From Yeller to Cellar

LAURA
DePASQUALE •
40+ •
National Sales Director for Fine Wines, Palm Bay Imports
•
Miami, FL

As
a top sales director for a major wine import house, Laura
DePasquale is a tad disarming. Her former careers as rock
guitarist and graphic artist skew her profile out of the
mainstream, but they stand her in good stead as a wine
professional. An ex-rock bassist, DePasquale is not only a
charismatic observer and good listener, but also a quick
thinker and speaker. She thrives on dialogue, discussion,
sharing opinions, hearing what listeners are tasting. A
still-active graphic artist, she perceives fine gradations
in the color spectrum, and owns a richly associative palate.
One of only 13 women Master Sommeliers (out of 118),
DePasquale is an adept lecturer and teacher. At Wine Expo
2OO6, her smoothly conducted vertical seminars on Faustino
Grand Riserva Riojas and Bertani Amarones became open forums
of Socratic discourse. With her witty banter, pleasing voice
and honest, lusty laugh, DePasquale commands attention, but
when her refined palate and informed opinions kick in, she
proves a formidable spokesperson.

CURRENT
ROLE I oversee all
aspects of sales for our fine wine portfolio of 42 brands. I
have a team of fine wine managers in all major markets
around the country. Boston’s manager is Ed Peterman. Also on
the team are general market managers of not so “fine-wine”
in areas like the Carolinas and Ohio, that we’re bringing up
to speed. We sell to on- and off premise, but our emphasis
is on-premise.

ON
the GO We work
mainly with sommeliers, fine-wine shops and independents as
opposed to chains and big retailers. Our market niche is
high end, luxury, ultra-premium. I teach the staff how to
sell fine wine in America. I spent time barrel tasting this
year in Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone, Veneto, Emilia Romagna,
Germany, and Argentina. I helped Laboure Roi decide how to
make and select Premier and Grand Cru wines. I talk about
what I feel best represents the area, what expresses their
sense of place.

TRADING
UP Our portfolio
has changed a lot in my 5 years, when it was only Italy,
Champagne Gosset and Cognac Propin (?) While it still
concentrates in Italy, today it’s expanded to France, Spain,
Australia, recently Germany, and now also Chile (Montgraf’s
Antu) and Argentina (Navarra Correas Gran Reservas, with
spectacular Malbec). I just spent 1O days in the Rhone
touring with Jean Luc Colombo. High-end Brown Brothers are
starting to come in. Also New Zealand’s Grove
Mill.

STARTING
in WINE Wine work
came at the restaurant Arizona 2O6 in its late ‘8Os heyday –
with its all-California wine list – it had the first
three-star review from new york times’ Bryan Miller for a
restaurant with no tablecloths. I had no idea wine was this
fabulous! I wrote my first wine list for the Royalton
Hotel.

SOMMELIER
DAYS In Miami,
Norman van Aikin hired me as sommelier in 2OOO, both at A
Mano and Norman’s. Miami had great food, but was really
backward with poor food and wine service, but has made huge
leaps in five years. I got into wine as dining room manager,
I really loved it and had people come in for tasting. I
liked bold stuff – Chateau Musar, Loires by the glass. So I
fell in love, knew I had a passion.

PASSING
TESTS A friend in
hospitality told me to take a Master Sommelier test in
Orlando. I’d had no idea! ‘Oh my God! A career out of this?’
Then I decided to become obsessed with the MS, pushed art
into the background, and do not regret it for a minute. On
1/1/O1, I took the advanced MS and failed: everybody does.
So I quit Norman to study harder, but had a bunch of offers
right away. Palm Bay gave me the post of fine wine manager
in Florida. I loved it, but had to take the exam, which I
passed, in Chicago. The MS Court offered me a seat in the
April tasting exam, as I had only failed the tasting
section. After a year, Palm Bay created the Fine Wine Team
and put me on it 2OO3. Once I’d passed the Advanced test in
November 2OO4, they made me National Sales
Director.

RIOJA
VALUES People have
no idea what great values are out there from Spain. Today
Priorat and Ribera del Duero have come of age, but Rioja was
there long ago. Rioja came alive when the French crossed the
Pyrenees before 19OO. Spain then went through wars and
depression, but experienced a revival with modernized
techniques and better marketing as of the late
196Os.

MS
vs MW I’m a Master
Sommelier, studying for Master of Wine. They’re both
difficult degrees, but MS is more verbal, more product
oriented. MW is all written, people who write well do well;
it’s more scientific, less service component.

LOOK
BEFORE YOU SNIFF
People need to take a minute to look at what’s in the glass,
because you can tell so much from color. ‘What is the grape?
Does it have a lot of alcohol? Is it very youthful, or does
it have age?’ You can sometimes tell old world/new
world.

SNIFF
BEFORE YOU SIP Then
almost everything for me is in the nose; your taste
sensation is a confirmation of what you see and smell.
Olfactory tops the visual: all the fun stuff is in your nose
– fruit, earth and wood first, then other things – spices,
flowers, minerals.

THEN
SIP Your palate is
where you get acidity (which you can’t smell), alcohol
reading and the wine’s length and balance.

QUICK
on the DRAW I
haven’t done drama, but I did teach visual art to gang kids
in Miami. When you’re giving them matte knives and saws, you
have to command their attention. And dealing with the public
as a female sommelier – ‘what? but you’re too young/pretty
to be the sommelier!’ – makes you think fast.

WINE
as MUSIC I played
in a rock band on a ’66 Rickenbacker bass guitar. I talk of
big powerful wines – in your face with fruit, wood and
alcohol – as being ‘rock stars. Older European vintages –
fine Burgundies, Rioja reserves, old Bordeaux – I consider
operatic or classical. Then there are off-the-beaten track
wines that could be better known but are a little edgy and
angular: Chenin Blanc, Savennieres, old Rieslings. I think
of these as jazzy – intellectual, challenging, with a lot of
depth and soul.

SYNERGY
I think of wine as a synthesis of everything – art, music,
history, geology, science, culture – coming together in that
region or that bottle. That’s far more true of wine than
what’s on the plate, which is so temporary.

CONSTANT
LEARNING One of the
things I love best about wine is that it is ceaselessly
evolving. That’s because I love new challenges. When you
learn one thing, then there are fifty more to learn. You
will never, ever learn it all. When the day comes when I
think I’ve ‘learned it all’, that’s the day I should
quit.

PHILOSOPHY
I feel blessed that I love wine as much as I do, because you
have to be passionate to make it your life. And you have to
maintain your integrity; once you lose that, it’s over. I’m
a very strong person, and honest. I never compromise. I’m
not afraid to say, for example, that that 1992 Faustino Gran
Reserva was oxidized. It’s also a lesser vintage; what we’re
showing is what’s available, and sadly all the 1991 is gone.
I’m not afraid to say: ‘your wine is better than mine’ or
‘this isn’t showing well’ or ‘this is not a good example
from the winery’.