I Love My Job

posted by Carolyn in Snooth, Guest Bloggers

[Snooth welcomes Carolyn DeFir general manager/wine director of NYC’s The Tasting Room, who has graciously agreed to join our expanding team of contributors. Carolyn brings a unique, restaurant industry perspective to our forum. Prior to The Tasting Room, Carolyn was the general manager at New York’s venerable The Red Cat restaurant.]

I love my job. Really, if you think about it I get paid to drink for a living. But, more than that I get to help people discover life’s little secrets and stories through wine. I love wine. I mean I love wine. I would walk across the desert for Mas Champart Rose. I will pay handsomely for the only bottle of Jacques Selosse Champagne I can find and drink it on the spot because I’m in love. I will forgive and forget because of a delicious 1990 Chateau d’Angludet Margaux drunk on a rooftop terrace. And I will leave a restaurant because I do not like its wine list.

I know what you’re thinking. But, you’re wrong. I am not a wine snob. I’m a hopeless romantic. I believe in the transporting experiences of food and wine. And I feel privileged to help other people have those experiences through wines I’ve chosen to match their food or by telling them the story of the full moon winter night at the end of a rough year when I sat outside with my best friend drinking a wine that tasted of anise and bubblegum and it affected me so deeply that I walked into our host’s house and stole the bottle so we could drink it alone in complete silence and awe. A summer later she and I ordered that same wine for my birthday and were both instantly transported to that house, sitting on that porch, tasting a 1992 Dal Forno for the first time.

So, I take a little extra time when I choose wines for my wine list. I sometimes have to fight for my choices with the owners, or really explain why one wine is so special to the staff. I often have to convince a table to trust me by offering to take the bottle away immediately if they don’t love what they’re drinking. But I feel ultimately rewarded when they call me the next day because they want to find that bottle of St. Innocent Pinot Noir I sold them for their anniversary. And now they have a story to tell. They won’t ever forget The Justice Vineyard or the story of Oregon winemakers because it’s part of their memory of that night, as is the wine. And that’s what I love about wine and my job. The experiences, the stories, the perfect pairings, the inexpensive surprises, the decadent treats–all of this is why I do what I do and can’t imagine anything else. It’s sharing this passion with others that makes it fun. It doesn’t matter what you spend on wine. It matters with whom you share your wine.