64 AMERICANWAY
JULY 1 2007
Grilledburgers andhot dogs
Spices?What spices?These
babies are straightforwardon-
the-grillmeats. Youknow, the
kind your kidswill actually eat.
The easy choice: Syrahs from
California “deliver lots of fruit
and easygoingpleasure,” says
Wesson. “Theydon’t require
any synapticfirepower to en-
joy. They’rehappywines and
rarely fail todeliver the smiles.”
But stickwith theCalifornia
bottles,whichare fruitier than
their cousins fromotherplaces.
Noneed to spenda lot:One
that’s less than$15will usually
do the trick.
Theadventure:A sparkling
Shiraz fromAustralia is “usu-
ally fruitybut dryor off-dry,
andwith effervescence that’s
less aggressive than youfind in
Champagne,” saysWesson. “It
haswonderfulmouthwatering
flavors andniceacidity.”
EAsY:
RosenblumCuveeSyrah
2004/05 ($13)
AdvENtuRE:
Rumball Sparkling
ShirazNV ($25)
veggieburger— sautéedor
microwaved
Somepeople liveon them.
Some just tolerate them—
barely.Nomatterhowyou feel
about veggieburgers, your spir-
itswill be liftedbypairing them
witha refreshingwhitewine.
The easy choice:Anoff-dry
Riesling fromGermanywill
cut through the vegetableoil
(on theburger as a result from
sautéing
it) andpairnicely
ItallstartedwIthhIsbarmItzvahgIfts.
The son of a restaurant advertising guy, JoshuaWessonwas prob-
ably one of the only kids at his temple to receive case upon case of
French and Italianwines for his barmitzvah. But by the time his
18th birthday came around (at that time, 18 was the legal drink-
ing age), therewere just five or six bottles left.His father, thewine
bandit, “always insisted that he did it out of service to the wines
because
[
they
]
wouldnot have lastedfive years in our storage con-
dition,” says Wesson, a former sommelier and the cofounder of
Best Cellars, a chain of snobbery-free wineshops. But he disputes
his pop’s claim. “A lot of these bottles were vaunted bottles. These
wines probably would have made it to
[
my 18th
]
and probably
wouldhave even lasted a lot longer, had the corks remained inside
of them.”
Alas, his drinking loss is our gain.Wesson, now 51, went to grad
school to study public health, but memories of a postcollege stint
at a restaurant eventuallymadehim reconsider. Sohe droppedout
to step into the front of thehouse at someofNewYork’s topdining
spots. He eventually became a sommelier and, soon after winning
aFrench-government-sponsored contest forU.S. sommeliers,went
out onhis own as awine consultant andwriter. He penned books,
startingwith 1989’s
RedWinewithFish: TheNewArt ofMatching
WinewithFood
,withDavidRosengarten,who laterbecameaFood
Network regular. Then, in 1996,Wesson openedhis first Best Cel-
lars store.He has always had a “democratic and egalitarian viewof
wine’splace in theworld,” he says. “Ineverhadmypinkieout.”
The stores (there are now seven— inNewYork; Boston;Wash-
ington,D.C.;Dallas; andArlington, Virginia) groupwinesby taste,
then separate them into eight style categories such as fizzy, fresh,
soft, luscious, juicy, smooth, big, and sweet. And the description of
eachwineatBestCellars isdownright fun to read.Wesson’sgoal: to
make the “experience of shopping… almost as satisfying as drink-
ing the stuff.”
We’ll drink to that.
we putwesson’s
taste filter to the test on a supermar-
ket’s worth of everydaymeals. For each dish, he recommends one
wine that everybody (of age and, well, good taste) will enjoy and
a second one that’s for those who are looking for something a bit
moreadventurous.
with the slight sweetness of the
mixed vegetables. Theadven-
ture:Hopover toGalicia for
anAlbariño, “themost vaunted
whitewine inall of Spain,” says
Wesson. It’sbrilliantwithall
sorts of shellfishand seafood,
and is alsogreat for veggie-
baseddishes.
EAsY:
Dr. Loosen/Dr. LRiesling
2005 ($12)
AdvENtuRE:
MorgadíoAlbariño
2005 ($20)
Mac and cheese
We’renot talkingabout any
out-of-the-boxmac and cheese.
We’re talkingabout themulti-
cheese version youmake from
a recipe in
Gourmet
.While
manypeople think you should
alwayspair cheesewith reds,
“mostwine folkswill tell you
thatwhitewines tend togo
betterwithawide rangeof
cheeses,” saysWesson. The
sameholds truehere “because
of the creaminess of the sauce
and themultiplicityof cheeses”
in thedish.
The easy choice:Gowith
aPinotGris fromAlsace.
“They’re richand full of flavor,
yet have this lovelyability to
unzip rich foods,” saysWesson.
Theadventure:Wesson
raves about his recent experi-
enceof drinkingaCalifornia
sparklingwine in the styleof
aBlancdeNoirs. “It’s awhite
winemade from redgrapes to
give it a littlebit of extrabody
andflavor,” he says. The effer-
vescence serves to refresh the
palateand counter the saltiness
ofmac and cheese.
EAsY:
LucienAlbrecht Cuvée
Romanus PinotGris 2005 ($18)
ADVeNtuRe:
DomaineChandon
Blanc deNoirsNV ($22)
