Afew months ago I stood in my home office and hung up my brand new Sommelier diploma. I laughed to myself and wondered how I went from Sawmill Creek to Sommelier in just 4 years. I realized a single glass of wine was the tipping point— Yarra Yering Dry Red # 1.
There is nothing wrong with Sawmill Creek. In fact, a colleague of mine, whom I call Mentor, is quite right when she says that the two most important questions to ask yourself about any wine are: do you like it and are you willing to pay the sticker price? Still, my own tastes have moved to different wines.
Getting into wine is a curious journey; mine began by accident. Four years ago I was a stay-at-home mom with many years in the restaurant industry behind me. Instead of returning to the restaurant industry’ s late nights, I found an ad for a job in a private wine store. Great! I thought. With my restaurant background I was certain I had the wine knowledge needed. I got the job and I got two big lessons. The first was that my restaurant list wine knowledge represented a mere 1 % of the wine on the market. The second lesson: that one glass of wine can change the course of your life.
I would sit in tastings and hear people talk about how they were picking up blackberries, dark cherry, rose, tar, or forest floor and cigar box. Silently, I would sit there thinking, Really? All I can smell is wine!
A PALATE UNFOLDING
Ateca 2006 Garnacha de Fuego Calatayud DO, Spain $ 15.99 This wine taught me that an apple is not always an apple. I have long contended that Grenache always tastes like tinned cherries to me. Then I tried this Grenache and POW, off my high horse I went. It is so rich and full of bright, bold, dark fruit notes with not a single tinned cherry to be tasted.
Burge Family Winemakers 2006 Olive Hill Semillon, Barossa Valley, Australia $ 42.99 Wow, how a few years can change a wine. I had the pleasure of doing a side-by-side comparison of the‘ 02 and‘ 06 vintages of this wine along with the enigmatic Rick Burge. In its youth, this is a medium-bodied delight, full of tropical fruit with a hint of honey and apricot. Give it a few years to mature and it explodes into a full-blown vixen, full of intense honey and lanolin. This is one seductive wine that you will want to drink over and over again.
THE FIRST ONE’ S FREE When I started at Banville & Jones in October of 2004, I knew one thing about wine: I didn’ t drink reds.“ They give me a headache,” I would say. Truth is, I had never enjoyed the red wines I had tried. They were drying in my mouth, often acidic and overpowering. Then, one fateful day I was handed a glass of wine and asked to try it.“ Thanks,” I said,“ but I don’ t really like red wine.”
Though it took some gentle prodding, I took the plunge. To this day I remember exactly what that wine felt like on my palate, the extraordinary fruit qualities it exhibited, and I can ramble endlessly about the incredible aromas it offered on the nose. I was hooked! Often I joke that that glass of wine was my gateway drug. I had gone to the dark side( or should I say the red side?). I knew I had to try more wines like that. This article is my thank you to the person who encouraged me to try it and to winemaker Dr. Bailey Carrodus for having the vision and skill to bring me to Yarra Yering Dry Red # 1.
After that fateful glass, I went home and began to read anything I could find about wine. I became fascinated with the winemaking process, awed by the multitude of
Tablas Creek Vineyard 2005Esprit De Beaucastel Paso Robles, United States $ 53.99 One quiet winter night, as I dined leisurely with a good friend at a chic Winnipeg bistro, I experienced the ultimate in decadence. A 6oz Kobe beef filet and a bottle of this gift from the gods. Rhone varietals grown in sunny California proved to be a stroke of genius, offering a wine full of ripe, dark fruit, sweet spices and a rich layer of chocolate. It is very drinkable immediately, but a little decanting goes a long way. I will surely be laying down several bottles of this baby in my cellar for the next 10 to 15 years. www. banvilleandjones. com 35