By Amanda Truscott
It’s beautiful, it’s luxurious, and it can make your knees weak, but don’t be intimidated. If Ottawa wine experts can agree on one thing, it’s that wine should be loved, not feared.
“It’s no longer the preserve of the old and rich,” says Ottawa-area writer Natalie MacLean, author of a sensuous and funny wine primer called Red, White, and Drunk All Over.
Wine is quickly gaining ground on beer as Canadians’ favourite alcoholic beverage, according to a recently released Statistics Canada study. Last year wine sales were up 8.9 per cent, an increase of three per cent from the previous year.
Statistics Canada isn’t keeping track of who is responsible for all that growth, but the Liquor Control Board of Ontario is. The LCBO’s marketing zeroes in on a group it calls “Young Experimental Sociables (Y.E.S.).” They’re trendy, they’re educated and they’re only 19-29 years old.
Right now, YESers account for about 20 per cent of the LCBO customers, but they’re a group with long-term potential.
Chris Lackner is one such YESer. The 28-year-old writer and editor lives, works and drinks wine in Centretown. He says good wines have become more affordable, placing many of them within the budgets of younger people and students.
“Both the LCBO and the winemakers themselves have really advertised to youth,” Lackner says. “The winemakers themselves, they have all these hip names, like things that are sexual puns, or cartoon cats on the bottles. They’ve done a lot in the industry itself to try and say, ‘you know what, we’re getting cool. We’re not just for your mother, your father and grandparents.’ ”
In recent years at the Ottawa Wine and Food Show 20-somethings have turned up in droves. Sometimes they come just to see and be seen, but then their interest is piqued, says Jay Hunt, president of the National Capital Sommelier Guild.
The guild doesn’t demand that its members have extensive knowledge, he says. “Everybody’s an expert once they walk in the door,” Hunt says. “There are no right or wrong answers.”
This attitude is appealing to Sandy Schaffhauser, 27. The urban planner attended her first guild wine tasting at the Chelsea Club on November 22 and says she was pleasantly surprised at the level of informality.
“People just sit and chat amongst themselves, really at their own speed, which is kind of nice.”
For those who are still bewildered by extensive wine lists – or are worried they might commit a faux pas by pairing shrimp with cabernet – some of Centretown’s finer restaurants offer help.
Yvon Lambert, the food and beverage manager for the Château Laurier, says the rules aren’t strict, and personal preference comes first. He says that if an expert tells you sauvignon blanc goes with oysters, but you prefer chardonnay, then you should have a chardonnay.
But, there are some simple wine pairing guidelines.
“You want to complement the dish, not kill the dish,” says Lambert.
Stephen Beckta, owner of Beckta Dining & Wine, says it’s more important to match the wine to the drinker than to the dish.
“You take away the assumption that everyone’s going to be able to appreciate everything, and that’s just not the case.”
But for the more adventurous, matching wine with food can be a rewarding experience, he says. Beckta offers tasting menus for the curious.
Trattoria Caffé Italia is another Centretown restaurant where the wine is as important as the food. Its wine list has 850 titles, but co-owner Dominic Carrozza says that customers shouldn’t feel overwhelmed by it.
There are pairing suggestions on the menu, but customers don’t have to follow them. And staff experts are happy to make recommendations, he says.
Beckta says that making wine accessible is a basic element of good hospitality.
“It’s like offering someone a glass of water when they come into your home,” he says.
Hunt says that the enjoyment of fine wine knows no age limit.
“Make it a lifelong learning experience: an enjoyable learning experience,” he says.