Q&A with Belinda Chang, wine director at The Modern
Belinda Chang, 34, has been a sommelier at leading restaurants in three cities including Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, Rick Tramonto’s Cenitare, and the Fifth Floor (Laurent Gras) in San Francisco where she was nominated for a James Beard award for excellence in wine service. In November last year, she started as the wine director at The Modern in New York City.
I asked her eight questions via email and discovered how she plans to change the wine list and what’s the best value wine, whether you can pair wine with art, what differentiates diners in those three cities, and find out why she has no wine in her wine cellar.
How did you get into wine?
There was this mysterious, brown, oddly shaped bottle that perpetually sat on the top shelf of my parents refrigerator. I was always really curious about it, but I never dared touch it. I realized years later that the elixir of my dreams was: Lancer’s Portugese Rose!
I never got into that particular bottle, but perhaps it was subliminally leading me to my current profession: sommelier.
I have had the honor of working for some pretty serious chefs and restaurateurs: Charlie Trotter, Laurent Gras, Rick Tramonto, and now Gabriel Kreuther and Danny Meyer, and I am more in love with my wine job than ever!
Do you plan to tweak or overhaul the wine list at The Modern?
Oh yes! The list that I inherited is strong, and has a very specific point of view focused on the heavy hitters in the classic areas of Alsace, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Napa, Sonoma, etc., with the less frequent nod to a lesser known new world producer – fitting as the chef is from Alsace, and the sommelier was from Alsace. I am going to continue the tradition of respecting the classics, and I will be expanding the collection as well. I am going to put a lot of me into it. I’m gonna make it a little more Modern (sorry, couldn’t resist). I plan to maintain the selection of classics, the beautiful Alsace collection, and better represent Spain, Italy, the Central Coast of California, Oregon, Washington, New Zealand, etc., etc., etc!
Can you pair wine with art? (If so, what goes with a Reinhart black canvas? Maybe your wine pick will actually help me figure out the artwork.)
I am really excited to explore that question as I spend more time walking the halls of the Museum while drinking wine! Well, that would limit me to white wine in plastic cups, so maybe I will wander the halls, and then I will go back into the restaurant to drink. Aside from the obvious geographical relationships, in the wine world, just as in the art world, there are particular movements, periods and styles. I am thinking a lot about old school vs new school wine producers, biodynamists, purists and minimalists, terroir-istes, and, and…
Winemaking is an art form, and it makes sense that wine could be paired with other types of art in a compelling and interesting way. More on this to follow! Ill have to see your Reinhart!
How can someone find good value on your wine list?
I am the polar opposite of the sommelier that considers the treasures in their wine cellars to be trophies to be admired, but not touched. Those sommeliers tend to price their trophies in the stratosphere in order to prevent the “unworthy” from ordering them. Really! I have heard this sentiment expressed by real people. Yuck! Wine is for drinking – whether it is a simple double digit priced bottle of Chardonnay from the Macon or a four digit priced bottle of Le Montrachet! You will find the best values, and the lowest mark-ups in the high-end wines on my lists.
If you are not on expense account or having an extravagant evening, the best strategies to get more bang for your wine buck are: avoid “Gold Coast” real estate – to use a Chicago analogy – would that be Park Ave for New York? (think Paso Robles Syrah instead of Rhone Hermitage), ignore the wine critics high scoring wines whose prices are inflated (who knows more about your taste than you?), and ask the sommelier! I always have a few gems in my secret stash that are for wowing even the most jaded palates (No, really! That Rully is only $28 a bottle! Tastes like Grand Cru – crazy, right??)
Is being a woman in the wine world today a help, a hindrance or a non-issue?
There are not as many women in positions like mine as I would like to see today. I am not sure why. I have found being a woman in the wine world to be somewhere between a help and a non-issue, depending on the day. I can drink as much as the boys, and I have been awarded the same jobs as the boys (no comment on whether or not those two facts are related).
Even though you’ve only been in NYC for a few weeks now, how would you compare restaurants in Chicago, San Francisco and New York City?
If you blindfolded me, spun me around in circles, and dropped me in a dining room in one of these three cities, I would know where I was by a guest inevitably making the following comments:
“(Insert any famous California winemaker/winery owner) is our neighbor, we would never order her wine in restaurants – it’s much too expensive, and she gives us as much as we want!)” – San Francisco.
“What is (insert name of famous celebrity dining in the restaurant) drinking over there? We’ll have a bottle!”
– New York Tourist
“Buttttt will it be okay for us to drink that if I am having the beef and she is having the salmon??”
– Chicago (and I love ya! It’s my hometown!)
What’s the most “impossible” food-wine pairing you’ve ever successfully overcome?
I would say that the toughest course to pair with is Rick Tramonto’s antipasti course. People can be eating so many diverse and delicious things in one of his Osteria: marinated olives, braised short rib crostini, tuna crudo, cauliflower with golden raisins – all on the table at the same time. It’s a sommeliers nightmare! I did find one wine that overcame the bountiful table with so many flavors – rose from the Veneto, Bardolino Chiaretto goes with everything!
What’s in your personal cellar–and where is it?
Don’t have one! Can you believe it?
Anytime my friends come to my house, the first order of business seems to be to consume every bottle of wine that I have! No matter what the bottle to friend ratio – the evening ends with a dry house!
On February 4th, 2008 at 9:44 am ,caroline palla wrote:
thanks so much for this post. next time I’m in nyc I will stop by and say hello to belinda. really good to read there are other women wine directors out there that seem totally down to earth. greetings from zÃœrich, switzerland, caroline
On February 4th, 2008 at 12:10 pm ,Mike wrote:
She seems very approachable and very honest. That is one thing that constantly discourages me, being a younger person, when i go out to a restaurant, casino, lounge, ect…
One look and they will not give you the time of day. i will make a point to visit Modern and check out the new list.
mike
On February 4th, 2008 at 1:24 pm ,Hungry Magazine - All Things Tasty wrote:
[…] sommelier Belinda Chang formerly of Trotter, Tramonto et al. dishes on her plans to overhaul the wine list at The Modern in New York. She also takes a shot at her former hometown, suggesting we’re still a bunch of Midwestern […]
On February 4th, 2008 at 10:01 pm ,Steve wrote:
I agree with Caroline – Ms. Chang seems really approachable. So often people new to wine are scared off my a sommelier. Ms. Chang seems like she would be great entry point for people – not at all intimidating and she has a very realistic view of what people are looking for when they order wine.
And, of course, I agree – who possibly could know more about your palate than you?
On February 5th, 2008 at 9:21 am ,Bernie Bearnaise wrote:
I find Belinda charming and refreshing. Her pricing philosophy makes sense. If you find a familiar bottle on a list yet it costs double to triple the amount you normally would pay for it you may retreat to an unknown wine at a lower price. Her reference to Rully shows the value of asking for a recommendation from the cellar and stating clearly how much you want to spend and what dishes you are pairing it with.
I remember a patron at the Madison Hotel in Washington, DC who ordered from the list by number. When the wine was presented he waved his hand in approval and quickly accepted the sample pour. At the end of the meal he was shocked at the price of the wine and stated there had been a mistake! He asked for the wine list again and discovered he meant to order the number below it which was about 1/5th the price. Realizing his mistake he lamented that had he known the price of the wine he was drinking he would have enjoyed it with more enthusiasm.
Sort of the reverse of the Caltech experiment.
On February 5th, 2008 at 10:20 pm ,Joe wrote:
Hi Tyler. A great initiative – I look forward to more sommelier profiles from around the world. Keep this one going.
On February 7th, 2008 at 12:30 pm ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Glad you liked this Q&A! Indeed, stop by and say hello to Belinda at The Modern.
Joe, thanks for the support. We’ll try to find some more interesting people in the wine world for you!
Bernie – too bad about the guest who ordered a more expensive bottle by mistake. I got an email from a someone who had a similar experience. He also wrote Frank Bruni who posted about it on his Diner’s Journal blog and a discussion ensued…Props to you for working in the caltech reference!