You’re at a nice restaurant.  You order a great bottle of wine.  An expensive one.  The sommelier comes to the table and recommends that it be decanted…either to remove sediment or to let the maybe young wine get some air so that it shows you all that it’s got.  The wine is treated like royalty or a delicate flower.

Or maybe you’re at home and you’ve got this bottle that you’ve been wanting to open for months if not years.  It’s ‘that’ bottle in your cellar or your wine rack.  You can’t wait for this.  You’ve got company coming over and you want it to be perfect.  You make sure it’s at the right temperature, and you decant it so that it really ‘shows well’ for your guests.

Why do we do this?  Why do the top sommeliers do this?  The answer is simple.  They do it because it’s the right thing to do.  Just as a great chef lets meat rest before slicing it, informed wine people apply their acumen to make sure the wine is at its best when it is poured in the glass.

Temperature matters.  Whether the wine gets enough (or too much) air matters.  Whether wine is allowed to rest after being shaken or violently poured into a decanter matters.

To me, decanting, aerating, and temperature-controlling are methods that show wine the respect it deserves…and methods that give each wine its best chance of being at its best when its poured into the glass.

I think, though, ALL wine should be shown this kind of respect.  Yes, ALL wine.

A couple of recent situations at my house bring this topic to the forefront of my mind.

The first happened a few weeks ago.  I had decided to open a sample of a new vintage of Côtes du Rhône that had been sent to me air freight from France from one of my producers.  It was getting to be evening, and my wife and I were sitting outside with the dog.  I said, “Why don’t we try this tonight. See how it is.  It’s been awhile.”  I fetched the bottle, opened it immediately, and poured it into our glasses.  The wine was giving us almost nothing.  It was muted.  It wasn’t what I remembered it to be.  These were my thoughts after first tasting it…just minutes after the bottle was opened.

A few minutes later, it hit me.  I’m going to shake this thing up a bit, double decant it back into the bottle, and see if that helps.  I did so, and we tasted a completely different wine.  Expressive, deep, and kilometers away from what I had tasted just earlier when the bottle was first opened.

The second happening came just tonight…in fact just a half-hour or so ago.  There was another sample sent from France of a new vintage.  This one was the 2011 Trois Amis Syrah sent by our good friends and partners in Trois Amis, the Gonnet family from Châteauneuf-du-Pâpe.  This time, though, I caught myself.  I immediately made sure the wine was at the right temperature.  I opened it and poured it into a decanter.  I swirled it a few times to aerate the wine before finally pouring it into our glasses.  Even so, it was a bit muted to start.  After a few minutes of aeration, though, the wine opened up and started to show us different layers and different textures.

Decanting Trois Amis Syrah 2011

Lesson learned.  ALL wine needs to be treated with the respect we treat the ‘Grand Crus.’

Why wouldn’t we, in fact?  Why wouldn’t we give every bottle of wine the same chance we give the legendary wines?  If anything, these ‘little’ wines may need even more respect.  They are likely bottled earlier and not given anywhere close to the amount of oxygen given to their barrel-aged brethren.  Some of them are tank-made and don’t see much oxygen at all before bottling.

One of the highlights of my wine career took place last January in New York City when I was invited by Blackberry Farm to pour my wines at the James Beard House alongside the food of Chef Joseph Lenn.  This was a pretty big deal.  Not just for me, but for Blackberry Farm, their top-notch sommelier and food and beverage director, Andy Chabot, and Chef Lenn, who was cooking at the Beard House for the first time in his career.  (There will be a separate blog post on this dinner, by the way, sometime in the future when I’m able to give it the time it deserves.)

Andy and I chose the wines based upon an advance menu from Chef Lenn.  I traveled to Walland, Tennessee to meet with Andy and taste the wines 1 week in advance of the dinner.  We tasted both to make sure our guesses were right about the food pairings and to figure out at what temperature each wine should be served.  We discovered that the Terres de Velle Auxey-Duresses Blanc 2009, in this case being served as an aperitif, should not be decanted so that it maintained its ‘zip,’ exactly what we look for in an aperitif.  Likewise, we decided that the Jeanniard Pommard 1er Cru ‘Les Saussilles’ 2008 should be a touch warmer than the Paillere Gigondas 2005 and the Durieu Châteauneuf-du-Pâpe 2009 so that it showed off the fruit.  The Rhônes, we decided, should be around 56 degrees F so that the warmed to 59-60 degrees F in the glass…the ideal temperature for these powerful, higher-alcohol wines.

We met at the Beard House around 12:30pm the day of the dinner to double-decant some of the wines and taste them to make sure nothing was corked.  We devised a temperature plan (a challenge given the small space that is the James Beard House) so that each wine would be right at the time of service.  Needless to say, everything worked out perfectly.

Preparing the wines for the Beard House dinner – January 2012

Don’t be afraid to decant white wine, too…particularly young white Burgundy

I tell this story because we put an awful lot of effort into making sure each wine was at its best for a very important evening for both Blackberry Farm and Chef Lenn.  It was an big night for me, too, as this was the first time my wines had been shown in a wine dinner forum since starting my company.

I think this kind of effort should be put into every bottle we open…regardless of price and regardless of prestige.  Yes, what we did at the Beard House my seem extreme for the home or for the home cook hosting a dinner party (of for a home cook like me cooking for his wife).  However, why not?  It takes just a little bit of effort to give every single bottle opened ‘Grand Cru’ respect.

Here are a few tips:

1. For zippy, mineral-laced white wines like Champagne, Sancerre, Muscadet, or a simple Sauvignon Blanc, keep them pretty darn cold up until you are ready to serve them.  These wines are designed for an aperitif, a cold starter course, or even the beach.  You don’t need to open them in advance.

2. For broader white wines like White Burgundy and Châteauneuf-du-Pâpe Blanc, let them be a touch warmer and don’t hesitate to decant them before service.  Remember, especially if they are young, these wines need air, too.  The more you allow them to open up, the more you’ll get out of them and they’ll be able to stand up to bigger dishes.

3.  For Red Burgundy, particularly in vintages like 2004, 2006, and 2008, they’ll need some air.  Also, I prefer them a touch warmer (say 62 degrees F when poured in the glass) than the Rhône wines so that they show off their fruit.

4.  For Rhône Reds (or any other higher-alcohol, warm-climate wines), I like starting them at 56 degrees F so that the alcohol is muted just a touch and so that the elegance can come through.  If they are young, certainly decant them.  The older wines, though, need less air before service.

So, I hope you’ll all consider this when opening and serving your next bottle of wine.  I think some ‘Grand Cru’ respect will make for much better wine experiences across the board.

However, I find myself in the office this morning ahead of 3 straight weeks on the road,  and inspiration strikes because it is a special day.  It’s my Dad’s 74th birthday.

Those of you who know me well, or know my family, understand that Route des Vins Imports would not exist if it weren’t for Fred Corriher, Jr.  In fact, the most common question I am asked when I’m on the road is, “How did you get into the wine business?”  My answer is always the same, “It’s because of my Dad.”

Dad began collecting wine more than 40 years ago following a business trip to Europe where he found himself in a restaurant and wine was the only beverage option.  He had somewhat of an epiphany.  Prior to this point, he had been a teetotaler, which makes the rest of the story even more incredible.

When he returned from Europe and from what would become a life-altering experience, he began learning as much about wine as he could.  If you know my family at all, you’ll know that we (Corriher men especially) don’t take hobbies lightly, and we’re not content to know just a little bit about a subject that interests us – have a look at our bookcases sometime.  Therefore, Dad began filling his shelves with books about wine and began filling a makeshift ‘cellar’ with whatever wine he could find in the area (which wasn’t much at the time.)

As he tasted and tasted, explored and explored, his palate became more experienced and that led him to better wines.  He also had help from a retailer in Washington, D.C., named Sidney Moore, owner of Mayflower Wines and Spirits on M Street.  As Dad tells the story, “One day I was in Mayflower and had my cart filled up with very recognizable wines and big brands, Sidney walked by and said, ‘Young man, if you’ll let me, I can save you a lot of money and turn you on to much more interesting wines.’” Dad trusted her, and from that moment until Sidney Moore sold Mayflower, he anxiously awaited her newsletters and would place orders to pick up the next time he was in Washington, D.C. (This is also a prime example of how impactful quality retailers can be on their customers.)

By the early 80′s, Dad was considered one of the most knowledgeable wine people in the Piedmont of North Carolina, and he began teaching wine appreciation classes both at Slug’s Restaurant in Charlotte and in our home in Landis.  As kids, my sister Mary and I took only an interest in the cubed cheese and fresh bread that remained on the table after the classes concluded downstairs in our living room.  However, I do have a distinct memory of that wonderful smell…the smell of a room after wine has been poured, tasted, spit, and poured out over the course of a couple of hours.  (It’s a smell surprisingly similar to the smell of your house the morning after a big party.)  When I smell that smell today, it, oddly enough, takes me back to my childhood.

My first wine-tasting memory is also from one of these post-wine class cheese-raiding sessions.  While throwing back cube after cube of white and orange cheddar (this is before Dad discovered the wonders of Morbier, Epoisses, and Comte), Dad asked me to come over and taste 5 wines.  I was about 11 or 12 at the time.  He had poured five red wines into INAO glasses and placed them on the table in front of me.  I tasted each (very dramatically, I’m sure), and I finally centered on one wine in particular.  As it turns out, the wines were the five 1982 First Growths, and I had chosen Château Mouton.

Helping Dad open a bottle of old Port at a dinner party “the old-fashioned way.”

Years later, to celebrate my 21st birthday, I went with Mom and Dad to a Charlotte restaurant called Patou, and Dad said that we could drink anything I wanted to drink out of the cellar.  I picked the ’82 Mouton.  (As a side note, we also had ’90 Dom Perignon and birth-year ’77 Clos Saint Denis.  After dinner, I was going out with some friends to celebrate in downtown Charlotte, and Dad cautioned, “I hope you’re not going to go out and mess up this wonderful meal and these wonderful wines…”  Of course, that’s exactly what I did and have regretted it ever since!)

Up until the early-’90s, Dad had collected wine from all over the world.  However, after become involved in the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, a Burgundian wine society, and after a trip to France with importer Bobby Kacher, he determined that French wine was where his heart was.  Burgundy, in particular.  Soon thereafter, he sold most of the non-Burgundy and non-Rhône wines in his collection and began immersing himself in the wines of Burgundy.

Dad and winemaker Jacques Lardiere in the Jadot cellars – Feb 2011

His immediate love for the region, its wines, and, perhaps most importantly, its vignerons, led him there on too-many-to-count visits.  He quickly became friends with a number of Burgundian vignerons and, to this day, considers a number of them to be his favorite people on Earth.  In short, he lives, breathes, and bleeds Burgundy.

Dad elevating fellow Confrerie member Justice Anthony Kennedy at the Supreme Court.

My first introduction to the region, outside of our dinner table, came in 1999 when Dad took me there as a college graduation present.  This was the first time I’d been out of the US and the first time I’d ever met a winemaker.  It was one of the greatest trips of my life, and, to bring things full circle, one of the winemakers that we visited that week ended up introducing me to a winemaker whose wines I now import.  Pretty incredible!

In May of 2004, Dad, as head of the Southeast Region of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, organized for me to be inducted into the group at the Château du Clos de Vougeot.  He was even one the stage when I was sworn in.  Another moment I’ll never forget.

In December of 2004, I went to work for Bobby Kacher, a French wine importer that Dad had always admired and who had led Dad’s first wine trip to Burgundy.  It made me very proud to represent the wines of some of his friends in Burgundy, and I think Dad was very happy that I was getting exposed to these kinds of vignerons.

In February of 2011, shortly after starting Route des Vins, I was happy to be able to return the favor and take Dad to Burgundy with me as I sought to sign on producers there.  We had an extremely successful trip, but, more importantly, we had a ball!  It was the first time Dad had been back in a number of years, and it was as if he had never left.  The hospitality of his friends there was incredible…the kind of hospitality that extends well beyond business.  Through these relationships, we were able to sign on 4 terrific Burgundy producers.

More important than all that I have written above, though, are the general lessons that I’ve learned from him about wine.  First and foremost, Dad always taught me that wine was meant for the table.  He’s said so many times, “I just can’t drink a lot of wine if there isn’t food on the table” or “wine is meant to be served with food.”  This philosophy now affects how I choose wines for my portfolio.  RDV wines are meant to be served with food, they typically have good acidity, and they aren’t crafted to be simply a cocktail.  I can’t help but think that my palate and thoughts about style come from always having wine within the context of a meal growing up.

Second, I learned from him that wine will bring people together.  It didn’t take long for me to notice that all of the people with whom Dad and Mom spent time were people that they had met through wine, be they people that took his wine classes, fellow collectors, or fellow Tastevin members. Some of the people that I now enjoy the very most are those that I’ve met through wine, even if I only see those people every once in awhile.  To take this thought further, I would not have met my wonderful wife, Lindy, had I not gotten into the wine business.  What a magical elixir, and how lucky I am to have found it (thanks to Dad).

Sharing a glass with Dad and brother John at my wedding – May 2010

Although Dad is retired and doesn’t collect anymore, wine is no less important in his life.  His focus now is on RDV, and he closely monitors our progress.  When I’m on the road, he calls my brother, John, in the office (daily) to see how things are going.  He and I are in pretty regular conversation about whether I’ve heard anything about the harvest in France, whether I’m selling any Burgundy, why are some of my distributors afraid to stock the Burgundies, what can he do to help, etc.  Every time I ship a container, he’s interested in knowing whether I’m confident the temperature control is stable in the reefer and how do I know for sure.

This may seem like an awfully long story, but it’s an important one.  RDV would not be if it weren’t for my Dad and his love for wine.  This venture is dedicated to him.  The long days on the road away from home and the all of the hard work John and I put in are more an effort to make him proud than anything else.

It’s a real pleasure for me to welcome you to our brand-new website.  We worked very hard to make the site as easy to navigate as possible, taking special care to create quick jumps from the homepage to the wine information.  We hope you find it as streamlined as was intended.

In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be adding new producers, new wines, and more information to the site.  Our goal is to be informative without being complicated and to create a resource for both the wine trade and curious consumers.  If you have any comments or additional questions, please don’t hesitate to write us.  We’re happy to address any issues your are having with the site as well as take time to get you the information you need.

In addition to the main site,  I will be periodically ‘blogging’ right here in this section of the site.  I’m excited about updating you on new distribution, making you aware of upcoming events, and, occasionally, sharing thoughts about both our wines and wine in general.

Again, I hope you find our website informative and easy-to-navigate.  More importantly, I hope ours find their way to the tables of you, your family, and your friends.

Warmest regards to all,

Frederick Corriher