Paradise on Wine
By Sandra Firmin
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A self-professed novice with grander ambitions, I secretly hope that each time I visit Premier, Paradise will be there, too. Spearheading customer service, her primary responsibility is educating the community about wine. She researches the wine reviews from professional trade publications that can be found throughout the store and writes many of the captivating descriptions of grapes and the land and climate in which they are grown, which the French call terroir. Most importantly, she gives judicious advice on wine and food pairings. She answers routine questions like, “I am having a turkey dinner tonight. What would you recommend?” with apparent ease due to years of training and a quasi-religious belief in the function of wine in relation to food.
I decide to try her out.
Veal scallops with a cream-based mushroom and rosemary sauce?
“Something deep and silky like an aged Bordeaux or an older red Burgundy [Pinot Noir]. Pinot would be a subtle companion swirling its plums and mushroom notes with the taste of the food, while the Bordeaux, which is savory and strong, functions more like a platform underlying and lifting the flavors of the food.”
Oysters?
“Champagne! Oysters—delicate flavors, briny, sometimes sweet, cold—will find the same high breeding with Champagne—lees-y, biscuit, rose, red berry, limey, apples—all sorts of Champagne. Which one do you choose? Depends on the night—and your companion.”
Paradise’s replies reveal her background in creative writing and philosophy, which she studied as a graduate student at the University at Buffalo. Although her fifteen years of experience as a baker and manager in the food industry might have alone made her a desirable employee, she was hired specifically for her background in language and critical analysis, which, like a good wine, gives structure to her judgements.
Over the five and half years that she has worked in wine retail, Paradise has developed a devoted following. She began by selecting wine for poets and former professors who came in weekly to discuss food, eating, and drink, connecting, for instance, with the late Robert Creeley over their mutual appreciation for Sauvignon Blanc. She has since become the go-to wine lady for all sorts of personalities. It is her mission to discern what a customer wants and suggest the best wine for the best price.
People value learning about the lives of the people who make and grow the items that comfort and nourish, countering the arguably depersonalizing effects of mass production and consumption. Wine is an ideal product to develop intimate, one-on-one relationships with vintners, and Paradise has had the enviable opportunity to visit many small-production Old and New World wineries. “In Burgundy, 2003,” Paradise reminisces, “Georges Chicotot and his wife treated us to a 1953 Pinot Noir that was luminescent—bright cranberry with a yellow orange rim. It had traveled a total of fifty feet in its lifetime from his cellar to the dining room table where we all sat munching on fresh baked profiteroles.”
One late summer evening, I dined with Paradise to discuss her views on wine and customer relations, drowning in a modernist chair that accommodated Paradise’s long, slender frame perfectly. Laid out on the table were thinly sliced melon, distinctively flat and oily Spanish almonds, and rye bread—a vehicle for a seductively melting goat cheese swirling with veins of mold and a firm pale yellow Italian Taleggio. Over a glass of Cabernet Franc, Paula elaborated on her philosophy of food and wine in her jocular, easy-going way.
Her advice to would-be wine connoisseurs begins with an admonition not to overwhelm the food with the wine or vice versa, and when in doubt select wine from the region that the food comes from. Good acidity is crucial. She reminds me that in France, Italy, and Spain, places where families still have vines in their backyards, wines tend to have exceptional acidity. There, wine is part of the dinner table, a digestive that helps people eat and talk longer. It should never be used to wash food down, but to mingle with the lingering tastes and cleanse the palate between bites. She actually prefers wines with alcohol content lower than thirteen percent. Just an additional one to two percent can overpower food and have surprising physiological effects. And lastly, in an overwhelmingly male-dominated profession with aggressive opinions, it is vital to trust one’s own palate. This advice from her mentor was a gift that she generously passes onto her customers.
Sandra Firmin is exhibitions curator at the University at Buffalo Art Gallery.
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