Vino-Talk! (uncorked)

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About Me

Biography: Born and raised in Calais, France and couldn’t tell you the difference between a Bordeaux and a Merlot. At 26, a sense of impatience, wanderlust, intrigue with new ideas sends me on a 2 ½ year whirlwind from Canada to Mexico and Guatemala via the west coast where I learn to manage by working in apple farms, kitchens, and selling ‘Tipicos’ bought in Guatemala on the boardwalk of Venice Beach and the streets of Austin Texas.

My roots were to come back to me several years after stepping out of the truck my sister and I hitched a ride in to Crested Butte (driven by none other than Nick Rayder and Tuck!), with a backpack and a guitar, dressed in a native Guatemalan “Huipil” that I wore as a dress and cowboy boots.
After trading in the boots for mountain bike shoes a year later, I settle into a night job at Soupcon, which I keep for 20 years, so I can play hard by day.

There I meet my future husband, John-Marc and I begin my journey back to my roots. To this day, John-Marc loves to tease me about my early comments to him: “You eat cheese and sausage”, “You use that much olive oil”

I introduce him to Cross Country skiing and biking, and he reintroduces me to cooking great food at home and together we end-up seeking out the finest fare to be found on our trips to Guatemala and Oaxaca Mexico (where biking to build an appetite justifies experiencing Tepesquintle and Iguana!) and more ‘civilized’ areas in France and Italy (and New York and Napa too). Everywhere we go finding the best place to eat becomes the theme of the day – biking or not.
And then, came the wine.
I have enjoyed wine for many years and learned a good bit about it working at Soupcon. As my palate evolved, I started paying more attention. Sharing this hobby with my husband doubled the enjoyment and the learning opportunities as (it is a well know fact that) JMV has a great palate. Lucky me.
Soon, our purposely varied selection and consumption lead me to “studying” wine, that is to say gathering information that may explain why a wine taste like it does, where does it come from, how is it made and so on.
Leaving the restaurant business in the fall of 2006 and working as a wine rep for a couple years, provided more exposure and my taste buds blossomed to a new level.

Today, I may be past being able to feel the thrill of a 120 miles descent from the base of Orizaba all the way to Vera Cruz in the Gulf of Mexico, some 1400ft lower, and I choose not to experience the thrill of biking over to Aspen and back in a day (because guys did it), but there is a new thrill in taste that isn’t so bad and has a lot less wear and tear on the body – when consumed in moderation, of course.
I hope you enjoy my newer adventures in taste and in learning about this noble nectar,
a result of an elevated partnership between nature and (wo)man.