How did you get sparked on wine?
I started to get interested in wine when I was around 18 years old. I was working as a busboy and I just thought wine looked cool. Then I became a waiter and I really hated getting asked something that I didn’t have the answer to, so I started to study more and more about wine, and I really loved it.
I did two different formal trainings, one here in Quebec (a sommelier class) and one in France wich is call BPREA (Brevet Professionnel Responsable d’Exploitation Agricole) for Viticulture and Oenology. I also did training in Burgundy (France), in western Cape (South Africa) and worked in the U.S. as a winery assistant in Oregon.
What is your approach to finding wine you love?
I would say that all of the wines I love are made as naturally as possible; small crush, organically grown, coming from real wine terroir, less chemicals as possible, very little or no new wood (except for some Spanish wines). In a sense, wines that are the closest to the climate, terroir, vintage and grape expression possible is what I want to taste.
Finding them? Wine is always related to people, so if you find the right people, people that are sensible to the same things you are, the wine will come with them (restaurant, wine bar and Producer philosophy).
What myth do you hope to dispel through your work?
I’d bust the myth that wine is not universal. . . Drop the beer: Wine goes so much better with chicken wings and football.
Describe your banquet to feed the world. Which foods and wines would you serve?
Lots and lots of crisp and mineral wines, Champagnes, light and elegant reds. For food, I would serve mountains of seafood; a mound of sea urchin, another piled with lobster. There would be fresh oysters from the west and east coasts. I would prepare a mountain of Belon-grown Coquille Saint-Jacques and huge Fanny’s Bay oysters prepared Chinese style with black bean. Another dish would be fresh, wild caught salmon cooked complete with a bed of sea weed and superb olive oil. Oh, and scallops ceviche everywhere. For meat, it would be game. I’d serve mainly deer, venison, goose, duck, pigeon, pheasant, lot of bird quail also all done the best way. I would also serve a complete 3 meter roll of fine sausage.
People would only be happy at my table, eating with robust appetite and having fun. I would be seated on one side with my girlfriend and on the other with Stephane Richer (used to play for the Canadiens of Montreal and the funniest dude ever).
What did you want to be before you became a Sommelier? Is it related or wildly different?
When I was a little boy I wanted to become a herpetologist (erpetologist), a specialist in reptiles. I was really into snakes. Of course in Quebec it is not the best place to study that, so I quit the idea after talking with a study counselor in 9th grade. But this stayed in my mind for a very long time. Wine is similar because you need to know lot of things that people don’t give a damn about. One subject is an animal the other a vegetable.
What interests you about booquet?
The easy and fun part of booquet is what interest me.
Do you believe regular people want to learn about wine? How do you know?
I believe that consumers want to learn about wine but they don’t want to put the effort into it. People want to have wine knowledge “cocked in their mount,” without having to make an effort to get it themselves.
How do I know this? I face consumers everyday at work in the restaurant. I observe that people don’t want to search or read or even think about wine. They want me, the sommelier, to tell them what is good and give it to them. We have to serve consumers where they are.
Share something we’d never know about you.
I watch Naruto, which is a manga of a ninja, such a shame …
Tags: Booquet team, Samuel Chevalier, sommelier, uncorked
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