Q: How did you become interested in wine?
I sort of stumbled upon it. I've been a competitive figure skater my entire life and been following my coaches around the country in search of a better training environment. The last place that we settled was in Montclair New Jersey, which is a bedroom community for the city, which means it is choc full of great restaurants and boutiques. One of which was a very cool wine shop. I had always loved to cook and thought that learning about wine was the next logical progression. So, just for fun, I got a job at this boutique and it was love as first swish!
I found that I had a very sharp palette and a proclivity for identifying the aromas in the wine. I loved the people, loved the industry and knew this was something I wanted to be involved in. So I enrolled in school to become a sommelier and hit the ground running.
Q: What was the first great wine you remember having?
A great wine is like a sensory snapshot! When you find one that really resonates with your palette it sort of reverberates through every sinew in your body and leaves a very lasting impression.
I can remember taking a bottle of Tensley Colson Canyon Syrah out to East Hampton with my family and buying a loaf of bread and a wedge of chevre at the perennially delicious Loaves and Fishes and tucking into all of it atop a rickety picnic table on the side of the building. The summer season hadn't started yet and the air was heavy with the smell verdant leaves and fruit tree blossoms.
And even now, when I sip the Colson Canyon I can recall that exact smell, almost like stepping back to that precise moment.
Q: Do you have a favorite wine, or is it constantly changing.
My taste in wine is always changing, sort of like a mood ring. Kind of like my taste in music. One day its Coltrane, the next, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. One day its pinot noir, the next its Cabernet sauvignon.
Q: What's your favorite wine-food pairing?
Cheese is always a great option, but I have a sweet tooth, and dangerously close proximity to the Sayville Chocolatier. I think its pretty hard to beat a mixed bag of treats and just playing around with flavor combinations.
Q: Your boutique is well thought out for such a small space. Did you
design it?
Yes, the shop is my baby! And while waiting for my wine license approval I had a lot of time to plan out every inch. I had a very clear idea of how I wanted the shop to look, sort of apothecary meets East End London, meets tea party!
Q: What did you do before opening up, Down the Rabbit Hole?
Oh the preparations for opening up my own business seemed endless. Incorporation, liquor license, and renovation, for every project completed, a new one would spring up. And my space is less than 100 sq ft!!
Q: Tell us about your logo. It's very original. Who designed it?
I designed it. I wanted something that was elegant and undeniably Alice in wonderland identifiable, but I didn't want it to be cartoonist or otherwise cutesy. So I took my inspiration from Victorian silhouette portraiture. I thought it looked elegant, and slightly more provocative than a drawing.
Q: Did you create the paintings in your boutique as well?
Yes. I have my wines divided by taste sensation as opposed to by region or by grape and I thought it would be sort of fun and cheeky to have character from Alice in wonderland portray each sensation. So I have the white Rabbit holding a big juicy strawberry in the fruity column, the Cheshire cat bedecked in shimmering jewels for the sparkling column and other characters that…
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