It’s a little-known fact that at Farm & Table, we’re as choosy about our wines as we are about our produce. Each wine that we offer is carefully selected by our general manager and wine curator Amy Haas; Amy works hard to make sure our wine selection offers all of our guests the opportunity to grow their knowledge about wine, while discovering new and exciting experiences.
This summer, Farm & Table is putting the focus on rosé wine, by offering a flight of three very distinct expressions of rose. It’s an opportunity to learn and experience more about this often under-appreciated style of wine.
I sat down with Amy this week to learn more about the new rosé flight, her philosophy about wine and our summer wine selection. Here’s what she had to say!
Q. How do you choose your wines?
A. Well, the first thing I look for is quality. We do tend to focus – and always have – on small, family-owned estate wines. Estate basically means that they grow their own grapes. I also like a story behind the wine: you know, so-and-so’s grandpa started it way back when, and it was passed down through generations, and they care so much about the land. That’s important to me.
Q. Tell us about the new rosé flight.
A. I think rose is misunderstood – a lot of people see rosé wine and think, “sweet, white zinfandel,” and that’s not the case. The best thing about rosé is that it’s so versatile, it connects red and white wines, and so it’s very versatile when it comes to food pairings. This rosé flight should change people’s perception of what a grape is: when you think about Cabernet, you think about a big, bold, full red wine but when you take a Cabernet and make a rosé out of it it could just be the most delightful, most light-bodied wine you’ve ever tasted. It just goes to show that what you think you know you don’t.
On the flight right now the Liquid Geography is a Spanish grape, Mencia. It’s the most fruit-foward but it’s still dry, it has those nice berry, strawberry, raspberry notes that people like. I think it’s the most approachable. If you follow that up with the La Galope, which is the way the flight is designed, you get a lot of mineral, a lot of citrus out of the Galope that you wouldn’t otherwise get. And then we have the Archery Summit, which is almost a red Pinot Noir, it’s so dark. But it’s served cold and it has that nice acid, so it’s just a lighter version of Pinot Noir, maybe even leaning towards a very light-style, easy-drinking Beajoulais.
Q. What other wines are you excited about right now?
A. I think the Jaffur’s Viognier [available by the half bottle] is a wonderful white wine. It’s got enough fruit-forwardness for those that prefer something a little less dry, and it also has a lot of floral components that round it out. I’ve tasted a lot of Viogniers over the years, and this is just a perfect expression of the grape. I think that it is just stunning.
Q. How do you share your knowledge with our guests?
A. The wine list itself gets you out of your comfort zone. It’s diverse, so it offers something for everybody. The first thing we ask our guests is, “What do you drink? What do you like?” And that’s a great way to lead them to something similar, but something different.
We also do a lot of tastings among the staff. Every time something new comes on, there’s a dialogue about it. We have a wine training every couple of months, where we’ll taste through the majority of the list. That’s one of the reasons I keep the list small and focused, so our staff knows about and can talk about every single wine on the list.