed in the complexity of each bottle. Alas, we have come full circle to my winepiphany (trademark pending).
Once I got back from Europe, I set out to learn as much as I could about wine. I grabbed all the books I could, I tasted all the bottles I could get my hands on, but I knew that I wanted to take it to the next level, so I enrolled myself in an intensive sommelier course at the International Culinary Center in NYC. I worked construction during the days, and took night classes 4 days a week that would eventually lead me to take both the Introductory and Certified level exams through the Court of Master Sommeliers. By course end, I had achieved the dream of becoming an actual sommelier, a true-to-its-word wine connoisseur, certified, but not yet bonafide – I needed a job as a wine guy in a restaurant.
This is where my wine ridden bug bite and my love for hospitality finally coalesced, and I was fortunate to be hired by the Quality Branded Group as an assistant wine director at Quality Meats steakhouse in midtown. I spent time at both Quality Meats, and then at sister establishment Quality Italian, before taking myself “off the floor” to pursue a more normal timecard. I became a sales representative for a wine distributor, selling a massive portfolio of some of the world’s finest wines to restaurants and retailers around NYC. I joined tasting groups, got to meet some of the world’s most famous sommeliers (and get turned down by them in many a sales pitch), and most importantly, I was able to taste thousands upon thousands of wines from around the world, refining my palate and finding out who I was to this world of wine that I lived in. It is affectionately called “pounding the pavement” and “dragging a bag”, and to be honest, that is exactly what it was. Each and every work day I would load 4, 5, 6, sometimes 12+ bottles of wines to run around NYC with, sampling my account base of restaurants and retail shops, pitching the products in sometimes as short as a 30 second spiel, or as long as a 2 and a half hour lunch (Peter Luger’s with my man Richie Rich from the BK never disappointed) hoping at the end of it all that the customer would enjoy not only the wine, but me, enough to purchase. I worked for a couple of NYC based distributors, but what I really cherished, and what illuminated the proverbial bulb floating above my head, was the wineries and families that I was able to represent. I found myself studying not only the facts about the wine pertinent to me being successful in my work, i.e; pricing, case discounting, ABV%, grape varietal, region, blah blah blah, but also fixating on the incredibly nuanced stories behind the bottles. I was fascinated by the history of the region, the grape, the family and/or producer, all of the little nuances that made each wine unique from another. Obviously the taste of the juice in the glass is of utmost importance, especially when you’re dealing with a consumable product – taste is king – but with so many options out in the market, and many options that to the common tastebuds seemed extremely similar, what got my juices going were finding the wines with a story, with a soul, with a connection to their creation more than just using the word “terroir”.
Flash forward 6 and some odd years, and I am behind the wheel of a 15-foot Uhaul transporting my entire life across the country to move in with my girlfriend, starting my life on the west coast as the LA market manager for a supplier of wines from around the world dealing mainly with family owned and operated wineries. Now, as a sales representative for a large distributor I had literally thousands of products to sell, our portfolio was legitimately the size of a phone book, but with a position working for a supplier I was able to hone in and focus on the 15 or so families/producers that we represented. More than ever, the stories behind the wines were my bread and butter, and I would weave a web anchored by passion and zeal during my sales presentations. Have you ever been reading a book, and you start to get the feeling like you know the characters personally because of how enthralled you are in the story? They start to feel like friends, family, kindred spirits even, and you find yourself invested in their narrative. Well, I felt the same way about these stories, and still do, invested in the family, in the vineyards and vines, in the region and history, hanging onto every word and page of my own book of wine-life.
I discovered my passion for wine and hospitality extends to sharing experiences with others. I love guiding people to the perfect glass or bottle and debunking common myths. As your friendly neighborhood SommGuy—home-chef, and wine enthusiast—I’m here to help you explore the world of wine and connect with your inner sommelier.
The Somm Guy 