With Age

Time passes. Someday we will all wake from this life and go I know not where. I am not afraid.

In the time we have together, let us drink often and well. What should we drink? Only that from which we take pleasure. The aim is not to change your mind about things you already enjoy--there is comfort and value in ritual, in the familiar. I offer instead to share my experiences in drinking and my understanding of why I appreciate what I do. Nothing that follows is meant as boast or brag. My knowledge is a small thing. I offer it up still, in hopes that when next we meet and raise a glass, we are all made happier by what we find in it.

Have you ever eaten wild boar salumi? Earth and mushroom, blood and iron, animal funk. Now imagine drinking and smelling those same flavors and you'll have some sense of the 1967 Oddero Barolo. This is why sensation junkies like myself love "mature" (or old) wine. They offer flavors and aromas that aren't present in younger wine. If drinking sausage lacks a certain appeal for you, I quite understand. In fact, it's better for your budget--wines like these often aren't cheap. But if you're intrigued I advise you to get yourself to a retail wine shop. Tell the staff you'd like to try a wine that has some age on it and be prepared to lay out a bit more money than for your usual bottle. When you get that bottle home, give it your full attention. Often you'll see the wine evolve in your glass over time (usually for the better, but not always.) Is the aroma wafting from the glass so tantalizing that you just want to breathe it in awhile? Does the wine coat your entire mouth? Do you experience a wealth of flavors in every sip, while still sensing a cohesive whole? If the answer to all of that is yes, you've got yourself a great bottle of wine. 

You say you've never been much of a wine drinker or you're just starting out? I'd say start in the same place--get to a great wine shop near you. Once you're there, find someone on the staff that you feel comfortable talking with. Let them know your budget and let them pick some bottles for you. Once you've decided that you love wine you're ready to see if something like an older Barolo is worth your time and money. Again, mature wine offers mature and complex flavors and aromas. This does not mean that these wines are inherently better than younger wines. You owe it to yourself to try both.

The Rules

One of my great joys in life is introducing people to new and delicious things to drink. As wine director of a restaurant in Manhattan, it's also my job. That being said, I've formulated two main rules of drinking that I always keep in mind when making recommendations.

Rule #1: With the options available to today's drinker, no one should be made to drink anything that they don't enjoy.

Rule #2: While there are ideal food and beverage pairings, if you pair food you like to eat with something that you like to drink, you'll never be disappointed.

I swear by both these rules and taken together they can help you be a better host, whether in a restaurant setting or at your own home. Let's consider them in further detail.

At their heart, both of these rules are about hospitality. I'm in the restaurant business because it gives me  a chance to make people happy. It's about someone coming into your restaurant, and then you understanding what they're looking for. Are they celebrating something special? Is it a first date? A business dinner? Whatever the case, you have to listen intently to what people say. If you can deliver what they're looking for you've made them happy--and I love making people happy. It's why I do what I do.

I also get excited about the opportunity to turn people on to new things. Serving someone a new wine from a producer or region that they've never had before and seeing the surprise and joy register on their face as they discover something wonderful is the moment I live for. And it's the moment that I always hope and strive for. Being a good host, however, means accepting that not everyone is looking for something new or something challenging. That's what rule number one is all about. I always respect and appreciate when someone tells me to pick a wine for them without any restrictions. But I also respect the guy who's been drinking Dewar's on the rocks for forty years and who will be damned if he's going to try anything else. Ideally, everyone everywhere is trying new things constantly. From microbrews to microdistilleries, new beverages come on the market every day. This is about enjoyment. It's about pleasure. If you try it once and you hate it, I won't ask you to try it again.

Let's keep talking about Mr. Dewar's Rocks for a moment. He's likely drinking that all the way through his meal. From a philosophical standpoint would I rather see him drink wine with his meal when he's at my restaurant? Absolutely. I believe that the best food and drink experiences happen when you are open to what a particular restaurant or region does well or is most proud of. If I sit down at a bar and the bartender offers to make me his signature cocktail, I'll likely take him up on it and be pleased with the result. If I visit Piemonte in northern Italy and eat the local cuisine I'll drink the local wine as well. If it's the middle of summer I'm more apt to have a gin and tonic and if it's the dead of winter, I'll have a Sazerac please. Great things happen when you open yourself to the drinking rhythms of time and place and season. But...

Rule number two is about not being slavish to those ideals. At the end of the day, this is food and drink we are talking about. Both are of vital importance to our existence but they should also be one of our greatest sources of pleasure. Rule number two is at its heart about remembering that this is all supposed to be fun. Forcing someone to drink a Negroni when all they want is a Vodka Tonic is a good way to make enemies. The stress of trying to pick the perfect wine for each course can ruin what would have otherwise been a lovely evening. (When in doubt, Rosé Champagne pairs with EVERYTHING.) The solution is easy. You love salmon and you love to drink Cabernet?  Odds are, having those two things together would make you happy, whatever the wine experts say.

We're talking about food and drink. It's not about perfect pairings or showing off knowledge or being right or wrong. It's about the joy of sitting down to a meal and everyone feeling welcome at that table, whatever their drink.

Those are my rules. I'd love to hear yours.

Aperitivo

I drink. I drink a lot. I drink in the morning sun. I drink in the evening dew. I drink with friends and I drink alone. I drink beer. I drink wine. I drink cocktails. I drink spirits.

I drink therefore I am. I hope you agree.

I'd like to invite you along with me as I attempt to give my drinking a bit more structure. I'm interested in learning more about where my drinks come from, who's making them and why they taste the way they do. As a professional and recreational drinker for many years, I've accumulated some strongly held beliefs on drinks and drinking culture in America. I hope you'll join me as I continue to search out new tastes, smells and sensations.

But first, I need a beer...