As many of you already know, the WA crew is a huge fan of wine in cans. We’ve come across two guys that might be doing it best. Bobby Stuckey and Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson are one helluva culinary duo. Their partnership started to simmer in the early 2000s at the famed French Laundry, and the deal was sealed when they opened Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, CO, 15 years ago.
In mid September we sat down with Bobby aka Master Sommelier, Restauranteur, six-nights-a-week wine director, and lover of punk rock for a fun conversation. Enjoy!
From the beginning…
It was funny, I went to work in the restaurant business as a busboy then became a waiter, and that’s kinda the start of my journey. The energy of the restaurant really resonated with me. Things that drive other people just bonkers seem almost in slo-mo to me. Things that drive anxiety in other people are just calming to me. All the tickets on a busy Friday night, expediting plates, I think that is totally normal.
I was a waiter in the early 90s. The wine buyer said “you really like wine” and “you should look into the Court of Master Sommeliers intro course.” And at the time, you had to fly to San Francisco to take the course… When I took that initial somm class, I was like ‘wow, you can do this as a profession?!?’ I love this! I want to do this! And the rest is history. I’m in the restaurant six nights a week and that’s the joy of what I do workwise.
How has the restaurant world changed?
In the ‘80s there wasn’t sommelier positions. There hadn’t been this massive explosion of sommeliers or restaurants in general. The world moved a lot slower. Meaning advancement. You had to do so many things for so many years before you could ever be the Maitre D or a sommelier. That was just part of the world. You think about thousands of restaurants that have opened in the past 15 to 20 years… that creates such an opportunity for young people to get into wine much earlier or quicker than it used to be.
Getting off the beaten path is an advantage.
We left the French Laundry (where Bobby met his business partner, Lachlan!) 15 years ago to open Frasca, which is a restaurant in Boulder, CO. And this is where it gets really weird. We opened a restaurant 15 years ago based on Friuli-Venezia Giulia, so northeastern Italy. If you were in the Bay Area the pecking order to get great farm product — if you were a new restaurant — it was really, really hard. In Boulder, restaurants were not even using the farms. Restaurants didn’t do that back then. So combined with the great lifestyle of Colorado, we knew this was the place to open.
We had a bit of an advantage. If you think about 14 or 15 years ago when we started going to Friuli we would close the restaurant and take all the staff there. You have this region like Friuli that doesn’t get any attention. Then you have this restaurant that is getting national and international acclaim in Boulder, Co based on their region. They loved it! There were a lot of people that were really helpful to us. And that wouldn’t have happened if we started in Tuscany, or the Rhone, or Burgundy.
How I studied about wine some 20 years ago when I was going through the Master Sommelier program is I studied about service. I loved service. When I studied about wine, then I studied about cuisine and the culture… and I fell in love with the region, Friuli.
The goal is to drink great wine, every day.
Historically, this is where we’ve had it wrong in the U.S., and hopefully we’re helping change this. We’d like to look at scores and have a special occasion wine on Saturday night or on an anniversary. That’s how Americans drank wine. Versus it’s Tuesday night and I want to drink something delicious.
Our whole Idea when we look at projects for Scarpetta is to overachieve and overdeliver for the price set. Because that’s our goal. Because that’s how we like to drink too! We want people drinking wine seven nights a week not just on their special occasions. There is so much reasonable and affordable and delicious wine out there — that should be everyone’s mission.
The changing American palate
I was able to work before there was a wine boom. I started working when people were still drinking martinis at dinner. I remember us emerge. Like it or not, but the Robert Parker and Steven Tanzer world. A lot of young people want to dismiss the wine critic. But those guys did a lot of leg work that got a lot of people excited about wine. That was the progenitor. But it was an older generation.
Now we have this younger generation that is super excited about wine. I’m 49 years old. I am the first generation since Thomas Jefferson to have parents that drank wine. My grandparents didn’t drink wine, but parents, who we’re really young for my age, started drinking wine. Now we’re going into the the 3rd generation of people drinking wine. It’s ripe for massive adoption. Every one of these millennials probably saw an aunt, uncle, mom, dad, or grandparent drink wine.
The goal is to drink great wine, every day.
Historically, this is where we’ve had it wrong in the U.S., and hopefully we’re helping change this. We’d like to look at scores and have a special occasion wine on Saturday night or on an anniversary. That’s how Americans drank wine. Versus it’s Tuesday night and I want to drink something delicious.
Our whole Idea when we look at projects for Scarpetta is to overachieve and overdeliver for the price set. Because that’s our goal. Because that’s how we like to drink too! We want people drinking wine seven nights a week not just on their special occasions. There is so much reasonable and affordable and delicious wine out there — that should be everyone’s mission.
The trends of young somms and natural wines…
I taste a lot of wine for a living. You need that knowledge, I don’t care who you are. This is where millennials could get in trouble. They love drinking craft. Craft wine. Craft beer. Craft coffee. Craft everything. They want the craft, but they don’t like doing the craft meaning there are a lot of young Sommeliers that don’t even have 5 years in the business and somehow get a wine job. You gotta do the work to know what you’re talking about.
First of all you gotta study. You have to be a good enough of a taster to understand the wines that when a guest communicates a flavor profile you can connect the dots. Know the difference if the wine is flawed or not. We get in so much trouble right now with the natural wine movement. So many young people just love the stories. But they’re not tasting the wine blind. Is this really that good or are we just romancing the flaws?
Young natural wine people don’t even know if the vintage is good or not. They love the cute story. If you looked at it like a depth chart. They don’t want to do the work to ask the hard questions… Is it worth $45 wholesale or is it worth $22 wholesale? I don’t care how romantic of a story this is or how many of my friends post this on Instagram, I am not putting it on my list. It takes a lot of work and a lot of discipline to be that good.
I’ve worked too hard in my career to drink fucked up wine. I want to drink great stuff no matter what it is.
I don’t drink a movement. I drink wine.
