{ education } Somm Are Called, Few Are Chosen FROM THE CELLAR TO THE SOMMELIER PIN INSPIRED BY A LIFE WELL LIVED.

WINEMAKERS USED TO LIVE A PRETTY ISOLATED EXISTENCE. THE grapes would come in from the vineyard, you’d turn them into wine and bottle it, and the sales team would make it all go away so you’d have room in the winery to make the next vintage. It’s easy to understand why Now we spend almost as much time in the vineyard as we do in the plenty of sommeliers are PHOTO:COURTESY OF TROMBETTA FAMILY WINES botanical winery, and once our winemaking work is completed, we hit the road for becoming winemakers, but winemaker dinners, promotional events and sales team visits to help find why would a winemaker want homes for our babies. spritzer A big part of that effort is persuading sommeliers that our Pinot Noir to learn to be a sommelier? will be the ideal match for whatever happens to be on their menu—be it Erica Stancliff, winemaker squab cooked in a salt crust or a fiery lamb curry. So I wanted to understand at Trombetta Family Wines in how somms identify the nuances of each dish and then lock in the perfect Forestville, California, explains 1 1/2 OZ UNCLE VAL’S pairing. They are the gatekeepers between my wines and the consumer, so her reasons for enrolling in the BOTANICAL GIN to truly understand what happens when sommeliers taste wine—and how Court of Master Sommeliers 1/2 FRESH LIME they think about matching it with food and how they translate all of that to Level 1 certificate exam their clients in the dining room—is an important element of winemaking, too. earlier this year. 1/2 OZ SIMPLE SYRUP The course was eye-opening on many levels, but my first lightbulb moment came when we got into the deductive approach to tasting wine. As a wine- FRESH MINT maker, I know exactly what I am tasting as each vintage develops—there is not much mystery. But with deductive tasting, the wine in your glass could be IN A SHAKER MUDDLE MINT, anything. You use your knowledge, experience and sometimes intuition to figure it out, and I loved the challenge and the process. LIME & SYRUP. ADD GIN AND The class also affected the way I think about my own style of wine- ICE THEN SHAKE. POUR INTO A making. How approachable is my wine from a food standpoint? That is a bigger consideration now, and it’s also made me more open to HIGHBALL GLASS, TOP WITH wine styles that I might have dismissed before. Now I can separate SODA & ICE. my personal preferences from an appreciation for a broader range of wines. And now I’m better at gauging a wine’s quality, regardless of my preferences. It’s important to get away from developing too much of a house palate! THERE ARE THREE By the end of the program, I was reassured that I am mov- DISTINCT GINS NAMED AFTER ing in the right direction. My goal—to make a beautiful wine that expresses the vineyard while being made to enjoy with UNCLE VAL. EACH GIN food—was reinforced from a different perspective. I highly POSSESSES TRULY UNIQUE recommend that other winemakers take the plunge and CHARACTERISTICS. endure at least the First Level Sommelier program—even 96 POINTS 96 POINTS 94 POINTS 1 if the information-packed slides make you feel like you’re THE TASTING PANEL THE TASTING PANEL THE TASTING PANEL back in a college classroom and the exam produces a few moments of terror. What I learned will resonate in my wine- making at Trombetta, and I’m looking forward to beginning my studies for the next level. T @UNCLEVALS F /UNCLEVALS #UNCLEVALS 68 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2015

Somm Journal Aug/Sept_36-69.indd 68 7/28/15 7:56 AM