OUT & ABOUT FEATURE STORY

Becoming a Wine Wonk
Novices learn to taste, spit and talk a good wine game
by Amy Simmons

Everyone has varying levels of knowledge about wine, but one thing we all share is that we buy it at the wine store. If you’re new to wine, as my colleagues for our wine adventure were, what better place to start learning about wine than the retailers, where wine fans of all levels and pocketbooks mingle day in and day out.

As the wine columnist for CityBeat, I was nominated to lead our wine adventure into learning about wine. And while Cincinnati will never be mistaken for Napa Valley, the area is rife with opportunities to try, to learn and to buy terrific wines.

Katie O’Neil, store manager of The Wine Merchant in Oakley, pours a sip from the open bar where patrons can sample from a variety of wines. Photos: Mandy Janes

My tasting colleagues, CityBeat Staff Writer Tony Cook and Web/Literary Editor Brandon Brady, provided an important filter representing the perspective of folks who are new to wine or have somewhat limited experience with it. There would be no haughty discourse or self-important grandizing around a vintage with Tony and Brandon, both of whom aren’t the smartest grapes in the bunch but were looking for approachable, friendly advice on tasting wine anyway.

When the objective is to learn about wine, there’s no better place to start than the informal tastings that local retailers offer on Fridays and Saturdays, when many folks are buying for the weekend. These tastings — unlike the more structured versions held at wine stores — are typically available for a nominal fee featuring wines that fall into the $10-$20 price point.

Tony Cook practices his spitting technique, integral to the wine-tasting experience.

A Wine Tasting Primer
The informal tastings we surveyed featured very small pours, which
keep the impact of the alcohol to the minimum. No matter what type
of tasting you’re enjoying, it’s good to understand a few fundamentals
before jumping in.

• Spitting is your friend: To learn about wine, you must taste it. Tasting, however, is not the same as drinking. Most tastings will feature a bucket to either dump your wine for those who might want to enjoy a full sip or two or spit out your wine, which is highly recommended if you’re tasting a large flight or making multiple stops. The idea of publicly spitting into a bucket (usually a champagne bucket) is sometimes an awkward one for beginners.

Tony tended at first to stick his tongue out as he spit to ensure a full exit, saying more than once, “I feel weird.” Brandon demonstrated a simple yet refined fountain technique. They were both spitting likes pros by day’s end.

• Eat!: Depending on the type of tasting, there will be varying amounts of food. Most of the informal store tastings (versus stores’ scheduled tastings) did not serve food with the exception of Cork ‘N Bottle — a pity since poorly-paid newspaper staffers relish the thought of free food. Where possible, grab a bite of bread or cheese to keep some food in your stomach. Always try to start a tasting with food in your stomach.

• Swirl, Smell, See and Sip: Swirling opens up the wine so you can
maximize the smells and nuances within the glass. Put your nose into
the glass, deeply inhale and consider what you might be smelling.
Berries? Citrus? Hold the glass slightly sideways over a white surface
and review for color and consistency. Finally, take a sip of the wine, moving the liquid around the surface of your mouth to get a full “mouth feel.” Leave your wine snob fears behind. Within time, you’ll be doing this without even realizing it.

Light dances off bottles at The Wine Merchant.

A Wine Supermarket
with Personal Charm
We started with one of the area’s shopping giants, Cork ‘N Bottle, where wine is a critical piece of the store’s offering of spirits, beers and specialty foods. The atmosphere is decidedly supermarket-esque with fluorescent lights and shopping carts, but the staff is strictly down-to-earth personal.

Josh Southworth and Seagal Zaid are the team hosting the complimentary tastings at the Covington store and at the soon-to-open store in Crescent Springs.

On the day of our visit, Josh and Seagal had created two tasting flights featuring two wines made of sauvignon blanc (France and New Zealand) and two wines made of grenache (France and Australia). This taste-off paired Old World wines (Europe) against the New World wines (everywhere else). Working our way through the flights, our team preferred the New World wines — 2002 Grove Mill Sauvignon Blanc ($14.99) and 2001 Trevor Jones’ “Boots” Grenache ($14.99).

Amy Simmons sniffs for the nuances of flavors in her wine sample.

The team enjoyed the very casual style of the tasting, standing around a portable bar located within the store’s wine section. Josh and Seagal put the team at ease with a friendly, welcoming approach, though we felt a little overwhelmed at times with too much information.

As a wine wonk, I always like too much information, but when talking wine with folks who are new to the topic sometimes less information is more. We also suggest that they carve out a little more room for the tasting to give everyone some space to place glasses and spread out.

The store hosts two complimentary tastings every week — 4-8 p.m. Fridays and 1-5 p.m. Saturdays. The tastings usually feature a theme or specific grape pairing along with a selection of cheeses that work against the wines. Check out Party Source and Jungle Jim’s for similar programs.

Cork ‘N Bottle, 501 Crescent Ave., Covington, 859-261-8333; 584 Buttermilk, Crescent Springs (scheduled opening April 1), 859-341-9600.Where

Everybody Knows Your Name
Visiting The Wine Merchant in Oakley is like stepping into the Cheers of wine stores. People walk in and are greeted by name by one if not several store employees.

The staff is aware that people want to learn about wines, and so they maintain an open wine bar daily, where a knowledgeable staffer dispenses information and suggestions for the beginner and more advanced wine fan. The store showcases 30 wines a month, rotating eight new wines weekly as highlighted in its monthly newsletter and monthly theme. Tony, Brandon and I sampled a mix of reds from South America, California and Italy and chardonnays from California.

Katie O’Neil, store manager, led the team through a sampling of wines from the bar, asking questions along the way to gauge understanding. Her easygoing approachable style received kudos from Tony and Brandon. The team really enjoyed the sociable, casual atmosphere and the prevalence of discussing wine in laymen’s terms.

The store also features a winemaker or wine industry representative about once a month who fields questions and comments. Tony, Brandon and I had the opportunity to meet Jacques Pierre Schlumberger, president of Michel-Schlumberger Wines, a Sonoma, Calif.-based maker known for cabernet sauvignon wines.

Schlumberger, a suave blond-haired James Bond lookalike in jeans, mixed with the casual crowd to pour from his winery’s portfolio and field questions and chat about wine. He offered a few suggestions on how to learn about wine:

• Leave your prejudices at the doorstep: We’re all guilty of shutting out entire categories of wine for a variety of reasons. Challenge yourself to try wines you previously avoided.

• Taste with food in mind: Most wines are meant to be consumed with food. Food tastes (spicy, sweet, rich) can be applied to wine tasting.

• Learn by tasting: Taste as many wines as you can. Over time, tasting provides you with an education on the wide range of varietals, winemaker styles and vocabulary.

Of the wines sampled, the team really liked Michel-Schlumberger’s 2002 Pinot Blanc ($18.99), a green-apple crisp white wine made in an Alsatian style; the Steltzner Claret Proprietor’s Blend 2001 ($14.99 on sale), a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc from California that was delicious; and Le Volte ($21.99), a Tuscan-style blend that Brandon, who typically prefers white wines, especially enjoyed.

Along with its monthly hosting of wine professionals, The Wine
Merchant hosts other wine events, including a monthly wine dinner
and regular structured tastings with appetizers on Friday nights.
Costs: $15 or $25 for a flight of eight wines, depending on the tasting.
The store that lets you “taste before you buy” also lets you taste while
you shop, which makes shopping even more fun.

The Wine Merchant, 3972 Edwards Road, Oakley, 513-731-1515.

Josh Southworth of Cork ‘N Bottle in Covington dishes a lot of information worthy of true wine wonks.

Buzz-Worthy Wines
Steve Dinnerstein’s career at Levi Strauss offered plenty of opportunity to spend time in the California wine country. This promixity to one of the great wine destinations paid off in the form of a store full of high-quality wines from the recognizable names as well as from those lesser-known gems you hear about through a “friend of a friend.”

Dinnerstein runs the Piazza Discepoli store that’s part of a former train
station in the middle of charming Glendale. The team especially liked the store’s quiet, clubby feel with its simple layout, wood paneling and tables and chairs for tasting.

We also liked Dinnerstein’s explanation around the “nuts and bolts” of tasting. Retailers sometimes forget that there are shoppers who don’t fully understand all the terminology, so it was refreshing to see someone take thetime to offer a quick tutorial.

It wasn’t long before Tony was commenting on the hints of vanilla found in the end of the nose in one of the sampled wines. Brandon found the wine to smell like alcohol, which he owed to a poorly developed olifactory sense.

“Don’t ever become a wine snob,” Dinnerstein said. “You like what you like, and you don’t what you don’t.”

On the day of our visit, the team worked through several of the day’s offerings, beginning with Piazza Discepoli’s new private label wines made in conjunction with California winemaker, Greg Graziano. The private label pays respect to the owners’ Italian pedigree with selections such as Quercia Blanca, an $11.99 pinot grigio, which the group enjoyed for its crisp, citrus flavors; and the Arco Rosso blend ($14.99) of sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon and merlot. The team
finished with a tasting of the 1999 Foris Merlot Rogue Reserve, an Oregon-based merlot that costs $13.99 but tasted like it should be priced much higher.

The store also features an informal tasting on Saturdays with the chance to chat it up with Dinnerstein. Odds are good that you’ll run into like-minded shoppers who want to spend a few minutes bantering about a particular varietal or new find.

Piazza Discepoli serves up regular structured tastings at 5-8 p.m. on Fridays, when it features four wines based on a particular theme, along with a periodic Saturday tasting. Having attended a structured tasting here, it’s a great event for wine wonks who like to have a good time. Visitors to the store can sign up for a free e-mail newsletter that keeps you up to date on the events.

Piazza Discepoli Wine Merchants: 23 Village Square, Glendale, 513-771-6611. Also 5901 Hamilton Ave., College Hill, 513-681-8466; 7754 Camargo Road, Madeira, 513-561-6956; and 5872 Cheviot Road, White Oak, 513-923-1300.

Food, Wine and Good Conversation
A survey of the best places to learn about wine wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the annual big daddy of wine events in town — the Cincinnati International Wine Festival. The “star” of the festival is usually the Grand Tastings, held for two nights and featuring 150 or so wineries. It’s a “grand” opportunity for a crash course in the world of wine.

For those of you who want a slower-paced, more food-focused immersion, I strongly recommend the festival’s Winemaker dinners or the bevy of food-wine dinners held regularly throughout the area, when wine stores or wine distributors partner with local restaurants to focus on a specific food/wine theme. Check out the lovely food-wine
events held at Daveed’s in Mount Adams or at Boca in Northside. (Learn more about the festival at www.wine-festival.com.)

If you want to learn about wine, it’s important to bring in a food aspect to the education. Tasting wine without food only provides half of the picture. The interaction between food and wine can create a different and enhanced tasting experience.

At this year’s Winemaker Dinners held in early March, participants had the chance to sit with renowned winemakers who partnered with local restaurants to create delicious food/wine menus. For me, this type of event is among the best ways to learn about wine and, when attended with fellow wine wonk friends, among the most enjoyable.

At the Winemaker Dinner featuring Rabbit Ridge winemaker Erich Russell and Scalea’s in Covington, which I attended with other wine friends, we enjoyed five food courses with seven wines, which ranged from its delicious 2001 Paso Robles Zinfandel to its proprietary Italian-based blends. More importantly, the event offered the chance to talk candidly with the very casual Russell, whose winery is considered one of the classics in high-quality, value-priced zinfandels.

His easygoing style around wine made it easy to talk honestly around tasting do’s and don’ts. “Get to know the person you’re buying wine from, what they like and what they don’t like,” Russell said. “That’s your biggest asset.”

Tasting is a very personal thing, he noted. “Everyone’s palette is different. Don’t feel like you have to like what other people like.” ©