Service, Etiquette & Entertaining
Displaying items by tag: Sommelier
Wine and Cheese: A Holistic View of Pairings that Work… and Those That Don’t with Evan Goldstein MS
Summary:
Pairing wine and cheese together, without taking a deep dive into the subject matter, can be dangerous. In this ultimate cheese and wine pairing exercise, explore cheese styles and the wines that pair with them (and don’t) in this interactive session with Master Sommelier Evan Goldstein.
We recommend that you bring along the following optional wines and cheeses with you to the webinar to taste along live with Evan.
Wines
- Sparkling, dry
- Dry white (Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio)
- Pinot Noir (ideally New World style)
- Sweet (late harvest Riesling, Sauternes style, basic Port)
Cheeses
- Fresh (a young goat or ricotta)
- Soft ripened (brie or camembert)
- Blue (Gorgonzola, Roquefort, or Cambozola)
- Hard (Parmigiano, aged Gouda, aged Pecorino)
Presenter: Evan Goldstein MS
Evan Goldstein calls himself “trilingual x 3:” He “speaks” three languages – wine, food, and wine-and-food pairings – and can do so in three languages to boot – French, Portuguese, and English. An internationally recognized authority and educator, Goldstein is a born teacher who has dedicated his adult life to introducing and sharing with others his passion for wine.
One of just 269 Master Sommeliers worldwide, Goldstein has authored four books and co-authored several more. He is also a Founding Board Member of the Best USA Sommelier Association (BUSA, and a contributing editor to the Oxford Companion to Wine (5th edition, publication 2023). Not least, in tandem with business partner Limeng Stroh, Goldstein heads up two companies: Full Circle Wine Solutions (President & Chief Education Officer) and Master the World® (Co-founder & Chief Wine Officer). This (very busy) people-person has a warm sense of humor that has won him friends and fans throughout the wine industry worldwide while spreading the gospel of food, wine, and food-and-wine-pairings through “edu-tainment.” According to Goldstein, you should be able to “laugh while you are learning.”
As a founding board member for the Court of Master Sommeliers, Goldstein, for the last 30 years has been training and examining candidates. Goldstein passed the prestigious Master Sommelier examination at age 26 in 1987, just the eighth American to do so and the youngest ever at the time.
Goldstein’s formal wine and food education began at age 19, working in the kitchens of Restaurant Le Saintongeais and the Hotel Lancaster in Paris, Auberge du Soleil in Napa Valley, and Chez Panisse Café in Berkeley, California.
In 1984 Goldstein joined his mother, chef, and author Joyce Goldstein, in opening the celebrated Square One where, as sommelier, his wine lists received myriad awards. Together, they went on to co-author Wine and Food Pairing in the Williams Sonoma Lifestyles series (1999). Once bitten by the writing bug, Goldstein wrote the critically acclaimed Perfect Pairings: A Master Sommelier’s Practical Advice for Partnering Wine with Food followed by a sequel and a book on South American wines.
Today, Goldstein continues to spread the gospel of wine and food. He has been included twice in IntoWine.com’s “Top 100 Most Influential People in the U.S. Wine Industry,” starting with the debut list released in 2013, and again in 2018.
Books Written by Goldstein:
- Five Star Service: Your Guide to Hospitality Excellence, published by On Premise Communications Inc. (2003)
- Perfect Pairings: A Master Sommelier’s Practical Advice for Partnering Wine with Food, University of California Press (2006). You can find it here.
- Daring Pairings: A Master Sommelier Matches Distinctive Wines with Recipes from His Favorite Chefs, University of California Press (2010). You can find it here.
- Wines of South America: The Essential Guide, University of California Press (2014)
The Fundamentals for Pairing Wine with Food… and Food with Wine with Evan Goldstein MS
Summary:
The Fundamentals for Pairing Wine with Food… and Food with Wine (AKA what goes with what and why). Is it wine first? Food First? Or does it not matter? The answers are ‘sometimes’, ‘sometimes’ and ‘yes. it does’.
Join us on this informative epicurean journey and immerse yourself in the guidelines! Grab a glass of wine of your choice so that when Evan speaks of mapping wines, you can do it along with him!
Presenter: Evan Goldstein MS
Evan Goldstein calls himself “trilingual x 3:” He “speaks” three languages – wine, food, and wine-and-food pairings – and can do so in three languages to boot – French, Portuguese, and English. An internationally recognized authority and educator, Goldstein is a born teacher who has dedicated his adult life to introducing and sharing with others his passion for wine.
One of just 269 Master Sommeliers worldwide, Goldstein has authored four books and co-authored several more. He is also a Founding Board Member of the Best USA Sommelier Association (BUSA, and a contributing editor to the Oxford Companion to Wine (5th edition, publication 2023). Not least, in tandem with business partner Limeng Stroh, Goldstein heads up two companies: Full Circle Wine Solutions (President & Chief Education Officer) and Master the World® (Co-founder & Chief Wine Officer). This (very busy) people-person has a warm sense of humor that has won him friends and fans throughout the wine industry worldwide while spreading the gospel of food, wine, and food-and-wine-pairings through “edu-tainment.” According to Goldstein, you should be able to “laugh while you are learning.”
As a founding board member for the Court of Master Sommeliers, Goldstein, for the last 30 years has been training and examining candidates. Goldstein passed the prestigious Master Sommelier examination at age 26 in 1987, just the eighth American to do so and the youngest ever at the time.
Goldstein’s formal wine and food education began at age 19, working in the kitchens of Restaurant Le Saintongeais and the Hotel Lancaster in Paris, Auberge du Soleil in Napa Valley, and Chez Panisse Café in Berkeley, California.
In 1984 Goldstein joined his mother, chef, and author Joyce Goldstein, in opening the celebrated Square One where, as sommelier, his wine lists received myriad awards. Together, they went on to co-author Wine and Food Pairing in the Williams Sonoma Lifestyles series (1999). Once bitten by the writing bug, Goldstein wrote the critically acclaimed Perfect Pairings: A Master Sommelier’s Practical Advice for Partnering Wine with Food followed by a sequel and a book on South American wines.
Today, Goldstein continues to spread the gospel of wine and food. He has been included twice in IntoWine.com’s “Top 100 Most Influential People in the U.S. Wine Industry,” starting with the debut list released in 2013, and again in 2018.
Books Written by Goldstein:
- Five Star Service: Your Guide to Hospitality Excellence, published by On Premise Communications Inc. (2003)
- Perfect Pairings: A Master Sommelier’s Practical Advice for Partnering Wine with Food, University of California Press (2006). You can find it here.
- Daring Pairings: A Master Sommelier Matches Distinctive Wines with Recipes from His Favorite Chefs, University of California Press (2010). You can find it here.
- Wines of South America: The Essential Guide, University of California Press (2014)
Navigating A Career in Wine and Spirits with Pam Kindel Connors: A Day in the Life of a Food & Beverage Director, Sommelier, and Wine Director
Summary:
A Day in the Life of a Food & Beverage Director, Sommelier, and Wine Director. At the heart of hospitality lies three essential wine & spirits professionals: the food & beverage director, sommelier, and wine director. Although traditionally separate jobs, today’s economy often combines these roles into one position. We will take a deep dive into what a typical day looks like for each position and hear a few testimonials highlighting the steps individuals have taken to achieve professional success.
- Each role in today’s hospitality industry
- Today roles are often combined
- Adapting to a new hospitality environment
- Food & beverage director/sommelier/wine director
- Skill sets required
- Experience & certifications
- A walk through a typical day in one role or combined roles
Presenter: Pam Kindel Connors
Pam is the owner of “Cuvee Consulting LLC” a company designed to serve the needs of the hospitality and wine & spirits industry. Her mission is to help companies invest in their current talent within their organization through coaching and consulting in organizational development, leadership development, customized training, professional wine & spirits education, and certification programs.
Pam has over 30 years of wine & spirits distribution, cruise line, casino, country club, and restaurant operations experience. She has held various positions in sales, management, training & development, and human resources. Before opening her own company, Connors worked with Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits as a Regional HR Business Partner Director specializing in learning and development, talent management, organizational development, and mentor coaching. For eight years before her HR role, she held the State Director of Training for the Glazer’s Diageo & Moet Hennessy division, leading all sales training programs and wine & spirits education, including the CSW, CSS, and FWS certification programs.
In addition she has also specialized as a wine & spirits heducator conducting professional certification courses and seminars for trade and consumer groups nationwide. She has earned certifications through professional organizations, including the Wine Scholar Guild, Society of Wine Educators, Wine & Spirit Education Trust, Bordeaux Wine School, “Ecole du Vin de Bordeaux,” Wine Academy of Spain, and Court of Master Sommeliers. She has served on the Executive Board of Directors for the Society of Wine Educators since 2017. In addition, she is an active member of the Society of Wine Educators, Wine Scholar Guild, Society for Human Resource Management, Association for Talent Development, and the Center for Executive Coaching.
Secrets of the Sommeliers with Rajat Parr MS
Summary:
Join award-winning sommelier and author Rajat Parr, for a fascinating webinar exploring the inside world of sommeliers, sharing their unique perspectives, extensive expertise, and best stories.
This session is based on Rajat's book “Secrets of the Sommeliers: How to Think and Drink Like the World's Top Wine Professionals”
About the book:
Rajat Parr’s profound knowledge of wines, deep relationships with producers, and renowned tasting abilities have made him a legend in the business. As wine director for the Mina Group, Parr presides over the lists at some of the country’s top restaurants.
In Secrets of the Sommeliers, Parr and journalist Jordan Mackay present a fascinating portrait of the world’s top wine professionals and their trade.
The authors interviewed the elite of the sommelier community, and their colleagues’ insights, recommendations, and entertaining stories are woven throughout, along with Parr’s own takes on his profession and favorite winemakers and wines.
Along the way, the authors give an immersion course in tasting and serving wine; share strategies for securing hard-to-find bottles at a good price and identifying value sweetspots among the many regions, and teach readers how to make inspired food pairings.
Presenter: Rajat Parr MS
Co-founder of Domaine de la Côte, Rajat Parr is a two-time James Beard Award winner and internationally regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts on wine.
A trained chef, Rajat Parr grew up in Calcutta, India, before journeying to the United States where he graduated from the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park. It was during training at the CIA where his interest in wine took hold. After graduation, Parr chose to pursue the cellar instead of the kitchen, venturing to San Francisco to join the staff of Rubicon, the renowned wine-focused restaurant of Master Sommelier Larry Stone. Parr quickly rose in the ranks, becoming a protégé of Stone. Here he honed his wine knowledge and tasting skills, while beginning a career that would see him become one the world’s most celebrated sommeliers.
Parr eventually left Rubicon to take over the wine program at San Francisco’s landmark Fifth Floor restaurant before moving to join chef Michael Mina as wine director of that chef’s eponymous restaurant. The Mina Group would eventually spawn over 20 restaurants across the country, wine programs all overseen by Parr. It was during this period that winemaking began to evermore capture Parr’s imagination.
Eternally fascinated not just with the taste of wine, but the question of why it tastes the way it does, Parr not only frequently travelled abroad to European wine regions; he also made use of his proximity to California wine country, becoming close with several of California’s top winemakers. This ultimately translated into bottling his own wines. At first, these were blends selected from wines produced by others, but in a short time Parr became more deeply involved—calling picking times, overseeing fermentations, etc. As vineyards and winemaking became ever more an obsession, Parr made the transition from sommelier to producer.
During this period, he became closer to Santa Barbara County winemaker Sashi Moorman, as they found a mutual interest in pushing the boundaries of California wine, every vintage seeing how much earlier they could harvest to achieve more balanced alcohols, racier acidity, and purer flavors. In 2011, Parr launched Sandhi, a partnership with Charles Banks and Sashi Moorman, to produce Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from select vineyards in the Sta. Rita Hills. In 2013, he released wines from his new estate vineyard, Domaine de la Côte, located on the westernmost edge of the Sta. Rita Hills. Most recently, in early 2014, Parr (along with partner Sashi Moorman) took over the historic and acclaimed Seven Springs Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills of Oregon.
Beyond his wineries, today Parr has also co-authored the James-Beard-Award winning book Secrets of the Sommeliers (with Jordan Mackay), and is now working on their new book The Atlas of Taste. He also co-founded the trend-setting California non-profit wine group, In Pursuit of Balance. He lives in Los Alamos, though he can still be found frequently traveling the world speaking, educating, tasting, and obsessively learning.
Somm Essentials - Beyond Wine: Coffee, Tea & Water with David Glancy MS
Summary:
There's more to life than wine (gasp!) In this webinar, we will be joined by Master Sommelier, David Glancy, FWS who covers the gamut of beverages in his Somm Essentials program. He will cover the historical developments of water, coffee and tea as well as recent changes in consumer tastes and buying habits.
Presenter: David Glancy MS
Master Sommelier, David Glancy is founder and owner of the San Francisco Wine School.
When one didn’t exist, David Glancy created a Certified Sommelier Program at the Professional Culinary Institute (now known as ICC), successfully coaching more than 400 students to pass the Court’s Certified Sommelier exam.
Glancy’s program remains the only Certified Sommelier program officially approved by the Court of Master Sommeliers. Soon after in 2011, Glancy founded San Francisco Wine School to create the ideal educational setting from the ground up. Read about his vision.
Glancy is one of only twelve people in the world to hold both the revered Master Sommelier diploma and a Certified Wine Educator credential. A certified French Wine Scholar, Italian Wine Professional, and Certified Specialist of Spirits, Glancy has earned the credential for every program he teaches, and more. He taught wine and business management at Le Cordon Bleu’s California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, and served on the editorial board of Sommelier Journal. He currently sits on the board of directors for the Society of Wine Educators.
Learn more about wine with our Wine Study programs.
Serving Sparkling, Fortified & Dessert Wines with Matt Stamp MS
Summary:
What is the proper way to store and serve sparkling wines, fortified wines or dessert wines? Plus, once you have them in the cellar, what is the best way to recommend and sell these wines? Master Sommelier, Matt Stamp, will lead us through the proper serving techniques for these special wines.
Presenter: Matt Stamp MS
Matt Stamp learned the wine and restaurant trade in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, where he managed V. Mertz, a local fine-dining institution owned by his family. Matt built the restaurant's award-winning wine list and earned the staff a semifinalist nod for a James Beard Award in Outstanding Wine Service.
Matt has worked as a sommelier at The Farmhouse Inn and Restaurant in California's Russian River Valley and at The French Laundry in Yountville, one of a handful of American restaurants to have earned three Michelin stars. While at The French Laundry, Matt finished first in the inaugural TOP SOMM competition in 2010, earning the title Americas Top Sommelier. He also completed the Master Sommelier exam in 2011, joining the premier ranks of fewer than 180 Masters worldwide.
Matt is the Education Director for the Guild of Sommeliers, a non-profit organization that provides networking, educational, and scholarship opportunities for its members. He hopes to have a great impact on the next generation of sommeliers through education and mentorship.
Learn more about wine with our wine study programs.
Tasting Mastery: Learning Best Practices of Top Tasters with Tim Gaiser MS
Summary:
With the help of behavioral scientist Tim Hallbom, Tim Gaiser worked to deconstruct his own internal wine-tasting strategies.
Gaiser has since taken this experience and expanded it by conducting his own research with other top tasters in the industry.
Combining his understanding of wine tasting and behavioral strategies, Tim has unlocked the hidden code of expert wine tasting.
Presenter: Tim Gaiser MS
Tim Gaiser is an internationally renowned wine expert and lecturer. He is one of 247 individuals worldwide to ever attain the elite Master Sommelier wine title and is the former Director of Education and Education chair for the Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas. He is also an adjunct professor for the Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley.
Over his 25-plus year career, Tim has taught thousands of students in wines and spirits classes at every level as well as developing wine education programs for restaurants, winery schools and wine distributors. He has experience in all phases of the wine industry - online, wholesale, retail, winery, and restaurant - including stints at Heitz Wine Cellars in the Napa Valley and Bix and Cypress Club restaurants in San Francisco, and Virtual Vineyards/the original wine.com.
Tim has written for a number of publications including Fine Cooking Magazine and Sommelier Journal. He also writes for numerous wine and spirits clients including Champagne Perrier Juet, Wines of Germany and the Portuguese Cork Quality Association.
Prior to developing his wine expertise, Tim received an M.A. in Classical Music. He played classical trumpet as a freelance professional and as an extra with the San Francisco Opera until 1988.
Learn more about wines with the Wine Scholar Guild's study & certification program and sign up for our Wine Study Trips.
Proper Wine Service with David Glancy MS
Summary:
Learn the Court of Master Sommeliers’ standards for still wine, sparkling wine and decanting service. David Glancy, MS, FWS will demonstrate the techniques, explain them and answer your service questions during this 45-minute webinar.
Presenter: David Glancy, Master of Sommelier
When one didn’t exist, David Glancy created a Certified Sommelier Program at the Professional Culinary Institute (now known as ICC), successfully coaching more than 400 students to pass the Court’s Certified Sommelier exam.
Glancy’s program remains the only Certified Sommelier program officially approved by the Court of Master Sommeliers. Soon after in 2011, Glancy founded San Francisco Wine School to create the ideal educational setting from the ground up.
Glancy is one of only twelve people in the world to hold both the revered Master Sommelier diploma and a Certified Wine Educator credential. A certified French Wine Scholar, Italian Wine Professional, and Certified Specialist of Spirits, Glancy has earned the credential for every program he teaches, and more. He taught wine and business management at Le Cordon Bleu’s California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, and served on the editorial board of Sommelier Journal. He currently sits on the board of directors for the Society of Wine Educators.
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