The Tasting Panel magazine

November 2016

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november 2016  /  the tasting panel  /  65 ary dishes—for example, the tuna tartare and lobster pot pie. Michael also brought back his famous trio dishes last year, and those have been extremely popular with our guests. That's a lot to work with! How many wines on the list? And how many of those have you personally selected? Well, many of our dishes feature seafood. So to be honest, we certainly feature the best of Napa Valley, but the menu really dictates what our guests drink. What percentage of white wines to red do you have? I would say 40 percent white and 60 percent red. So what is your focus when you're working the dining room? Champagne. And more Champagne. Let's say you have a trio of duck cooked three different ways. How can you not start with Champagne? Our caviar service is the nicest, read best, in the city. Now I'm intrigued. What is you second biggest seller? Sonoma Pinot Noir. What? You must be the only restaurant in San Francisco that doesn't have a solid majority of sales in Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Remember that we sell a large proportion of seafood. So to be honest, we certainly feature the best of Napa Valley, but the menu really dictates what our guests drink. That being said what about white wine? Chardonnay must be king here. No, not really. I would say that Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay are tied on volume of sales. Now that's interesting. Got any other surprises for me? We sell a lot of Rhône wine. It's a hand sell for us, but we all have a great passion for those wines. How many sommeliers work here? We have three, and two of them work the floor on busy nights. How many restaurants are in the MINA Group currently? We're at 28 and are about to open our 29th location—PABU in Boston. What is your favorite part of your position? Pairing with the three-course menu. I really enjoy collaborating with Chef Raj. He and I really put our heads together to ensure that we and the team are on the same page so that our guests have the absolute best experience. I brought a fascinating wine today. I recently visited this rare Vino de Pago outside of Pamplona. This is Chardonnay from Arínzano. Not a classic Spanish wine but a real tribute to the wave of the future. I see great things, and the quality of production here is exceptional. This is really interesting. I would call it Burgundy in blind tasting. The fruit quality is very pure with- out being overripe. Classic flavors of lemon curd, key lime and zesty. A great mineral cut on the finish. What about the world of wine do you think needs changing? We need more varieties that are alternatives to Sauvignon Blanc. We can't just sell Chardonnay. We need to make white wine more exciting. We sell high-end white Burgundy, but it's either too young or past its prime. You just finished the week with Salesforce.com in town. How was it? How about the locals? It's one of my favorite weeks of the year. The attendees really appreciate fine wine and ask really good questions. We see a lot of locals in the restaurant, and it's at least 35 percent of our business. In a city like San Francisco, especially given our location, that's a strong mix. What does Martin like to drink? Riesling, Grüner Veltliner. Hey, I work in a wool suit all night; it gets warm! Martin Sheehan-Stross, Wine Director of Michael Mina, oversees a list of 850 wines.

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