Featuring: Marissa Copeland
I love wine. I mean I really love wine. I love the way it smells, the way it tastes, the way it has the versatility to relax you after a long day at work or lift your spirits while catching up with friends over cheese & chocolate covered strawberries. Don't forget the bonus antioxidant Resveratrol, found in red wines, because that's the excuse we all use, "I'm just drinking this fourth glass of pinot for all the Resveratrol!"
I love wine so much that I once considered becoming a Master of Wine, so I could spend my life traveling the world learning all about wines & tasting them, of course, but after staring down the barrel of 7 years of training (minimum) and $250,000 in school loans I decided to stick to drinking them, which in retrospect has probably cost me over $250,000 in the last 7 years...
But for all of you out there curious about wine, I decided to do the next best thing. I found my own wine expert and asked her some vino questions sure to put even the greenest wine drinker on the path to "spirit"ual enlightenment.
Introducing Marissa Copeland: Certified Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers.
What inspired your interest in wine? I like to eat and throw dinner parties, so all these things combined to make me interested in wine. However, I had an epiphany in Italy when my husband took me to Umbria for what turned out to be our engagement. We had a little car and jetted around to all these tiny towns and every one of them had some special sausage or cheese or olive oil they made there... and wine! So I began to notice differences in the tastes of things based, in part, on what little town it came from. This was an introduction to the concept of "terroir" for me.
Why do you think so make people find wine intimidating? I think wine itimidates people because there are lots of geeky facts that are a part of wine: grapes, vintage, area, winemaker. There are lots of things to consider, if you are going to go it alone, but any decent Sommelier at a restaurant or sales person at a wine store can help guide you to what want. You just need to be able to speak about what you enjoy drinking. All it really comes down to is what you like to drink and how it matches with whatever food you plan to pair it with.
What are your tips for shopping for wine? Talk to the seller. They chose to sell those particular wines for a reason. Ask them what they are. Let them know what you like to drink. For example: In red wines do you like them rich with a mouth coating or do your like them lean and acidic or tart? In white wines, do like a hint of sweetness, or more. Do you like them dry and crisp? This will help you communicate what you want or like. Also, tell them what you last drank that knocked your socks off. This will help the conversation enormously.
Is the white wine with white meat and red wine with red meat a hard and fast rule? I drink reds with fish and whites with meat all the time & champagne whenever I get the chance. For example, Greek winemakers make amazing and inexpensive reds to go with fish because that Greek fare. German vinyards produce whites as a companion to red meat because that's traditional for Germans. This may be a broad statement, but believe me, I had a Riesling Spatlese, rich & kind of sweet, with a steak recently and it was delicious.
Which wine would you suggest for bringing to dinner with friends? You can never go wrong with champagne or a delicious sparkling wine because you want something to drink while the food is cooking and you guys are just hanging out and talking. Just do what you can to bring it cold. Another option is to bring a dessert wine to go with the coffee and dessert. These are two great options that no one else usually brings because they are all trying to get a bottle to go with the meal.
What are your faves? I like the white grapes: Chenin Blanc, Riesling and Pinot Gris. I've started getting more into white wine and sparkling in the last year or so. I also think anytime you see an affordable sweet Vouvray, French Chenin Blanc, or Reisling Spatlese or Auslese you should probably get it. I like sweet wines, they are really good with food.
Any last tips for budding wine connoisseurs? When dining out, you can always ask for a taste of wines being poured by the glass. This is a great way to taste something new without springing for a bottle.
In addition to her work as Sommelier/Wine Buyer at Union Square' s Tocqueville Restaurant, Marissa has also been a Sommelier at Michelin-starred restaurant SHO Sean Hergatt in the Financial District. She has also worked at Picholine and the memorable Chanterelle restaurant where she studied with Master Sommelier Roger Dagorn, who served as her mentor while she studied and passed her first and second level exams at the Court of Master Sommeliers. She has also studied at the American Sommelier Association as well as competed in various Sommelier events and placed first in a Sud de France blind wine competition and third in the International South African Wine Competition. She continues to study wine privately with Mr. Dagorn.
