Changing people’s minds is always a challenge. For some kind of obscure reason an opinion, about anything, is the right thing to have. But if you think that political changes or even bringing an old regime down takes a lot of convincing effort, wait until you talk about wine. Change as a concept always seems to be a virtue but please, please don’t touch my glass of wine!
Why all that? Because this week I’m on a mission: to take a bunch of about 40 youngsters and convince them that wine is simple and more-so fun. I basically need to transform the staff of the new NOPI restaurant to a wine geek brigade. Well this is proving to be not to be as easy as it seems. The second I start talking about wine their faces turn dead serious, the atmosphere darkens and we’re suddenly in “this is so important” land
What have we done wrong to turn our youth from the cutting edge wine rebels they should be into the conservative party of wine?
Luckily, I’m a stubborn kind of guy and more importantly, have a partner in crime; super knowledgable and kind sommelier Honami Mastumoto. And so, after some shakin n preaching we managed to turn it around and a few hours later they were all talking the talk. They can suddenly discuss smells, flavors and even have an opinion, the right kind this time… After all, I will need them on my side to make NOPI‘s unusual wine list work in real time.
And just so I don’t just tease you endlessly here’s, for the very first time – one of my fav categories, as it will appear on the wine list
Mountain Wine
High altitude and marginal growing conditions produce crisp, clean and unapologetically fresh wines
Roussette de Savoie “Frangy”, Earl Domaine Lupin, Savoie, France
From the rocky soils of Savoie, at the foothills of the French Alps
Rayon, Blanc de Morgex et de la Salle, Valle d’Aosta, Italy
From vineyards located on the Italian slopes of the Mont Blanc
Etna Bianco “Biancodicaselle”, Benanti, Sicily, Italy
Grown on the volcanic soils of the ferocious mount Etna
Finally, if you we’re wondering what it’s like the behind the scenes of setting up a wine list, just check below…
Well, at the same time you revolutionized the youngsters of Nopi, this stubborn regime went down
Happy days, here’s a nation we can all learn from
Love this article. Similar challenge in the tea world.