In the second of our twenty-sixth Young Blood Sommelier series (it’s astonishing really), we interview some of the most talented up-and-coming sommeliers in Ontario and beyond.
A few years back Many years ago, I was flicking through the pages of a locally published periodical and noticed that, when it came to sommeliers, the same names seemed to pop up over and over again. I was also gradually becoming cognisant of the fact that we more established wine folks were well and truly “losing our edge” to these young blood sommeliers. Being well aware of the depth of new talent that was out there, I finally decided to get together with a couple of fellow Toronto sommeliers, “Old Guard” (Anton Potvin and Peter Boyd) to assemble a line of questioning that would give us an entertaining insight into the minds of these rising and often underexposed stars.
This week we check in with a talented young fellow who has been writing for GFR for a couple of years now and is also the new sommelier and manager at Enoteca Sociale, Dundas West, Toronto, Mr. Robert Geringer-Jones…
Good Food Revolution: So, Robert, what is it that you are doing these days?
Robert Geringer-Jones: Well I’ve very very recently taken on the position of Sommelier and Manager at Enoteca Sociale.
GFR: Please describe a regular workday. What does a normal day entail for you? Is there a normal day?
RGJ: I come in a bit early (mostly because it takes me 10 minutes to parallel park), and I like to make an espresso and drink it while looking at a cloud. Any cloud. It sounds incredibly stupid, writing it out, but I started doing this back when I was a busser. Sometimes in a whole day, if you’re working 10-12 hours, you’ll never even see the sky. It’s a short moment of peace and it’s my mental anchor so to speak. Then I’ll write the reservation notes and server sections, go over any details for our private wine cellar parties, and maybe spend some time preparing notes on a few wines to talk over with staff before service. Then it’s the usual rush of bottles and tables until closing time.
GFR: Thankfully, we are on the other side of this pandemic. How did the pandemic impact your professional life? And how have you bounced back?
RGJ: It was brutal. The fear of losing my sense of smell or taste was pretty real for me, and I still don’t think I’ve gotten over it. On the other hand though, I don’t think I’d be where I am now if I hadn’t kept working through covid and taken a lot of opportunities when many others were leaving the industry. So I guess it gave me equal parts perseverance and paranoia?
GFR: How do you feel the pandemic impacted the restaurant experience long-term?
RGJ: Certainly changed capacity. Just about every restaurant that could add a patio added a patio, and now they’ve got double capacity in the summer for better or worse. Patio culture is better in Toronto than ever and I think a lot of people love it. We also got all these amazing wine shops out of it, and so many people were exposed to the experience of buying beer or wine directly from the producer. Definitely a rough time, and I’ve never been sick so often since covid, but something something silver linings, yeah?
GFR: How aware of wine were you while growing up? Were you around wine from an early age?
RGJ: Definitely around, but not very aware. I mostly knew wine through holiday dinners and seders, and there were definitely bottles of wine here and there on most dinner tables.
GFR: Can you remember your first taste of wine?
RGJ: Nope! I’m sure it was a sip of J Lohr or something of that ilk here and there, to my disgust. I think I liked the little thimbles of Manischewitz I’d get on holidays.
GFR: When do YOU feel children should be introduced to the wonderful world of wine?
RGJ: Contextually, as early as they seem ready to be interested in it. I never grew up alienated from it so I’ve had a rather healthy relationship with alcohol and didn’t overdrink much in University. I think learning about alcohol as a cultural and historical product versus just an intoxicant is the important part.
GFR: So who or what gave you your very first insight into the world of wine? Did you have a wine epiphany? Please tell me it was your dad? Although I think he’s more of a beer guy, right?
RGJ: Yeah he’s definitely more of a beer guy and he’s credited to a sneaky “dont tell your mom” can of Creemore Springs that probably started my whole foray into beverage.
Beer led to whiskey, to cocktails, and finally wine. But the real lightning bolt was a visit to the sadly since-closed Brothers Food & Wine, with my Mom. It was the first time I’d ever had a sommelier to pair wines at their discretion to the food we ordered, split half-glasses, and it was a revelation. The service, the food, the pairings, it “unlocked” wine for me. I think about that night every single service. If I can do the same for a single guest, that’ll be enough for me.
GFR: Please tell us a little about your “Sommelier history”. What kind of experience and training, wine-wise did you have before doing what you are doing today? And looking back, if you could, would you have made different decisions?
RGJ: I sort of fell into wine. My goal was to be a bartender, but I took a WSET 1 class to buff my resume. Then at STOCK I started as a grocery clerk but I just asked a million questions about wine, and the wine director there really took me under his wing. A lot of what I did after was self study, and eventually I was already working on the floor as a somm by the time I got around to my WSET 2. My regret is doing too many low-level courses. I ended up doing WSET 1,2,3, and George Brown Wines 1. I wish I had just jumped right to WSET 3 and not wasted all that money. Think of all the wine I could have bought instead…
GFR: When did you first decide that you would actually like a career in wine? … and was it with a view to being a Sommelier?
RGJ: I never had a specific view or goal to be a sommelier, I really just wanted to do SOMETHING in this crazy industry, but I didn’t know yet what I was good at. I just kept working hard and taking every opportunity available to me. Eventually I realized I might have a career. Then I started writing for GFR, and it let me out for the first time into tastings. The people I met there were so welcoming, I felt like I wanted to be a part of this community. The real point of commitment though, was when I moved to Prince Edward County to work at Lighthall Vineyards. After that, I was all in. These days, my ultimate goal is to do wine education in some capacity for a living, but thats a loooong time away.
GFR: Tell us a little about how you find the food and wine scene in Toronto?
RGJ: Incredibly welcoming and broad. Any given week, there’s so many events and tastings it’d be a fulltime schedule to try and attend them all. Every wine bar has its own tight knight community and circle of regulars, and most people are just awesome (if not slightly/completely insane).
GFR: Please give me a little insight into the wine program at your new place.
RGJ: So we do all Italian, with a little bit (like %1) of Ontario wine. It’s a fascinating program to work with, because you can’t rely on the usual crutches of typical regions outside of Italy. We can offer wines to guests that they might never try on their own, or change their perception of what Italy can produce. Italy has such a massive palette of varietals and growing regions, there’s always something you haven’t tried out there.
GFR: How are you finding the new position and the unique challenges the job throws at you?
RGJ: Management is a totally new foray for me, and so right now I’d say the majority of my focus is on the management side versus the wine. I’ve worked just about every position you can work in a restaurant, so it really feels like a culmination of my whole career coming together. Jumping into a team where many people have been there for years, requires a lot of patience and listening. And doing inventory…god…inventory…
GFR: The Sommelier world is notoriously full of pretentious arseholes, and after seeing that film Somm a few years ago, I still worry about the emergence of a new Wine Bro culture… Also, I have picked up on a LOT of that vibe from some of the usual suspects in the mixology crowd—full-on Jordan Peterson fans and all that stuff. Believe it or not, I saw one of the usual suspects defend Andrew Tate recently. What the hell is going on there? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
RGJ: There’s definitely idiots out there, and they happen to be loud enough to draw a lot of attention to their idiocy, which I assume is the goal. Wine comes attached to a lot of pseudo-intellectualism and it appeals to people who chase luxury/clout. Fortunately for me, I’ve met very few of them. Most Somms I know are wonderful, generous people. I think that “pretentiousness” reached such a zenith that now the pendulum swung back and we have a new generation of wine professionals trying to be the “anti-somm”, if you know what I mean. Unfortunately I feel that’s bred a new form of pretentiousness itself at times haha.
GFR: Speaking of which, we are having some really important conversations right now about the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace, and what can be done to eradicate it from the culture.
I’d be interested to hear your take on the topic, and perhaps what you have witnessed yourself during your time in the restaurant world… big question, I know, but I feel it’s a topic that deserves discussion.
RGJ: The restaurant industry as a whole comes with a lot of the whole “don’t ask, don’t tell” culture that makes this thing so prevalent. So many things that would be unacceptable in any other workplace are just swept under the rug because you’re expected to brush it off. It’s not “corporate” to have some accountability and consequence. In fact, I think a lot of really vile people have been attracted to the hospitality industry because they can get away with their behaviour within it. But I think good change is coming from within these days, there’s not a place for that behaviour anywhere.
GFR: So, natural wine is basically the new normal in many places, perhaps in Ottawa?… I’m pretty choosy when it comes to my personal forays into that world. What’s your take?
RGJ: I don’t care what I drink as long as it’s made with purpose and quality. And I have a certain respect for natural wine. Natural wine, for better or worse, peels back the curtain on all the nitty gritty realities of winemaking that many producers wish to obscure. The raw character of yeasts, the natural flaws of a climate or varietal, it all comes out in these wines. Sustainability is so important to me, and natural wine just happens to coincide with the cutting edge of those practices. And at the end of the day, natural wines are just exciting. You never know what you’ll get in a bottle. You rip one open and bad or good, they’re a wicked time. That said, there’s a lot of absolute garbage produced at exorbitant prices with the excuse of being natural. I don’t mind a bit of brett or even mouse, but all wine is judged by its balance (and price point!), and natties are no exception.
GFR: MOUSE?!!! *shudder*
How would you say that your palate has evolved over the years?
For example, I went through an old vine Zinfandel phase. I revisited such wines last year… Hmmmm… interesting, but really not for me any more. Although, saying that, I’ve been quite enjoying some of them again recently!
RGJ: I drank Imperial Stouts and peated Scotch’s before I got into wine, so I expected I’d like the heaviest, earthiest, most tannic wines out there. Dead wrong. It’s the ethereal, ultra elegant reds, and the subtle, mineral, textured whites that get my attention. That said, I spent so long avoiding oaked whites out of principal, that I cut myself off from a lot of great wine, so I’d say now Im going through a full-bodied white phase.
GFR: How do you feel about Canadian wines?
RGJ: Widely underrated, but often with wasted potential. We try so many varieties here, but the lack of focus delegitimizes us as a region. Most people buy a bottle of Canadian wine once or twice, and it’s a total dice roll. Some things we do are world class, and others are here in defiance of nature.
GFR: What do you think we do well here in Canada?
RGJ: Sparkling wine absolutely. I’ve had some of the best traditional method wines of my life from Canada. Some amazing Riesling, Chardonnay, and Gamay as well.
GFR: And what do you feel we should really give up on?
RGJ: In Ontario, late ripening varietals in general, mainly Bordeaux varietals. I think there’s also a lot of “region worship” here too, where winemakers are more focused on emulating someone else’s style of winemaking, rather than doing what suits our terroir best. I can’t share an opinion about Canada’s other winegrowing regions since I just haven’t tasted enough of the wines other than the trickle we get through the LCBO.
GFR: How do you feel about Canadian support for our local wine industry?
RGJ: It’s insane how little wine from B.C we get here in Ontario, and vice versa! The fact that we’re still taxing wine from B.C like its international wine is a joke. There needs to be real initiative to unite west and east and build pride over Canadian wine. It’s a bit tough to say, but if we want to grow support, consistent quality needs to come first.
GFR: Just as there is everywhere in the world, there is quite a lot of dreadful wine coming from Canada (BC, Quebec, Ontario, et al.). How do you feel about the issue of people simply promoting something because it is local and not because of its quality?
RGJ: At the end of the day, it’s always good, because support means that wineries can financially exist and continue to improve and evolve. What really matters is that wineries don’t take that support for granted (sadly often the case), and really push to increase quality and vineyard conditions.
GFR: Does your work allow you to travel much?
That’s one thing that I really missed through the pandemic: going on wine trips.
RGJ: Definitely not haha. My trip into France was my first time out of Canada in over a decade, that was an awesome time. Pretty shocking to see the kind of wine you can buy in an average convenience store over there. And the prices!
GFR: Which wine regions have you had the opportunity to visit over the years?
RGJ: Visiting Beaujolais was surreal, and the people were the absolute nicest I met in all of France. We got our car stuck in a ditch off some farmers field, and just about every passerby pulled over to help us push it out. That’s all, besides Prince Edward County. For now…
GFR: Is there anywhere you would really like to visit? And why?
RGJ: France again, definitely. I spent most of my time in Lyon and further south but I’d love to spend a very long stay in the Loire, and the other more northern areas. Also Austria. I was supposed to do a harvest in Austria this year but the Visa’s got bungled, so I’ve got unfinished business there.
GFR: Have you ever made your own wine?
RGJ: Never on my own, only with Chris Thompson the winemaker at Lighthall. Lots of beer and mead at home though! Hard to get my hands on good grapes and that really makes all the difference. Everyone who works in wine should get their hands in a fermentor and do a harvest though, I feel that pretty strongly.
GFR: And where would you like to make wine (in a pipe dream)?
RGJ: Here in Ontario! I’d make traditional method sparkling wines and maybe a tiny bit of still Chard and Pinot for limited production.
GFR: What have been your career highs and lows?
RGJ: High was certainly earning my first regular to ask for me by name, I still appreciate those lovely people to this day.
I cant think of a real low as a Somm, but I certainly know when it was as a line cook. I was working in a pretty well known, esteemed restaurant that I really respected, and I was completely out of my depth. I had 6 months of cooking experience on a team with people who had two culinary degrees. I was just always screwing something up, and everyone hated me for it. I never heard a “good job” or “thank you” even one single time. When I eventually left the Chefs didn’t even say goodbye. I owe that job for teaching me what 100% effort really means, but I was completely demoralized and miserable. I think a lot about my experiences there now that I’m in the position of management.
GFR: Who is, in your mind, a real role model for Sommeliers?
RGJ: Christopher Sealy jumps right to mind. He was the first person to come up and talk to me at my first ever tasting, and he never treated me like an amateur or the “new guy”. His approach to wine is so open minded and humble, and his knowledge is amazing. I think we can all learn something from sommeliers like him. That Jamie Drummond guy’s also pretty cool but I hear he’s out of the game…
GFR: Ah yes… And for Wine Agents/Importers?
RGJ: Tim Reed Mansey is just a great guy all around. He taught my George Brown Wines 1 class, and when I thought about getting into the agency world, he took the time to speak to me about the role and the lifestyle. The Living Vine has always been an agency with a lot of purpose and direction, and that’s the kind of thing I really admire. Of course also Bernard at LeSommelier, I’d say 90% of the time I spot something actually worth buying at the LCBO it’s from him.
GFR: Do you have nightmares about working with wine? I do it regularly, and it usually involves being unable to find bottles in a cellar. And the clock is ticking away. I have them all the time, and I haven’t been in the role for over 14 bloody years!!!
RGJ: Almost every night and they usually involve me second guessing if I served the right vintage, or the cheaper of two bottles with identical labels.
GFR: Wine folks famously have their Sundays off… What’s your idea of a perfect Sunday?
RGJ: Apparently whoever writes my schedules has been out of the loop because I’ve almost never had a Sunday off haha. I’d say a great day off though involves sleeping in, way past whats normal or acceptable, getting to the gym, practicing drums and/or guitar, and getting to some movie/book/game I’ve been eyeing over my workweek.
GFR: Where are your favourite places to dine and drink locally these days… perhaps tell us a personal hidden treasure of yours.
RGJ: I’m a proud member of the Archive909 cult. Josh Corea runs one of the best by-the-glass lists in the entire city, and maybe the best Beaujolais cellar in Ontario. But more than anywhere in the city, I eat at Ramen Raijin. I’ve been slurping noodles there for a decade now, and I don’t see myself stopping.
GFR: Do you like to cook yourself? What’s your favourite dish to cook these days?
RGJ: These days usually involve me jamming an entire focaccia into my face in the car driving home, but when I do cook usually it’s Japanese or Italian. My best bud and I have a thing where we’ll head to the store and find inspiration from whatever’s on sale, and then cook something up and drink a great bottle. Last time we had some Grosset Grande Reserve Champagne with Riga Gold sardines and Camembert, and made braised ribs in the style of Dongpo pork with some gai lan.
GFR: I’m impressed.
And have you had any cooking disasters recently?
RGJ: Oh yeah. I mean not recently, but I made such a bad pizza, I entered a 5 day grudge match, where I cooked 2-3 pies every single night. The pie stuck to the peel and then fell off the stone while half stuck. There was fire in the bottom of my oven, smoke pouring out the top, sauce everywhere, flour was on my cat, it was pretty rough.
GFR: Do you feel that there is a good Sommelier community in Toronto?
RGJ: Yeah very much so. You’re bound to run into a very small circle of people at just about every tasting and wine bar so I’m glad that the people I do know are all awesome. I think I’m still very much a newcomer though, I’m always meeting someone new who I should probably already know.
GFR: Do you hang out often with other Sommeliers? And if you do, do you only shoot the shit about wine?
RGJ: It depends. I have very few close sommelier friends that I see. I mostly interact with other somms at wine bars and we do shoot the aformentioned shit about wine, but usually that devolves into tangents about pizza or whatever babble comes to your mind after too many glasses.
GFR: Do you have many non-industry friends… How do they feel about what you do for a living?
RGJ: I think most of my friends totally dont give a damn about wine and I’m conflictingly happy about that. It’s a nice separation of work and social life that I don’t have to talk about wine all the time. But I’m still forcing them to drink it at every gathering of course. YOU’RE GONNA DRINK THIS UNAGED SAGRANTINO AND YOU’RE GONNA LIKE IT.
GFR: What do you feel you would be doing if you were not doing what you are doing today?
RGJ: I’d like to say that I’d have a wicked awesome super successful band, but I think I might have ended up bartending most likely? But out of the industry, I would have loved to have become a Physiatrist (no you didn’t read Psychiatrist). I’ve always really been interested in exercise science and rehabilitation, and the career seems so immensely rewarding.
GFR: Do you have a favourite food/wine-related scene in a film/movie or show?
RGJ: Cliche, but shoot me, final scene from Ratatouille. Gets me every time. It’s crazy how much of what really moves us in the culinary world is tied to our memories as children. I also loved S2 E7 of the Bear, that episode rings so true to anyone who has pushed through the misery and hate of hospitality work to find the love for it on the other side.
GFR: What are your thoughts on blind tasting wine?
RGJ: It’s awesome and I do it as much as possible. It’s definitely a bit of a parlour trick though, and certainly overvalued by certain organizations and the general public. In fact didn’t I write an article about this?
GFR: Are you a better blind taster with or without a bad hangover? I’m definitely the former…
RGJ: FORMER. Hangovers mean bad sleep and bad sleep means bad sinuses for me.
GFR: Some of the best tasters I know are heavy smokers… What are your thoughts there?
RGJ: I say, if it works for you, it works for you. But for me, smoking blows out my palate completely. Honestly the only thing I hate is tasting next to heavy smokers, the smell is brutal. But it’s still preferable to tasting next to people who wear tons of fragrances!
GFR: In your mind, what is “hot” in the world of wine right now? And why?
RGJ: I think nearly everyone always says natural wine, so I’m gonna say alternative fermentation vessels. There’s a ton of wine coming out lately, even from very big, old-school producers, in all kinds of crazy vessels. Qvevri, Amphora of all kinds, concrete, glass, and beyond. It’s no longer something relegated only to the natural and niche. As you can tell from my articles, I’m all for it. We also have a lot of wicked wine coming from really new areas, like Vermont or Lake Erie, and those are really gaining popularity amongst somms.
GFR: Aside from these fashions in wine drinking, what’s your current favourite wine style/region? And why?
RGJ: Jura. Something about the style there is so viscerally pleasing to me, I think I’m just going through a real obsessive phase with oxidized winemaking. The wines are just unlike almost any others from France, and they’re so compelling and savoury. Some jaw-dropping Cremant wines as well.
GFR: And what’s not so hot? What has fallen out of favour? Why do you feel that way?
RGJ: Heavy ass wine bottles, I despise them. It’s a huge waste of everyone’s time and money, from the costs of shipping, carbon production, and wear and tear on my wrists. When I see these kinds of bottles, I always really wonder how much budget is going into the packaging and how much is left for the winemaking. I’m glad these are on the way out.
GFR: When it comes to wine, is there anything that you feel is terribly overrated? And why?
RGJ: To be honest, many of the top crus or “legendary wines” I’ve tasted have been disappointing. Yeah there are exceptional, transcendent wines out that make you go “OK NOW THIS IS GRAND CRU!!” but that should be a nearly guaranteed experience. I’m okay taking a gamble on quality in the $15-$30 range but not in the $80+. Maybe it’s the vintages, my expectations, or the changing of the seasons, but I just can’t justify the price tags most of the times
GFR: What is your favourite wine pairing right now—something nice and seasonal?
RGJ: We’ve got this dish right now, Ceci alla Zozzona, which is chickpeas with tomato, guanciale, sausage, pecorino and an egg yolk on top. That, some rough bread, and a glass of Montefalco Rosso or some equally ballsy iteration of sangiovese, like cmon’ what else do I need to say?
GFR: What is your least favourite part of your job as a Sommelier? For me it was the f****** inventory. Oh, and breaking down boxes… and the resultant papercuts (I have such soft hands!)
RGJ: F****** inventory is right, I was in until 3am last week with the senior manager trying to get it done. I didn’t know how lucky I had it before when I didn’t have to deal with it. I will say, it’s the best chance to really know what you have on hand and where it is. I dread doing it, but I wouldn’t want anyone else to.
GFR: What is your weapon of choice when it comes to a corkscrew? And why?
RGJ: Good ol pulltaps style double hinger. Cant beat it. I’ve admired the triple digit price tag, titanium, cnc cut custom openers from afar, but with how many keys I lose on average, there’s no way I can be trusted to keep that thing in my pocket. The real key (not a pun) I’ve learned is to keep an ah-so always handy. They’ll save a broken cork on a bottle 5 times their price.
GFR: Due to us being around alcohol, many people in our industry often have quite the increased tolerance for wine/booze, or they develop issues. What is your limit, and how do you keep yourself in check?
RGJ: It feels like for me that limit gets a bit lower every year, but essentially my motto is, drink strategically. I’ll skip the cocktail round to save myself for the wine, and these days I’m willing to leave a bottle or glass unfinished and not feel like my honor is on the line (plus if you’re out, it’s nice to leave a bit of good vino for the staff later). I’ve gotten into the habit of bringing non-alcoholic drinks with me to parties too, just to keep something in my hands. Lately I do this thing where I mix regular Guinness and Guinness 0% 50/50 and it just tastes like a pint at a shite pub.
GFR: “a pint at a shite pub”
That’s funny.
There’s a lot of open discourse right now around the topic of both drug and alcohol abuse within the restaurant/wine world. Would you care to share a few of your thoughts about that side of the business? To be quite frank with you, the thing I miss the LEAST about working in that environment is the late nights of drinking and recreational pharmaceuticals. I don’t think my body could take it any longer anyway!
RGJ: It’s hard to comment because I’ve never seen much of that scene myself, but I do think there’s a real problem in the industry still. Substance abuse isn’t just encouraged, it’s idolized. It’s like if you tell people you don’t smoke, or barely drink, you get looked at like a poser or something. That whole kind of attitude can’t die off fast enough.
GFR: Speaking of which, have you ever been “cut off”? If so, where and when was the most recent time? I think it happened to me back in Scotland once… hazy memories… at the City Café.
RGJ: Never been cut off but there are certainly times where I should have been haha. I very much recall a hazy evening where a buddy and I stumbled into a boardgame cafe, ripping drunk, and sat down with a board game and two pints of Steam Whistle. I don’t recall much after that point but I don’t think we made it through much of Scrabble.
GFR: Which leads rather neatly into the next question… do you happen to have a good hangover cure? None of the cures given to me by previous interviewees have really done the job for me… well, apart from the suggestion about CBD gummies.
RGJ: Absolutely, but it only works on a day off. You wake up early as you can, take 250mg of Ibuprofen, consume whatever a “medium” amount of cannabis means to you, eat as much food as possible, drink a pint of water with an electrolyte hydration tab, and then pass out for another couple hours. Wake up, have a cup of coffee, cold shower, and bam, back on your feet. But if you’ve got work to get to, good luck to ya bud.
GFR: How many wines do you “taste” in a week these days?
RGJ: Usually 10-20 but I aim to push those numbers up.
GFR: When tasting with agents, do you choose to spit or swallow?
RGJ: Always spit
GFR: What’s your “house” wine at home right now?
RGJ: I mostly drink beer and spirits at home, Czechvar or Cynar with soda are my real habits, but if I am drinking wine at home, it’s usually something I feel I need to study or familiarize myself with.
GFR: Most remembered glass of wine ever?
RGJ: Oh god a lot to pick from but maybe a bottle of 2018 Torre More Scalunera Etna Rosso. Just a truly delicious, crushable bottle of great wine. It was the first time I ever had the experience of going to pour another glass and being shocked it was already empty.
GFR: What is your perfect glass (or bottle) of wine at the end of a crazy day at work?
RGJ: Probably some really visceral and grippy white, maybe Gruner Veltliner or Savagnin. Honestly my after work drink is usually Cynar and soda. It’s just bitter enough to match my after-work mood, but it’s still chuggable and refreshing, and pretty low alcohol so I can get a goods night sleep.
GFR: Coffee or tea?
RGJ: Coffee
GFR: Lemon, horseradish, mignonette, or hot sauce?
RGJ: First one straight up, and then all above, in that order.
GFR: Vindaloo or Korma?
RGJ: Vindaloo
GFR: Milk or dark? And preferred cocoa content?
RGJ: Dark 70%
GFR: Ketchup, mayonnaise, or salt & vinegar?
RGJ: Salt and vinegar all the way
GFR: Blue, R, MR, M, MW, W, Charcoal?
RGJ: M if its a fatty cut, R if its lean
GFR: Volatile acidity, brettanomyces, or mousiness?
RGJ: VA hell yeah (but secretly, I’m becoming more and more of a brett-head)
GFR: Thank you for taking the time, Robert. It is very much appreciated. This is an extremely long interview.
RGJ: Thanks Jamie, it’s an honor. When you suggested this whole thing, I assumed I would be doing the interviewing, not being interviewed. I must say, it’s a bit scary, looking in from the other side of the pen. My first ever publication on GFR was about my training to become a sommelier, and now my final appearance is as one proper. It’s a satisfying conclusion.
Edinburgh-born/Ontario-based sommelier, consultant, writer, judge, educator, and Dad, Jamie Drummond is the Director/Editor of Good Food Revolution.
Peter Boyd has been a part of Toronto’s wine scene for over two decades. He has taught the Diploma level for the International Sommeliers Guild, and has been the sommelier at Scaramouche Restaurant since 1993. He also writes about wine, food and pop culture and raises show molerats for fun and profit. He’s also one of the most solid guys in the business.Trust this man. Seriously… he seriously knows his shit and just celebrated his 87th birthday!
A well-known and much respected figure on the Toronto food and wine scene for almost twenty years, Potvin has worked in many of the city’s very best establishments including Biffs, Canoe, and Eau. In 2004 Potvin opened his incarnation of the Niagara Street Café, a restaurant that has gone from strength to strength year after year, with universal critical acclaim. Anton spends much of his time traveling and tasting wine and has been ranked highly in consecutive years of the International Wine Challenge. After working as GM at DaiLo with Chef Nick Liu and Sommelier Pete Hammond, Anton is now selling wine with Banville Wine Merchants and explores the world of mycology and sailing in his spare time. Not usually at the same time.
