Related Links >>
Latest Stories >>
`Hancock' and `Kit Kittredge' face offSuper hero vs kid reporter on a busy holiday weekend (Video Included)
Darcy Burner gets big support from the netrootsThe blogosphere responds with cash to Burner's house fire.
`City of Men,' `Drillbit Taylor,' `Vantage Point' out on DVDEstranged fathers seem to be a recurring theme this week
Facing the Facts: Downtown signs, watering the yard, and gas pricesA collection of opinions from SM's Editorial Board
Login >>
By Archive
from Salem Monthly, Section News
Posted on Sat Apr 01, 2006 at 11:05:54 AM PDT
Santiam Wine Company consultant is top notch
Memories of my earliest wine buying experiences are pretty much the same: Dean Martin is singing “You’re Nobody Til Somebody Loves You,” I’ve just broken up with a girlfriend, and I’m staring at a bunch of wine labels that won’t talk to me either.
The “make or break” of this situation was whether or not a competent person came forward to help me. More often than not I’d get some long-winded type who was out to impress. As a beginner, I usually had no idea what they were talking about, and would end up more confused than when I started. It was rare that a wine consultant would clearly and competently speak to my needs.
Having eventually become a wine consultant myself, I came to understand that the competence that I speak of requires at least three things:
•Knowing the world’s major wine growing regions and the predominant grape types growing in them.
• Knowing how the climatic characteristics from various years have affected their vintages.
• Most importantly, possessing the fine art of listening, cross-referencing the information with one’s knowledge, and honestly communicating a price/quality ratio.
It is Salem’s excellent fortune to have at least one such person, and she is Debbie Rios, owner of the Santiam Wine Company.
Before opening her own shop, Debbie was beverage manager and wine buyer for 13 years at Seattle’s exclusive Columbia Tower Club, with an unlimited budget to fill the venue’s 350 selections.
“It was SO much fun spending other people’s money,” she said. “Now that I’m spending my own money, it’s not quite so easy.”
Rios was also responsible for organizing trips to Walla Walla and Napa Valley.
“Dinner in the caves and getting to know the winemakers was a tremendous, rare privilege,” she said. “Every winery has its own distinct personality. No two are alike.”
Having directed the internationally recognized Auction of Washington Wines, and worked the prestigious Masters of Food and Wine Symposium at the Highland Inn in Carmel Calif., Rios has breathed a great deal of rarefied air in the western wine world.
If you live in the Salem area, and happen to be a “wine geek,” you owe it to yourself to pay Rios and the Santiam Wine Company a visit. They are located at 1930 Commercial St. SE.
Like this story? Share it!
Post A Comment| A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH | 0 comments