Joe Spellman Sommelier
He's an easy figure to miss...sort of a blur... as he scurries from one event to another at
the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta...baseball cap cocked at a jaunty angle atop his
head and courier bag slung over his shoulder. But when the curtain rises on the first wine seminar
at this year's 19'th event, Joe Spellman will be at his accustomed place on the podium as panel
moderator. That this is his 12'th appearance at SFW&CF amply indicates his valued contributions
to the event.
With a love for baseball and beer, Joe was an unlikely candidate for the high-falutin world
of fine wine. As a classics major in English at University of Chicago, he tended bar in a
restaurant to which he eventually rose to the position of manager. Here he discovered much
the same intellectual appeal in wine that he found in his beloved classic literature. A
career in food and wine became an easy choice.
After college, Joe moved up through the ranks with various Chicago restaurants, culminating
in his being named sommelier at Charlie Trotter's in 1993, a position he served until 1998.
Charlie Trotter is regarded as one of America's greatest chefs and his restaurant is one of
the best in the nation. Joe authored the highly-regarded wine notes in Trotter's plethora
of cookbooks; some of the best wine writing I've seen in any celebrity chef book.
This segued into a 6 year stint as Master Sommelier at Chicago-based Paterno Wines International,
now Terlato Wines International. Terlato has one of the largest and most impressive wine portfolios
from around the world in the USA. He parlayed this into a 2 year stint as Director of
Education at Joseph Phelps Vineyards in the Napa Valley, one of the first wineries in California
to employ a wine educator. This led to his current position of Winery Sommelier at Justin Vineyards
and Winery, one of Paso Robles premier producers.
Over these years, Joe has garnered more awards, achievements, and medals than bedeck the
uniform of a Soviet General. While at Charlie Trotter's, in 1996, he earned the coveted
Master Sommelier Diploma, now held by less than 200 people worldwide.
A year later, in Paris, he earned the title "Best Sommelier In The World in French Wines and
Spirits". He was only the 2'nd American, after Larry Stone, to be so named. This was after
winning a Regional- and National-level competition. Going up against the best somms from 23
other countries, he passed a written exam loaded with esoteric questions, a tasting exam, and
then aced the service component of the event. Still, he was "shocked" to win the title; but it
garnered him more press than anything and put him in the public eye across the US.
In 2005, Joe was elected the chairman of the American chapter of the Court of Master Sommeliers,
a reflection of the esteem with which he is held by his fellow sommeliers in this country. He
devotes a large part of his energy and time to this organization as lecturer and examiner.
And the list of honors go on. He was named Bon Appetit magazine's Wine & Spirits Professional
of the Year in 1998. He has coordinated wine dinners at the James Beard Foundation.
But probably the role he enjoys the most is chairing panels and seminars at various wine events
across the nation. He has made appearances at the Aspen Food & Wine Festival, one of the
grand-daddy of wine festivals in the USA. Others include the New Orleans Wine & Food Experience,
Pebble Beach Food & Wine event, the Highlands Inn (Monterey) Masters of Food & Wine festival, the
San Diego Bay Food & Wine Festival, the Kapalua Wine & Food Festival in Maui, and TEXSOM, a
sommelier-driven series of tastings and seminars at various venues across Texas. Clearly, this is
a daunting schedule that would exhaust many a younger person.
Joe fell in love with the SFW&CF at his first appearance here twelve years ago. He finds the
relaxed approach of our event quite a different feeling from the Aspen event, where it's not uncommon
to see Italian producers dressed in formal black suits pouring their wines (and, one year, standing
in deep mud in their polished shoes as a drenching downpour flooded the Festival tent). He's
very excited by the wine, the restaurants, the art, and the architecture that make up Santa Fe. He
labels our Grand Tasting one of the best such consumer tastings in the country.
How does Joe go about preparing for a panel seminar? Many of the panelists are familar faces from
previous years and he's already familiar with their wines. He'll do his homework by perusing the
producer's and various wine region's Web Sites. But he does an excellent job of making sure the panels
are not about Joe Spellman...that his fellow panelists are the star attractions.
He actually views his role in these panels as a mere timekeeper; to be there to keep the oftentimes
spirited repartee on track and on time. This is not an easy task with some of the wine world's true
characters...like Randall Grahm (Bonny Doon Winery) or Bruno d'Alfonso (Di Bruno and Badge wines)...
a chore akin to herding cats.
This year, Joe and fellow Master Sommelier Tim Gaiser will chair a class on Food & Wine Pairing:
How To Build Your Own Wine Dinner. Joe is not particularly sold on the idea that there is something
mystical with food & wine pairings. With some exceptions, he feels most wines go with most foods. In
Joe's view, the sommelier's job is to build a sequence of wines to go with the various courses.
Sometimes, he feels it's best to build a dinner about one great wine, and then sequence the wines to
build up to that great bottle.
So what does a Master Sommelier for Justin Winery do??? He views his job as a Wine Educator
Without Boundaries. Still based in Chicago, he travels the country in support of sales & marketing
of the Justin wines, working with sales reps and the various Justin distributors in each state. He
has yet to encounter a case of conflict of interest, where his role with Justin conflicts with the
independence a wine panel moderator must have.
What corners of CyberSpace does Joe poke into on the InterNet to keep abreast of the wine scene?
He's partial to the Decanter magazine site (www.Decanter.com), Tyler Coleman's controversial Dr.Vino
(www.DrVino.com) and the San Francisco-based Vinography site (www.Vinography.com). He enjoys
and participates in the Wine Spectator's guest sommelier blogs. He finds valuable the Guild of
Sommeliers (members only) site (www.GuildSomm.com).
As one of the nation's highest-profile sommeliers, Joe has had many opportunites to serve the
world's greatest wines to the rich and famous. One would expect such a person to be a bit of a
stuffed-shirt and maybe on the pompous side. Nothing could be further from the truth. He's easy to
talk to and listens intently. Remember.....this is a guy who's equally at home
sprawled in the outfield bleachers of Wrigley Field , downing a brewski.