Somm—O—Logue 1: Champagne Comes From Champagne! (A Somm—O—Logue is like Psalms from the Bible, but by a Sommelier)

Wedding season is upon us…

1. Champagne Comes From Champagne!

This sommelier will argue that Champagne growers and producers are the most passionate vignerons in the world. Their vineyards have been the battlefields for many wars, including a pair of worldly ones. Napoleon even had a mountain top leveled there to have a banquet at Vertus. Champagne is actually a village or region about 90 minutes northeast of Paris. The sparkling wines from Champagne are highly regulated by the French Government. They are very protective of the secondary fermentation that occurs in the bottle giving Champagne its famous bubbles!

Methode Champenoise, or Champagne Method, is very arduous and labor intensive. Champagne can only be made from three grapes chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier. Chardonnay is a white varietal and the pinots are red varietals. There are many styles but two common ones are “Blanc de Blanc”and “Blanc de Noirs.” Blanc de blanc literally means white from white and is made exclusively from Chardonnay. Blanc de noirs literally means white from red and is made from the red varietals.

Most Champagnes are blends and the grapes come from multiple vintages, hence NV or non-vintage. Chardonnay brings a crisp acidity to the blend. Pinot Noir brings richness and texture. Vintage Champagnes, like Cuvee Dom Perignon, are declared usually three times per decade and the grapes all come from the same year. Most Champagnes in America are labeled brut, which are dry, and there are dessert Champagnes, which are labeled demi-sec or doux.

Sommelier Humor—I did not come up with the following, but stole it from a sommelier I use to work with/trained me how to be technical. My favorite Grand Cru Village is Bouzy—and—my Favorite Premier Cru Village is Dizy! Yes, these are actually classified wine growing villages of Champagne. What Champagne do Sommeliers drink? Krug! Krug does make the greatest Champagne in the World.

There are many cost effective alternatives to Champagne like Spanish Cava or Italian Prosecco. Many traditional Champagne Houses have purchased vineyard land in California and built wineries. They are producing sparkling wines using Method Champenoise, but at half the cost. Mass produced sparkling wines are essentially still wines pumped with CO2 gas and bottled. (Just like Coke—Yikes!) So remember—Champagne comes from Champagne!

Willamette Tour Part 3—Know Your Potstill

I became completely lost on the back roads trying to find Ransom in Sheridan at the very southern end of the Willamette in the foothills of the Coastal Range. Several dirt and hilly roads later I had arrived to a forty acre farm and distillery. I was greeted by the winemaker/distiller Tad Seestedt and his team with pizza topped with locally foraged mushrooms and local red wine. Life doesn't get any better then this.



There were two barns—one for the wine and one for the pot stills per Federal regulations. You can't make wine and spirits under the same roof. Honestly, I am more intrigued with the gins Tad and his team produce then the wines—they are amazing. I am constantly trying to understand the entire process from start to finish. Meeting the artisans that distill the spirits I admire is always inspiring and helps me find my passion for what I do.



They are currently making two gins. The first and most famous is the Old Tom. A gin style light brown in color from its oat/corn based mash and is then aged in oak casks. I got to barrel taste some of the gin and taste the oat based mash. The mash tasted just like oatmeal. Old Tom is a style that would be common during the Civil War Era. The other Gin they produce is called Small's, an American Dry Gin that would be common before 1850's. This particular gin is clear and has Oregon raspberries and leaves in the botanicals.



At the restaurant we are currently making two cocktails with Ransom Gin. The first is a classic Old Tom Martinez. It is argued to be the original martini with Sweet Vermouth and Marischino Liqueur. The second is made with Small's Gin and is called the Toad's Cup, a play on the British cocktail the Pimm's Cup. We take Small's Gin, add fresh raspberries, top with our housemade ginger beer, and garnish with a cucumber. It is refreshing and clean for the upcoming patio season.

Willamette Tour Part 2—Smell the Soil

I first stumbled across the sub-AVAs of the Willamette Valley in 2005. The real reason I went to the Willamette is to collect soil from all of its sub-AVAs. McMinnville, Eola-Amity, Yamhill-Carlton, Dundee Hills, Chelahem Mountains, and Ribbon Ridge—I think that’s all of them and I collected soil from them all—It took a couple days, wondering aimlessly from winery to winery.

At SugarToad, I have two mason jars full of terrior I am quite fond off to represent the Pinots from the 2008 vintage . The first is from the Red Hills of Dundee. The J. Christopher “Dundee Hills Cuvee” 2008 represents the volcanic red jory quite well. Dark Cherries with a barnyard to cedar quality is quite prevalent in the wine. In conversations with the winemaker Jay Somners, I learned how Pacific Northwest Salmon perhaps is not the best pairing—or maybe overdone—and the salmon brings out a metallic quality in the wine. A better fish pairing might be Alaskan halibut or diver sea scallops with a secondary pork element with pinot from Dundee.



The other mason jar consists of a more loamy soil from the Chelahem Mountains from the Bergstrom Winery***. Though the Bergstrom “Cumberland Reserve” Pinot Noir 2008 comes from several vineyard sites, one can definitely smell and taste the juicy black cherry to cola notes in the Missoula Flood influenced soils. (That childhood trip to Yellowstone is all making sense now.) After tasting this alongside some grilled blackmouth salmon, I found this to be a better salmon pairing then the pinots from Dundee.

***For sake of argument of the Armitage Crew, Bergstrom is Ubaldo's favorite Pinot of 2006-7.

Willamette Tour Part 1

First Stop—a pilgrimage to Eyrie. David Lett started it all by planting pinot noir in the Red Hills of Dundee back in 1966. With the sun setting, the landscape of the Dundee Hills looks like a Martian landscape. The red jory soil has literally rusted over the years. The wines of Eyrie are rustic and the bottle I purchased I unwittingly left in the hotel room—Yikes!

Second Stop—A trip through Eola-Amity Hills on a clear day will yield great scenic panorama with Mt. Hood as a backdrop. This was just outside Brooks winery who recently had one of their rieslings served at a Whitehouse State Dinner...the one that was crashed...

Cheese Anyone? This Bears Fan is still bitter about the NFC Championship game and is attempting to boycott all Wisconsin cheese and dairy products. Oregon is a great understated dairy state. I visited two cheese companies. The Willamette Valley Cheese Co. produces organic cheeses at the southern end of the valley in Salem and Tillamook is a coop right on the Oregon Coast...the Tillamook Highschool mascot is a cheesemaker...

Questions a Sommelier is Asked with Great Regularity

What is a sommelier?

Essentially, the head wine steward. We study wine and all things wine. It derives from the middle French word sumnier (sumner?), which means the summit. The sommelier is in charge of the King’s most important processions, which in France, is wine. We assist with selecting wines for guests and, by some people’s standards, know way too much about fermentation.

How does one become a sommelier?

Work, work, work, and more hard work. Most sommeliers notice strange things that others don’t notice. For instance, the strange smells that occur as the seasons change. Become a first class notic-er. Next, get a job at a restaurant that sells wine. Finally, research constantly and ask a lot of questions. Grape Juice and Geography! Always taste! Then one may or may not gain the rank of sommelier. I strongly advise if you don’t want to work Saturday nights, please don’t become a Sommelier. I have had two Saturdays off in the last two years. One must also have a strong sense of humor.

You must have a difficult life—you do get to drink all day, right?

Yes, we are constantly tasting wine, but not all the time. Most accomplished sommeliers work similar hours to chefs. My bed time reading currently consists of 3 different books on the history of pinot noir, and that is just one grape. We spend about an hour behind the scenes for every hour that we are on the restaurant floor doing prep work, researching, training staff, ordering wine, cellaring wine, polishing glassware, etc. Every time l have invited an enthusiast to taste with me alongside an accomplished winemaker, they usually start getting bored and rolling their eyes when wine geekdom kicks in and we start talking about wind patterns, micro-climates, and soil. Tasting wine is mentally and physically exhausting.

This sommelier doesn’t sleep much. We don’t take vacations or call in sick. We respectfully decline wedding invitations. I’ll probably have to pass on those front row seats you offered me as a gift to see Bono at Wembley Stadium—airfare included. A college friend used to find it amusing to leave messages on my cell phone with offers like “I have 3rd row seats for the Cubs game” and “hey, you want to go see Ben Folds Five this Saturday.”

Sommeliers take sabbaticals, not vacations, to wine growing regions to visit vineyards and winemakers. We avoid wineries that see limo traffic. If one is going to tasting rooms to get drunk, one is going for the wrong reasons. Clarification needed—If one is chauffeured around in a limo because they have a fear of driving like Alfred Hitchcock, that is okay. My recent trip to Oregon netted me several hundred pages of notes that I am still sorting through and mason jars full of soils from the sub AVA’s of the Willamette Valley. As I opened my luggage from the bags I checked with Southwest from my return flight to Chicago Midway, I found notes saying my bags had been searched. I had placed the books I procured from Powell’s in Portland on Pacific Northwest Geology next to the soil samples. I wonder if the security guys figured it out?

What is your favorite wine?

Never answer a question with a question. This sommelier seems to have heard this response from many school teachers. My response to my favorite wine is a series of questions. Who am I with? What season is it? What am I eating? Who’s buying? If money is no object, I’ll be drinking Grand Cru White and Red Burgundy from my favorite Negociant Domaine Leroy, or perhaps a 1983 Chateau Margaux, and maybe Chave Ermitage. Sommeliers have expensive tastes. But, on our days off this sommelier usually drinks artisan spirits or craft beer that is local—Two Brothers and Goose Island are two great Chicago area Breweries. This sommelier’s favorite white varietal is sauvignon blanc and favourite red varietal is syrah. In the fall I might give a totally different answer since at the time of this entry we are approaching Spring.

What do you think of scores and critics?

Robert Parker who? Wine Dictator what? (Joke) Sommeliers are not critics, but are trained to objectively assess wine for quality and faults. One’s sweet is another’s dry. One’s definition of full bodied is another’s medium body. Some critic’s “style” is biased in one way or another. We are happy to support the enthusiasm that Robert Parker and the Wine Spectator generate to the general public. They help to educate and provide a great platform for the wine industry as a whole. I don’t care what score a wine may or may not get.

When interviewing clients we are trained to ascertain what styles they prefer and interpret their wine vernacular. We do constantly read reviews and research what is hot in the current marketplace. Good scores and reviews can drive the price of wines quickly. Sommeliers are constantly researching wines to be ahead of the critic curve and prefer to support the little guy.

Why don’t you start a winery?

I’ll start right now if you write me a check for $10 million. Take a leap of faith. Oh, and by the way, we won’t break even for ten years and that’s if we are lucky. Banks will always say that a restaurant is the worst investment one could possibly make. Well, making wine is worse. The economics of producing decent wine in Napa Valley: $100,000 an acre for good vineyard land—need at least 10 acres—$75,000 per acre to plant vines—the vines won’t yield any decent grapes for 4-5 years—the winemaking equipment is not cheap either—couple hundred grand there too—scratch my head—missing a few other items.

Willamette Damm—it!

An infant sommelier once thought that wines labeled Willamette came from the North Shore of Chicago. It actually is in reference to a valley formed by the Willamette River in Oregon. It is a tributary of the Columbia River. The 2008 vintage has been declared the vintage of a lifetime by many. (Wine Critics say this every year—Sommeliers are not critics, but conscientious objectors of highly touted vintages—and for some strange reason, off-vintages seem to age better!). This sommelier will soon embark on a pilgrimage to unearth great Willamette Pinot Noir.

As the story goes, while at UC Davis, Vigneron David Lett had this crazy notion to plant pinot noir (Dijon Clones) in the Willamette Valley around 1966--give or take a year. A French Connection--Willamette shares a similar latitude with Burgundy, France, and is perfectly suited for growing this fickle red varietal, pinot noir. This cool climate grape loves the mild wet winters and warm dry summers the Willamette offers stretching about 150 miles from Portland in the North to Eugene in the South.

Willamette has some of the most distinctive terrior in the New World. Its Pinots are seductively earthy with many red to dark fruits, smell like a Northwest conifer to cedar forest at times, and are delicious with salmon. I will hopefully collect many soil samples in my travels, especially the red jory that gives Willamette Pinot such a rich earthy quality.

Stay tuned for the Willamette Valley Expedition version 2011.

The Noble Art of Moderation & Portion Size

Americans have a calorie imbalance with the rest of the world. Historically speaking, obesity is considered a sign of wealth, and America is the wealthiest society in the history of the world. Americans are gluttons relative to the rest of the world.

The first French restaurant and food critic, Grimod de la Reyniere, often described showing up to dinner on an empty stomach worse then committing a violent crime. On an empty stomach, we tend to shovel food into our mouths, to satisfy our immediate hunger. If we are famished with immediate hunger, do we really do a chef’s cuisine justice, in appreciating it for what it truly is?

Food and water are one of our most basic needs— but—chefs and gastronomes are artists elevating one of our basic needs into a symphony of flavors—and—do we do them justice when we have starved ourselves all day waiting for them to feed us? We eat faster when stomachs growl and slower when moderately nourished.

We have become accustomed to consuming 20 ounce bone-in ribeyes, accompanied with mashed potatoes and asparagus lathered in Hollandaise Sauce—all in one sitting. We have become a materialistic consumption society with reckless disregard for understanding the virtue of moderation and balance. The noble art of moderation derives from the balance and wisdom of nature.