Wine Files

As previously mentioned, new job starts this week.  Am I nervous?  Yes, yes I am.  For someone who has never worked as waitstaff, the difference between a family-style restaurant and fine dining might not seem like a big deal, but trust me, this feels more then a little like training for years to be, say, a dentist, only to discover you're needed as a veterinarian.  Hopefully most of that is just nerves.

One thing I know is NOT nerves...I need to get a good grip on wine, and fast.  I never anticipated interviews for a fine-dining location starting with a written test(left those--and the heart-pumping anxiety they produce--back in college, right?).  Didn't do too badly(thank the foodie gods)...except for wine.  No, I do not know what grapes go into Bordeaux. I can't list five types of after-dinner drinks, either.

Fortunately, I was able to explain during the interview why, despite many years in food service, my knowledge of wine is limited to a degree that might make it difficult or impossible to get a job at a nice restaurant in Northern California(and thus, why they should give me a chance anyway on enthusiasm and willingness to learn):  I was raised in a very devout culture which does not drink tea, coffee, or alcohol.  As much as I respect the family values of this faith (if not necessarily their application), and am intensely proud of my heritage, I left the faith formally a year ago.

Since then, I have experimented with small amounts of alcohol in a way that would seem rather clinical to most people raised in a enthusiastic alcohol culture(like the stereotypical big Italian family).  I keep notes on what I drink, and rarely have more then one drink at a time, saving it for nice meals once or twice a week (well below the glass of wine per day some doctors now recommend for health reasons, as well as substantially below the threshold of what it would take to get drunk).  The results have been interesting: I am calmer and less anxious, it is an excellent way to insure a "time out" at dinner where we slow down and talk as a family, and it seems to help with my weight loss efforts, making it easier to stick to the low carb diet my doctor suggests and seemingly reducing my carb cravings.

On the whole, though, my experiments have mostly been with local small-brewery beer, and the occasional mixed drink including reasonable amounts of good-quality rum, vodka, or gin.  Not so much wine.  I've tried a couple of times...and had some decent results for very light, dry white wine, and sweet dessert wine, however, red wine is something that I really need a better understanding of. The ones I've chosen blindly smell like my grandmother's Concord grape vines left unpicked at the end of summer, when she'd shoo me away from the now over-sweet and borderline tangy fruit. I'm hoping that's because I'm doing it wrong, as having my nose spontaneously wrinkle at a job that not only requires me to be able to suggest pairings, but has required wine tastings as part of their staff education could pose a problem and imply that my new boss was wrong to give me a chance. 

So far, my efforts have consisted of putting a stop to the occasional blind wine trying based on a pretty bottle or sale.  Now, I'm slowly inching my way through the omnibus of Wine All-In-One For Dummies, the first in a small stack of books compliments of the public library.  Chapter 6: Pairing Food and Wine suggests that yeah, I've been doing it wrong.  I have a lot to learn, and hope that starting now will serve me well working and living outside of one of the most competitive food cities in America.