When I was in my twenties, I was in a band. It was a fun time. We recorded two albums, played amazing gigs, but I have to tell you, being an introvert and standing in front of people…not an easy endeavour. So most nights, we’d be playing and I’d be wanting the set to end and then enjoy it post mortem in my mind. I don’t know if I’d say I experienced the same feelings as Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys (stage fright), but it was something that I had to manage. Regardless….every gig I did, I got up there, and I played, and I did the best performance I could. As famed writer Sam Clemens once wrote in “The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson: and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins”, ‘Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.’
Last saturday I did my first Road To 500 Grapes wine tasting. It’s not the first tasting I’ve directed, but first one under this project. Prior to this experience I remember I once did a tasting of unusual grapes from Spain back in 2015 when I was just starting out and then a private tasting of Rieslings of the world with my father in 2018. Finallly, that same year, I did a 12-wine Sparklings of the world (other than Champagne, Prosecco and Cava) tasting for a wine group I’m a part of. So this was the next logical step: A tasting regarding my grapes project.
To this day, standing in front of large groups of people is not a natural avenue for me to transit, but I do manage it, and when it comes to wines, I feel more at ease. Always mastering fear as best I can, and with a few glasses of wine in hand, it tends to go smoother.
So the afternoon was set, I had a full house fo 25 people curious enough to join me in this quest ready to get started. I kept it as simple as possible doing only three flights of three wines and each wine paired with it’s unique ‘tapa’. This was of most importance because these were very different grapes for our regular consumer market.
I counted with my good friend Chef Billy Gautier from the Tuttobene Ristorante, who sat down with me and studied the grapes and helped me by making the pairing for each wine.
The event ran quite well. The presentation ran its course and there was no escaping it. This was an education-driven tasting, so there were slides to present. I focused on details of origin, synonyms, curious notes, ampelography and general review of the wine. I also shared with them a guide of what can be expected of the grape, which as I’ve learned, can be different to what we receive from the wine.
I had a few questions pop up during the event. One regarding a percentage of grapes in a wine. The other regarding the selection of the grapes per flight and once the tasting ended, in private I was asked why these grapes in general. I have to say that the selection was very complicated. I had tried till that moment 163 grapes and about 100+ I bought from distributors in Puerto Rico. So how did I get to these nine was a combination of factors. First of all, current availability. I didn’t want to showcase wines that were not going to be available for them if they liked them. That’s what my Instagram page is for. (*joking). Also, I wanted grapes with profiles that were approachable. I mean, I have tried 163 grapes so far, but they are not all winners.
The grapes I presented, each one from a different wine from a different local distributor were:
- Trepat
- Falanghina
- Semillon
- Pinotage
- Negroamaro
- Souson
- Marselan
- Zweigelt
- Cannonau (Grenache)
The only two curves I threw in the event were the Cannonau, which I included because it’s Garnacha, but I had not tried that wine before (and I must say, I’m glad I included it because it was really good). The second was ending with a 1997 vintage port to pair with the desert.
Thanks to all the vendors that supported my first tasting.
@tuttobenepr
@soiree_by_karemartinez
@stemevents
@highsetupofficial
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I’ll be seeing you soon with the next one I have planned. We are doing it Chef Emeril style…kicking it up a notch.
Cheers!
