Newsletter
The National Wine
UnClub
Newsletter
November/ December 1999
by
Roland Rodriguez
(11-12-99)
Don’t feel bad. I’ve been in the wine business for twenty-five years, and the above statement applies to me too. Especially me. I should have been aware, but then, who can foretell when a paradigm shift comes heading down the pike ? Personal epiphanies rarely come with warning lights and alarms, and it’s unsettling for me, at my age, when the light bulb suddenly turns on. ( I thought the damned thing had burned out a long time ago. Apparently it’s been up-graded to include an audible ‘ding’.)
I have to confess. My sudden plunge into alacrity was caused by a simple innocuous question asked by a customer who didn’t know much about wine. I live when customers ask me to expound from by vast wealth of wine data. I can tell when I’ve done an exceptional job, when about twenty minutes into my teaching of the ancient history of wine, including a smattering of ‘terroir’, vinification techniques, oenological considerations, world markets, climates, tastes, color, balance and health benefits; a customer will suddenly bolt with a bottle of wine and dash out the door. No doubt eager to experience their wine laced with my grand expertise.
I consider it a challenge when a customer declines my gentle offer to assist. How can they possibly know the nuance and intricacies of each of my bottled children. No! I wouldn’t allow any purchaser with anything less than my personal imprimatur to accompany their chateau and estate back to their lowly homesteads. Special events demand an expert's touch in providing just the right Chardonnay or Claret. I can only imagine how many social faux-pas I may have avoided for my patrons thoughout the years. A Spanish Rioja for a garden wedding, or a Sauvignon Blanc for a Bar-Mitzvah, or box wine for a wedding reception are but a few horrors may have been reality if not for my professional intervention.
Wine is a fulcrum, a tool, a device in which to expand the human experience. Wine is the deliverance from the mundane to the exceptional. Wine is the engine of grandiose. Wine is the fulfillment of a great business transaction, marriage proposal, achievement, endeavor or event. Wine is the elixir that softens the heart and makes merry the harshness of life. It is the glue that binds brotherhood. It is the spark that inflames passions and movements. Wine is a good unto itself. In short, ‘En vino, veritas"! Or so I thought.
Believe me. I can answer any question regarding wine, except one. A simple question asked by a seemingly harmless and benign gentleman of advanced years. He, perhaps an agent of Satan, pierced by soul with his cold-blue eyes and wistfully asked…"Why is wine so hard to buy?" The question stunned me. I was speechless. Saying that it was only a matter of just laying down one's money would have been glib and condescending, and I would have had to reveal my shuffling feet and nervous gestures. I was paralyzed.
It is said that God gives his saints fortitude to combat evil. I can readily say that God does not consider me one of his sainted elect. My response was excruciatingly painful. I couldn’t remember when I had said those three words in regards to wine: "I don’t know". Immediately, I was filled with a gush of redemption. One moment I was brooding in the depths of Mahler and within seconds of my confession I was bathed in the lights of a big cosmic pin ball machine glaring out a bright marquee indicating…"We got a Winner!!"
What a fool I had been! I had forgotten the joys of experimentation. I had become smug and dusty like an un-opened bottle of vintage Bordeaux. I had become rancid and oxidized to the accoutrements of my profession. I wasn’t a wine consultant. In fact, I had become a wine insultant. Suddenly I was renewed in my wine life. I began to relish my new found freedom. I followed the old man about my wine shop. He would point to a bottle of Zinfandel or Malbec and asked….."Is this a good wine?" and I, heady with enlightenment, would counter with "who knows?…six bucks!..what the hell!
Oh, it was a delight! My liberation from being a wine snob returned me back to those days when I had flair, vigor, and hair. I revisited, in my mind, drinking a bottle or Sangria with a leggy co-student named June on a warm April day. A popping cork reminds me of my son’s birth. Noveaux Beaujolais on thanksgiving, and a round Port with a cigar evokes memories of my father.
I apologize to you, my customers, if I have been pedantic and over enthusiastic to burden you with my wine elitism. It’s a hazard we should well steer clear of. From now on I promise never to impress. My new wish is to gladden. I’m not going to show you the haut-couture, but rather the simple and economical. Value, will be my excelsior from now on. In all probability. I may just become a wine monk and issue grunts or growls of agreement so as not to transgress my vow of silence.
I’m going to use simple words like ‘fun, drinkable, yummy’, instead of saying ‘chewy, pretentious, or quaffingly approachable’. This may not amount to a hill of beans to most of you, yet, I feel this form of easy-speak will make wine more accessible at a time when double-talk and spin abounds. So, drink up!! Enjoy a flute of sparkling after your kid's winning soccer game. Experience the magic a Pinot Noir lends to Spam tacos!! Don’t think, Drink!!! Above all, share with others. Don’t be a wine snob. They are a dying class, and remember...
En Vino, Veritas!!!!
Salud!!!!