Enjoying the Finer Things!

Enjoying the Finer Things

Melissa Eyre of The Charlotte News talks to Jay Strausser about life’s great pleasures:   Wine, food and friends.

Tell me a little about your background in terms of becoming interested in wine.

   My father was into wine. He had a pretty good collection of stuff, so I kind of watched it growing up. I probably started drinking wine in college. My first memory of really enjoying wine was at a restaurant with my family. We had a Chateau Neuf de Pape with our meal, and I thought, “This is really good.” 

   I got into drinking zinfandels because I love the informality of them. You can have a hamburger and a bottle of zinfandel.

When did you start really getting into collecting wine yourself? Where did you turn for advice?

   I built up a cellar over time. I’ve purchased pretty much everything I have. I’ve got about 600 to 700 bottles right now. Since my wife, Lisa, became a fine wine specialist, I don’t buy as much. I have a bunch of older vintages from the 80s and 90s that we need to drink!  

  I went to a wine tasting in Kevin Clayton’s apartment in the early 90’s. He had heard that I was interested in zinfandels and invited me.  Later, two guys, Brad Miller, who is a friend, and John Cobb, both sold off their cellars and I acquired a lot of bottles that way. I was in the music business back then and all these guys were involved with wines.  We’d get together--they’d all want to talk music and I wanted to talk wine!

   Kevin Clayton in Shelburne and Andy McCabe in Vergennes are two great guys who really know wine. Angels’ Visits: An Inquiry into the Mystery of Zinfandel by David Darlington and The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty by Julia Flynn Siler are both good wine books.

What’s the oldest bottle you have in your cellar?

  I’ve got a Madeira from about 1869. I got it from a friend, Tom Pierce, one of the owners of Michael Kehoe. When you have something like that, it’s hard to not get carried away with thinking about when is the ultimate time to open it. If it feels right, you should drink it. You keep thinking there’ll be some special family moment and more than likely it’s already passed!

What kinds of wines are you drinking these days?

   My palate has evolved over the years. Historically, I tended to like bigger, broader wine, but now I have a place for the more delicate reds, the burgundies. In the summer I like a lighter, crisper wine. The cold, cold days of winter—that’s the time when we drink from the cellar. Two of my favorite winemakers are Joel Peterson and Paul Draper. Ravenswood Old Hill Vineyard and Dunn Hollow Mountain (a cabernet) are two wines I’ve collected for many years.

Do you visit vineyards at all?

   We’ve taken lots of trips to California. In June Lisa and I just went to the Keenan Winery, outside St. Helena in California. We stayed in a cottage on the property. It was the beginning of the growing season—very beautiful.  We’ve been to Italy. My favorite spot has always been the Santa Barbara area of California—the Santa Ynez and Santa Maria Valleys. I loved going there long before the movie Sideways came out.

What advice do you have for people who are intimidated by all the choices there are on the shelves in a wine shop?

   Remember that wine is a living organism. If there’s something you like, buy a case of it and drink it over time. The wine will evolve, and even as it starts to slide downwards, drink it because you begin to understand how it changes over time.  Drinking wine is a great way to connect with friends and food. There are so many regions around the world where great wines are made. I’m always open to trying new things. My method is to pull the cork, sit down and taste and drink and hang out. Let people develop their own opinions. 

   One of the great wine experiences of my life happened at Shelburne Farms about ten years ago. We had a game dinner at Chimney Point, about 12 of us, including two of the original “Rhone Rangers”—guys who brought old vines over from France to grow grapes in California—Tony Czaja and Steve Edmunds. They brought out all these wild, exotic meats, and we drank a bunch of Edmund St. John wines. It was one of those perfect summer nights, about 70 degrees and  a full moon. After the meal we just hung out watched the moon coming out. Eventually we went up to the Inn and sat on the south porch. At about two in the morning Kevin O’Donnell, who was the manager of the Inn at the time, went down to the cellar and brought up a Webb Madeira from the 1800s. We opened it and drank it--it was magical.