PP - Food is obviously the focus of your world but where does wine fit into it? Have you got any early memories of when wine first crept onto the table? Is it the catalyst for meal inspiration or more of an addition to the evening?
SG - I feel extremely fortunate that I grew up in family that appreciated food and more importantly the culture of food. We almost always had dinner around the table - something I totally took for granted until I moved out. We went out for dinner fairly regularly. Occasionally to a nice restaurant but largely to local pubs. My Dad especially used to enjoy the pub scene in the local area, although this was often just to go and see who he might know there and get some gossip.
Wine was never a hugely significant aspect to these evenings growing up. If we were in the pubs, my Dad would always lean a little more towards trying local ales and beers but if the wine came out, it sort of signified something a bit more special. It was always with the nicer meals, the better restaurants that the wine would come with the meal. So I always grew up around a food culture where wine was kind of a sign of something special. Almost for a special occasion. When we were all trying to be a bit more sophisticated. It was also one of those drinks that, at a family party or celebration you would be given a sip to try and you would reel from how totally disgusting it was. Looking around the room wondering how the hell everyone is drinking it without any problems. Thinking you’d never enjoy that! If only that young whippersnapper could see me today….…
It’s not something I have really looked back at before but I definitely wasn’t enjoying drinking wine until maybe my mid-20s. It felt like a drink for the older generation - but then this was also when the labels all had to look like they were from 17th century France and from memory, the branding was pretty old fashioned. Also expensive. In my late teens, why would you buy a bottle of wine when you could get a pint of Carling for £1!
Wine being something a bit more special, sophisticated and for the older crowd started to change when I went to Uni. It’s amazing how a tight budget can totally change your determination to enjoy a terrible drink. The era of the 2 bottles for £5 from the corner shop had begun. The key to this kind of wine, drink it as fast as you can. Or as my Dad always says ‘its the kind of wine that gets better the more you drink’. Of course, the functionality of the booze had also changed. There was absolutely nothing sophisticated about the way we were enjoying booze at this point. By the end of Uni, we had progressed to enjoying some slightly higher standards of red wine and I do remember us throwing a black tie, red wine dinner party (in our dingy, stain ridden, hell hole of a student house) - although looking back, that might have just been an excuse to get even more wrecked because lets face it, you always get more drunk in a dinner suit!
It was my mid/late-20s when I really started to join the dots with wine. When I started working as a chef - suddenly the focus was entirely on flavour, on making things as delicious as possible and ultimately on customer enjoyment. So it was sort of this point that I was really exposed regularly to delicious wines, by people who also really knew their trade (not just the local Blossom Hill salesman in the corner shop). There’s that age old thing of ‘cooking wine’ and keeping the cheap stuff entirely just for that. But in good kitchens, that goes out the window. You’re drilled as a chef to cook with wine you enjoy drinking - and that makes total sense. A dish can only ever really taste as good as its ingredients!
With any part of the food industry, this is where the appreciation comes from - its the exposure to what good looks like. It is so important to understand what the standards are and sticking to them. It was this experience that also took me full circle to understanding what my parents were on about with the sort of sophisticated, special occasion view of nice wines!
Sorry, I still haven’t answered your question…too busy giving you my life story…....we will get there soon, promise……..
In the past, wine has definitely been an accompaniment to an evening or a meal. I can’t think of a wine that has really a catalyst for a dish - I mean, I’m not sure I have ever been to a pub and asked what wine is in the Red Wine Jus….or really cared for that matter. I also don’t see my self as having the most wonderfully refined palate for these things. But the more I have been exposed to wine, wine making, the nuances, the variances of it all and the sheer celebration of this incredible product I have started to really piece together flavours and flavour pairings based on tasting the wine. This has been a conscious effort though - it is a skill you have to learn, train hard at and really focus on. As I have gotten older, I am consciously looking for quality over quantity. My natural curiosity to understand the wine making process more has extended and is constantly moving forwards. I want to understand the natural variances year on year, the weather and climate influences, the various fermentation techniques, how the bottling affects the final product - it's all fascinating. It's a fascination that started with my Hungry Guy journey - meeting local producers, listening to masters of their craft, like yourself, talk passionately about what they do, why they do it and how they do it. And especially listening to the Stories about overcoming the various elements to still produce a great product. Making do with various situations and rolling with the punches, that sort of thing. Its total inspiration and something I think everyone should listen to. It’s the heart and soul of the industry. It’s the artisan producers of the world that will continue to build the highest of standards.
So the answer to your question is……yeah!
PP - I’m a big believer in ‘wine moments’. Beer has advertised itself so well around the evocative idea of that thirst-quenching first drink after work but wine seems to struggle to capture the imagination in the same way. When are you most excited to reach for a glass of wine? What’s the moment when only a glass of wine will do?
SG - As I mentioned in my life story above (congratulations to any readers who made it through that and deepest apologies to you if I have lost you some engagement there, Tom!)……..
…the enjoyment of just a simple glass on wine has come quite late in life and I look at my relationship with wine with fondness. It brings a smile to my face. Whether it’s with home cooked food, out for dinner in a local pub or restaurant, going to a wine bar or simply sat in front of the telly with a glass - it holds so much weight for me.
For me, I’m most excited about wine when I am with my wife. We have a joint appreciation for it. I think our wine journey has been pretty similar (basically drinking enough terrible and great wines to really appreciate what we do and don’t like). It’s something we find exciting to try together and something we both get excited about introducing each other to. Whenever I taste that first sip of a delicious wine, it is always my wife who I think of first and immediately want to pass the glass to enthusiastically - hoping that she will love it as much as I do. If she isn’t with me, I note down the name, so I can surprise her with it at some point. Its just about sharing the joy.
Its also something that me and my wife have bonded over throughout our relationship. Pre-marriage, Sunday evenings, exhausted, my now step daughter finally in bed, we would just sit on the kitchen floor, music playing, drinking a glass of wine (not always the best wine) and we would just talk to each other. Fond memories and so important to both of us. These were really special wine moments. We learnt so much about each other during this time and built a bond so strong. Over time, we seem to have learnt that the sofa is more comfortable than the kitchen floor and we have upgraded from a small kitchen speaker to a record player; so maybe we are finally becoming more sophisticated. Our lives seem to be getting busier and busier by the day, and now with 2 kids and 2 businesses in the house but there is no better moment, on any given evening, when the chaos dies down and the question is fired out ‘Fancy a vino?’ Followed by the clink of the wine glasses. Peace at last - just us two left standing! I wouldn’t swap that for the world.
