The Tasting Panel magazine

December 2015

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december 2015  /  the tasting panel  /  63 What's up for the holidays? We're going to do a Wine Directory of somms that make wine. You'd be surprised at the number of labels out there for the category. That should make for some interesting tastings! How about pricing? Are you two and half times, like most other restaurants? No, we look at the wines individually. The highest- volume sellers we price traditionally. What we like to do is to give advantageous pricing to wines that are out of the mainstream, to encourage a trial. We also are very fair on older wines or wines that are at the high end of the list. That's more than fair. I like it. Does this promote a loyal following of locals? I'd say that's true to a certain extent. But being in the San Francisco we are probably about 50/50 locals versus out of town guests. We also have a grouping that comes when we make the seasonal changes. And of course, the convention and event trade is very important to our business. The cuisine here at AQ, would you consider it small plates? We started out that way but it's morphed into a prix fixe concept with wine pairings. Not really such an a la carte menu. You have four courses with three to four choices at each course. That must be very challenging for the wine list. Have you grown? Yes, I've added just over 100 selections. We now have 350 choices. As a Wine Director, you always want to change, but I try to keep a core producer list of 60 percent to keep things in focus. You came from a kitchen back- ground. How is it being in San Francisco? I like it; if you are into wine, here or New York are the places to be. What have done recently? I just returned from the Alto Adige, where I was on the Guild of Sommeliers Enrichment Program. Amazing wine, cuisine and scenery. How many covers a night here? About 85. We have two semi-private dining rooms downstairs that can add to that. More than a hundred gets pretty exciting! I would bet on that. It must be fun keeping track of all those tasting menus with the various pairings and who gets what? It surely is. We have to have a great amount of teamwork among the front staff to keep on track. We all change positions—servers, somms, host—to keep up. We also have a premium pairing in addi- tion to the regular pairing. You have to be at the top of your game every night. I need a glass of wine just thinking about it! How about this lovely Achával Ferrar 2013 Malbec? I love this wine. I have an older vintage on the list. Ripe, rich and a lovely profile of the variety. Delicious. Doing anything out of the box? We are experimenting with rimmed glasses. Adding seasonings to the wine experience. A truffle salt rim with Chablis, a popcorn salt rim with Champagne. Our guests are having a lot of fun with it. It's becoming a trademark of ours. So what does the world of wine need to do to improve in the eyes of Allegra? We need more original wine programs with wine lists that are written well and present information in a user-friendly format for the guest. I wish I could write one hundred wine programs, one hun- dred lists. I feel like a curator at a museum: how to take wine history and make people more interested in the story as much as the consumption. Achával Ferrar 2013 Malbec.

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