20 Questions for Ralph Hersom of Wine That Loves
Posted 04/24/2008 at 08:49 PM by Cathy
Who is the audience for Wine That Loves? I get the vibe that it's targeted to a younger demographic. Is that accurate?
Our target audience for Wine that Loves is people who love food and want to enjoy the best possible food and wine experiences. The whole idea behind this wine is that this is the wine that makes your dinner even more delicious! Younger people have picked up on it first, but anyone of any age who has tasted it realizes that this is a really great way to eat.
What has been the feedback so far to your wines? Specifically, do people really drink the Wine That Loves Roasted Chicken only with roasted chicken? Do they drink it with, say, tarragon chicken? Or do they drink it with something completely non-chicken?
The feedback has been outstanding! Many people have congratulated us for not just taking the guesswork out of pairing food and wine, but for also raising the quality of the results you get from pairing, for creating food and wine pairs that are really delicious.
Some people have ventured out on their own and tried the wine with other dishes, but we tell everyone that in order to create the really high quality pairing results that we've created here, we had to focus on one dish at a time and then we had to focus on the primary flavor of that dish as it is experienced in the mouth. In designing the wines, we focused on the basic versions of these dishes, the versions that Americans eat most often. But interestingly, what happens with these pairings is that as people add spices or flavors to the basic version of these dishes, the kind of spices or flavors that are typically added in order to enhance the quality or complexity of the flavor or to add nuance to the flavor of these dishes, the pairings still holds up and in fact the pairings gets even better, as long as the primary flavor of the dish is not transformed to something entirely different.
I visited Cakebread Cellars recently and I was told that, since 70% of their wines are sold to restaurants, they develop the wines with the intention of being food friendly. You seem to be taking things a step beyond that. What are the pros and cons to identifying five very specific food pairings for your wines?
The biggest pro is that if you focus on just one dish and the primary flavors of that one dish, you can create a higher quality pairing result, you can create pairing results that really matter, results that are really compelling to people, pairings that get them eating this way all the time. If you try to please too many masters with your pairings, in terms of food or dishes, you'll end up with so-so results that will leave people saying "So, what's the big deal with pairing anyway?" or "Why bother?" We really think that high quality food and wine pairing is the next step in the evolution of good eating and that is what we are working hard to bring to people. We are working on Wine that Loves Sushi and Wine that Loves Chinese food along with two reds for Pasta with Meat Sauce and Grilled Salmon.
I drank Wine That Loves Roast Chicken the other night and noticed the grapes came from Spain. Is that where you source all of your grapes?
Our promise to consumers is that we will always bring them the best wine for the dishes they eat most often, the wine that brings the true promise of wine and food pairing to the table at a $12.99 price point. Each of the dishes we that design a wine for demands a different kind of wine. When we sit down to design a wine, we start off by considering (and by that I mean tasting with the food) all the likely or possible wines from around the world. We believe the whole world is our vineyard. In this design process we go through many rounds and in each successive round, we work to make the wine and the pairing even better. We keep going until both are as good as they can possibly be. We believe that you cannot deliver the commitment we've made to our consumers, not at a high level anyway, if you design the wines for all these dishes by using wine from just one vineyard, or one appellation, or even one region.
Also, on each bottle, the country of origin is listed on the upper right corner on the back of the "Sommelier Rules Grid." The five wines we have right now come from Italy, Spain and Chile. All of our wines are made in the Modern Style (the style that some may call the International Style or the New World Style). This is the style that American wine drinkers prefer. Don't expect our wines that are from Old World regions to taste like typical Old World wines. Always expect our wines to be made in the style that American wine drinkers love—fruit first, earth later. Always. No matter where they are from.
Where are your grapes actually processed into bottles of wine?
Once we've finished designing a wine, Wine That Loves Grilled Salmon for example, we then go out to the part of the world our design work has led us to and we find the best winemakers in the world for that type of wine (or the varietals in the wine we've designed). We then work with these winemakers to make the wine and the pairings even better still. We bottle our wines there before importing them to the U.S.
I assume you are the one blending the wines. Where does that happen?
Yes, I am the one blending the wine. The process starts here at our tasting table and ends up at the winery where the wine is made and bottled.
I've no idea what grape any of your wines is made from. What's your rationale behind not making this information obvious to the consumer?
We are looking to achieve a house style of wine that will remain consistent year after year. All our wines are non-vintage blends because by blending different grapes you are able to achieve a much more complex wine.
Would you say you're an American version of a negociant? Why/why not?
Yes to a certain extent. I like to think of myself as the American version of Jean-Marie Guffens the wildly eccentric Frenchman behind Verget. He crafts some of the world's greatest wines!
What blends of grapes go into each of your wines?
Before I get into the varietals let me mention this: The only thing that governs the taste and style of our wines is our commitment to bringing delicious wine and high level wine and food pairing to the table at an everyday price point. This means that the food dictates what our wine tastes like. We don't aim to make our wines taste the way a given varietal typically tastes. And we don't aim to make our wine fill a flavor niche for a given varietal. We just aim to make the wine and the pairing really delicious. I mention this because I want to make sure that people come to these wines with knowledge of our commitment to consumers and with a wide open mind. If you are familiar with varietals in our wine, don't expect our wine to taste the way wines from those varietals typically taste. But, do expect our wine to be great on its own and to work great with the dish. If you are not familiar with the varietals, please don't let that stop you from giving our wine a try. It will be great. The varietals we use are in the bottle because they really work. You've got my word on this.
WTL Grilled Salmon-Pinot Grigio/Garganega/Chardonnay
WTL Roasted Chicken-predominately Garnacha
WTL Pasta with Tomato Sauce-Nero d'Avola and Syrah
WTL Pizza-Corvina and Rondinella Ripasso with Lambrusco
WTL Grilled Steak- Reserve Merlot and Carmenere
Personally I love that your spin on this brand will engage people who might otherwise not take a chance on a food/wine pairing. But I'm sure the idea has its detractors. What's your response to them, beyond your own credentials in the wine world?
My response is always this: Taste it and you'll see what we're talking about. Some people who have tasted it have said, "Wow, that really works, I don't know how you can do this at this price point." So, most people are thrilled with what we have produced and are thrilled that we've made their lives so much easier and more enjoyable when it comes to the difficult job of food and wine pairing.
It's interesting to me that I can't tell from your website which of your five wines are reds and which are whites. I'm assuming the Wine That Loves Grilled Salmon is a white, but mostly because the bottle's a different color than the others. What's the story behind this?
The white wines are bottled in clear glass bottles.
Who designed your packaging?
Lippincott Mercer
Could you say more about the process of label design and how their designers arrived at the style for Wine That Loves?
The main thing is that we wanted to make sure that people knew we were trying to reinvent the wine industry and that we were doing it in a way that is very, very important to most American consumers—through dinner, or more specifically, through their interest in having a great dinner, having a dinner that is as good as it can possibly be. We wanted to make sure that our label shouted this news from 20 or 30 feet away. Beyond that, we tried to put our consumer first and we tried to make sure that we were giving them what they wanted, giving them what they needed. We wanted them to see that our brand is the answer to that age old question "What goes with what?" Also, we wanted them to see the level and quality of our commitment to food and wine pairing—we wanted them to see that this is not a lukewarm commitment, nor is it a lip service, gimmicky, or low quality one. It is a complete commitment that we are serious and honest about. One way you see this is in the names or our wines. For example, it is not wine that loves beef, it is Wine That Loves Grilled Steak. As I mentioned earlier, we don't pair to an ingredient, we pair to the dish the way it is when it is going to be eaten. To deliver a high level pairing result—a smooth, seamless transition in the mouth from wine to food, and then interesting interplay of the flavors from the wine and food—you need to deal with the primary flavor in the mouth, which comes from both the types of ingredients used and the method of preparation. Also, in creating the Sommelier Rules Grid, we wanted to give a sense of what the wine will taste like—another big question in consumer's minds—and we want to talk about why and how the pairing works.
I've got to ask this: have you marketed your Wine That Loves Pizza to pizza shops?
We would love to be in as many pizzerias as possible. We think we make a great pizza dinner even better and we think every pizza dinner should be as good as possible everywhere, every night. We are currently working with our distributor, United Liquors, to get our wines into as many pizzerias as possible.
How'd a guy from South Hampton get to love wine anyway?
I discovered the world of wine while working at Legal Sea Foods in Worcester, MA back in 1992. Once I was "bitten" by the grape bug there was no stopping me. As far as my career goes this project is one that I am most proud of because now consumers are able to have the former Cellarmaster of Windows on the World and Wine Director of Le Cirque 2000 at dinner every night for only $12.99 per bottle. Priceless!
What has been the response of your former employers to Wine That Loves?
They love the idea and more importantly the blends I've created! What we're doing here is spreading the gospel that many of the sommeliers I've worked with are so very passionate about and the same gospel that they try to preach all day long. They know that food with the wine that pairs perfectly with it is the way to take the food experience to the best place possible. They want everybody to be converted to this great way of eating. So, they are happy with what we are doing to spread the word and to make the quality of the eating experience even better.
What is the distribution of your wines in Boston? That is, I picked up a few bottles at my local grocery store (Crosby's in Manchester-by-the-Sea), and you've said you're working with United to get Wine That Loves Pizza into pizzerias. What are your other distribution tactics?
Our initial push has been grocery stores and other retail stores that sell wine. But now, we're starting to put more emphasis on getting our wine into restaurants. We want to make dinner even better for everybody, everywhere, at all times, so we have to be wherever dinner is. We have a lot of work to do to get there, but we're up to it.
Do you have plans to expand the brand? If so, what pairings do you have in mind?
We intend to make sure there is a Wine That Loves wine for all the foods Americans eat most often. You can bet, if people are eating it a lot, we will be making a wine for it. We are working on Wine that Loves Sushi and Wine that Loves Chinese food along with two reds for Pasta with Meat Sauce and Grilled Salmon. But we've got some other really exciting wines in the pipeline too. In addition, we encourage people to email us and tell us what they'd like to see in our line. We've heard some really interesting ideas.
You've said that high-quality food and wine pairings is a movement that will take the eating experience to the next level. Do you know of any other wine companies who are pairing wine with food as "directly" as you are?
Directly is the key word. I've see a few companies trying to do something like this, but they stop way, way short in their level of commitment to the consumer. They stop at the level of ingredient and try to cover too many dishes and therefore too many primary flavors. We think that specializing our wines the way we do is the key to achieving much higher quality results. So, no, I haven't noticed any other wine companies doing it as directly as we are. We are the pioneers in this area, which is great. But we are not alone, the same thing we are doing and promoting is happening every night at the very best restaurants in the country, so we are in very good company.
Any final words of wisdom for people in Boston looking to have fun with wine?
Drink Wine that Loves! This way they are assured of a perfectly paired food and wine experience.
E-Mail
| 
Digg this!
| 
del.icio.us
365 Days RSS
| Comments RSS for this post
