Hip Tastes Blog

Bon Voyage, Caille!
filed under: Hip Tasters, Regional Spotlight

The author and my dear friend Caille Millner will soon depart our fair shores for Berlin, where she'll be doing a fellowship for the year. I want to wish her the very best, and to offer my first suggestion for her immersion: find the nearest wine bar, find a few fav pours and send word! I'll be on my way out to visit soon. Warmest, CC

Which means: all of you can expect a full wine-diary-from-Berlin report, in due time. ;)

Snap: This pic was taken at my birthday last year - Caille is pictured here as a guest - by my pal Gari James, whose now-you-see-me-now-you-don't persona makes the shot. Or maybe it's his stylish ensemble??

Posted by Courtney at 11:32 PM • Comments (0)

I Was Told There'd Be Cabernet
filed under: Ramblings

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I have Sloane Crosley's hilarious collection of essays (I Was Told There'd Be Cake) on my nightstand, and the title got me thinking about expectations where wine goes. I just finished selecting wines for a corporate client's * high-end very important * dinner party next week, and I must admit the task conjured the usual anxiety. Will the wines I'm selecting meet guests' expectations? More importantly - to me, anyway - will they meet my client's expectations? Seem appropriate for the evening (read: come in under budget but still blow everyone away), or maybe not elegant enough? Not masculine enough, or perhaps not eclectic enough?

You can see where this is going: nowhere. As in, I can't please everyone, every time. And that's the thing about people and wine. There's always someone asking you why you didn't include a Cab (or a Chardonnay, for that matter, or something else - anything - that will make their day/week/month/life seem just a little bit better.) It's a loaded situation every time. A vinous cul de sac, you might say.

The way I see it, there are several reasons for the I Was Told There'd Be Cabernet comment:

1) This person is irrationally hooked on this ubiquitous varietal, and expects it'll be on offer everywhere, from the corner wine bar to this very tasting I'm putting on. EVERYWHERE. (Say "EVERYWHERE" with Sue Sylvester-like menace, and you'll get the point.)
2) This person doesn't know a lot about wine, has been introduced to Cab and thus considers it his "safety wine," and is genuinely disappointed not to see it on offer. This person is way too risk-averse for my taste, but hey - who am I to push someone beyond his vinous limit? Oh wait, there's no Cab at this tasting, so I've got to do some gentle nudging here.
3) This person has had a truly grueling day/week/month/life, and isn't prepared for disappointment in her wine glass, too. I have fallen victim to overwrought expectations such as these more than a few times myself, so I can relate - not to mention commiserate. Still, buck up and try these other wines, you; I promise you'll like at least one. They almost always do.
4) This person has the imagination of a shoebox, enjoys being difficult to boot and should be banished forevermore from imbibing the sweet, sweet nectar of the vine.

Of course, I allow that there may be aberrations from this list (someone may have gotten lost on the way to Teatro ZinZanni, for example, and really meant to say "Cabaret"; or has just been teleported from a galaxy far, far away, where he once received a cryptic radio transmission about a wine god named Robert Parker and his love of this juicy, flamboyant grape). But generally speaking, I'd say it's 99% accurate. No matter which bucket tasters fall into, I smile graciously at all of them and help them navigate said tasting as gracefully as possible (fellow somms, I know you can relate). Then I go home, crack open a beer and open up something slightly subversive and escapist, like Sloane's very funny book. I was told, after all, that there'd be some sort of reward for pushing the ejection seat on corporate America and deciding to run my own business. Turns out there is, and it starts with B and ends in an R.

Photo Credit: Ashley Teplin. This is me doing due diligence - i.e. tasting - so that I can recommend tasty lineups to all my clients, fussy guests, family and friends. xoxo, CC

Posted by Courtney at 11:12 PM • Comments (0)