Authenticity

The idea of authenticity came up many times throughout the quarter, and it is a topic that I hear discussed more and more in both food and wine. Is fusion food authentic? If a Japanese chef is making Italian food in Tokyo, is that authentic? Is wine authentic if someone buys the grapes on the spot market and creates a brand to try and sell it?

These questions are often the first ones that people want to discuss; however, I feel like people are asking the wrong questions. What happened to- was the fusion food delicious? Did you enjoy yourself at the Italian restaurant? Did your friends like the wine you gave them?

As some visiting speakers mentioned this quarter, wine is just grape juice that we can drink and food is just a necessary part of life. Discussing topics like authenticity is great, but we should not lose sight of the forest for the trees. It is difficult to truly define "authentic" when it comes to food and wine, so it is even more difficult to find something "authentic" in today's world. Everyone comes to an experience with their own views, so authenticity seems like it will be different to each individual. Grandma may have made you pasta one way, but that doesn't mean it's truly authentic.

Wine Openers

This past weekend I visited my parents, which of course included opening some bottles of wine. As my dad went to open it, he pulled out this large box that contained quite the wine opener. Far larger and clunkier than a typical wine key preferred by sommeliers, this monstrosity made short work of the cork and soon we were enjoying a Sangiovese from California (also weird). Watching him use the huge opener, I was left thinking about the huge range of openers at the market and why somms prefer the traditional key.

Some quick research revealed that the wine key fits in a sommeliers pocket, as supposed to other larger openers, which is probably the most important piece to the puzzle. However, I am not convinced and believe there is some artistic flair that somms want to show off as they wield a key like a pro at your table-side.

My brain thinks in sports analogies (sorry everyone), so the best comparison I could come up with is golf clubs. Those that your everyday casual golfer uses are made to be forgiving and fun to play with. A normal set of irons these days has an enormous sweet spot, so someone who just wants to play once a month can play as well as possible without having to hone their craft with hours of practice. Hitting a ball well requires minimal precision, as compared with the clubs used by tour pros. These clubs are manufactured to the millimeter, exactly to the specifications required by the golfer, which also means the ball must be struck on the perfect spot every single time.

Is there a custom wine key maker somewhere making keys specifically to the hand size of sommeliers in the finest restaurants around? Use of the wine key is definitely harder to perfect than the giant opener that my dad used, and is that the point for somms?

"Women Are Like Fine Wine..."

At the gym tonight, I decided to sample a wine podcast to balance out the pain of exercise. A quick Google search yielded The Wine Enthusiast podcast, and in celebration of National Women's History Month, the latest episode - titled "Goddesses of the Grape" - was an ode to a few female trailblazers in the wine industry.

That episode opened my eyes to the male-dominated nature of the wine industry, specifically when it comes to winemakers. Because so many of our guest speakers in this class (and our professor and TA) are strong women dominating various aspects of the wine business, I didn't realize at first the extent of gender inequality in the vineyard. At a high level, a 2015 Santa Clara University survey revealed that just 10% of lead winemakers at California’s 3,400+ wineries are women. On an individual level, I read a blog post from a female vintner who described her experience of going wine-tasting with her husband, meeting the winemaker and asking him questions, only to have the winemaker ignore her and only talk with her husband.

However, thanks to exposure of these issues and an increased overall focus on gender parity, the winds of change are blowing. UC Davis's 2015 oenology and viticulture graduating class was ~50% female, up from ~33% in 1999. Furthermore, high profile individuals are taking up the mantle of promoting women winemakers. 

Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson, co-owners of San Francisco's famous Tartine Bakery, started a new restaurant project called the Manufactory. In addition to being a chic bakery and cafe, it is also a wine bar with dinner service. At this wine bar, at least 50% of the ~30 choices on the wine list "will be made by, or come from wineries co-owned by, women. But it won’t be mentioned anywhere, which is precisely the point." 

Prueitt and Robertson want to show that these wines can stand on their own regardless of any potential "gender agenda." They came up with the idea while discussing the Manufactory wine list and realizing that they themselves had a blind spot when it came to female producers. Now, they want to promote "'normalization" in the wine industry: because most winemakers are male, sommeliers, even female ones, still select wines mostly made by men. "We see these kinds of gender shortfalls when it comes to industries like art and music, and most definitely Hollywood; wine is no exception." 

Personally, I am excited to visit the Manufactory in the spring quarter. While I am certain the dinner, dessert and corresponding wine pairings would've been divine regardless, that sip of gender parity will make the meal that much more delicious.

Source 1 (podcast)

Source 2 (article)

Source 3 (blog post)

Source 4 (article)