Post by Colleen White on Jan 19, 2008 15:58:54 GMT -5
Food and Wine! Interviewed Boston Wine Women's Founder Colleen White!
The newest wine clubs are young, fun and focused on delicious, inexpensive bottles instead of prestige labels. Here, F&W's Ray Isle profiles one great L.A. group and tells how anyone can join in.
By Ray Isle
One difficulty with having your monthly wine group meet on your terrace is keeping your dog from eating all the soppressata. That's what Stephen Tseckares, a vice president of programming at E! Entertainment, is discovering at the fall kickoff meeting of the officially-as-yet-to-be-named, greater Los Angeles, mostly-guys-whose-kids-go-to-the-same-school wine club. As Tseckares uncorks a bottle of Central Coast Syrah, the dog, a former stray named Eliot (after George), makes a deft bound onto one of the patio chairs around the table where the snacks are, then an equally deft bound off.
Only momentarily distracted, Tseckares holds up the bottle. "Okay, next wine. Léal Vineyards San Benito Syrah—anyone know where San Benito is?" He pours quarter glasses of the almost purple Syrah for the eight other members of the group. The men are mostly in the entertainment business: screenwriters, producers, executives. Today they're comparing California Syrahs and Australian Shirazes; the same grape from two different continents. A lineup of 10 bottles—the Léal is the third—waits on a side table.
"What's the alcohol on this?" asks Scott Sturgeon, an independent film producer and screenwriter.
"Only 14 percent," Tseckares says.
"Perfect for a hot day," Sturgeon responds dryly.
"The Eberle's 15," says John Tomko, also a producer, referring to a single-vineyard Syrah from Paso Robles with a peppery, Rhône-like elegance.
"All I can say is thank God you didn't make us do Zins again," Sturgeon says to Tseckares, who laughs—and keeps pouring the Syrah.
Among those interested in wine, clubs like Tseckares's are becoming as popular as book groups did, say, 10 years ago. In New Jersey, Joe La Palerma, a director of sales in the foreign exchange industry, belongs to a group that's been meeting every couple of months for the past few years. "It's a good excuse to get together," he says, "but it's also a great way to see what's out there in the wine world. I'm big on blind tastings—that's where you have your palate really do the work. Plus, sometimes a wine you never expected will win out over the big names. Last year, it was a '95 Rafanelli Cabernet." Nor are these new wine groups solely male—witness a recent Craig's List posting seeking new members for a wine group of women in their twenties and thirties, Boston Wine Women. Says BWW's founder, Colleen White, "Originally I just started the group on the Web, for fun. But then we started getting together every month, tasting different regions at people's houses." (Strangely, like book groups, wine groups almost always seem to divide along gender lines.)