Sip & Savor July 2022: The Uncommon Taste

Written by Wine Curator and Host Tom Hajduk

To explain how I choose bottles and what I most love about showing people wine, I’m not going to talk about wine. At first.

Imagine you walk into an art gallery. It is your first time in this gallery.

Once you enter, you walk around and find some paintings, sketches, and sculptures that catch your eye. Some, if not all, are from well-known artists you have heard of. You are drawn to these works. You stand in front of them for quite a while. They are engaging and exhilarating. When you return home, you tell others about what you saw and what you loved.

You visit this gallery again and again. It never leaves you unsatisfied. You walk up to the same five works of art each time, spend time in front of them, and leave.

But, in this same museum, there are unexplored wings and passages. Imagine getting lost down a hallway and then coming upon a work of art you never knew existed: you have not heard of the artist, nor have you ever seen anything like this. You are awestruck.

In this museum, there is a curator who shows up only on occasion, and who is known for bringing guests to view something they have never seen before, never considered.

I’m that curator. My job is to bring you to the uncommon works of art, which, in this case, are amazing bottles of wine.

My choices about what to pour for Sip and Savor tastings are always guided by the idea that we should try something new, something different, something amazing that you will not forget. We taste wines that you will not find at the grocery store or even at a superbly-stocked restaurant’s wine cellar.

That means that when we are together, we are tasting bottles that most people simply do not get a chance to taste. And this leads to a wonderful, uncommon flavor experience.

-Tom

Sip & Savor July: The Uncommon Taste