The Upstate’s Wine Guru

Richard Peck, Wine and Beverage Director for the Table 301 Restaurant Group, has the distinction of representing the only restaurant in South Carolina’s upstate region to garner a 2011 Wine Spectator magazine’s “Best of Award of Excellence” accolade. This is the second highest award given by Wine Spectator for restaurant wine service. It is presented annually, and in 2011 only three restaurants in South Carolina were selected for a Best of Award of Excellence. No restaurants in South Carolina received the magazine’s highest honor, the “Grand Award.”

I recently had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Peck, who has been a wine enthusiast for the better part of four decades.

DRP Mr. Peck, what was your first introduction to wine?

RP) For whatever reason, my fascination with wine began as a teen. Perhaps it seemed interesting and “sophisticated,” when I was a kid from a small town in a state better known for Bourbon and tobacco. Regardless, when I graduated from university, a friend and I each bought copies of Frank Schoonmaker’s Encyclopedia of Wine. We started tasting from A to Z. My interest continued over the next three decades of my career, which was in publishing and technology, before I became a wine professional. Thankfully, during those years of avocational passion for wine, I had the opportunity to travel internationally on business, and always made sure to add a visit to whatever region/appellation was nearby. Self-study and travel were my first instructors.

DRP) How long have you been the Wine Director at Soby’s?

RP) I began as Sommelier and wine buyer at Restaurant O in 2005 — one of the other restaurants in the Table 301 restaurant group that includes Soby’s. My current role is Wine & Beverage Director for all of Table 301, including Soby’s, Devereaux’s, The Lazy Goat, and Nose Dive (our new gastropub, where we’ve also introduced wine on tap).

DRP) What wine-related qualifications/certificates/accolades do you have?

RP) I am a CWE (Certified Wine Educator) in The Society of Wine Educators. This is the highest certification in the Society, and requires passing a knowledge examination — both objective and essay exams — along with blind tastings to do varietal identification (8 wines) and wine faults tasting (7 faults, as well as identifying the unflawed control wine). The CWE also requires an assessment of the candidate’s teaching abilities.

I am also a Certified Sommelier, Court of Master Sommeliers, which requires passing a knowledge exam, along with satisfactory performance in a blind tasting, and a real-time evaluation during which the candidate actually serves a Master Sommelier — demonstrating the ability to provide gracious service (opening sparkling or decanting an old wine), while answering questions about food pairings, cocktails and spirits, and more.

DRP) What is your fondest vinous memory?

RP) Such a different question! Hard to pick one, but generally speaking it would be the point at which I realized that place equals taste. Wine in itself is fascinating, and fermentation science would be sufficient for a lifetime’s study and practice. But the realization thatterroir matters — that wine is “a conversation with the earth,” as Matt Kramer wrote in Making Sense of Wine (1989) — was the epiphany that makes wine worth serious attention.

That said, one of my earliest vinous memories is a 1961 Château Beychevelle, which was extraordinary! I paid, perhaps, $15 for the bottle in the early 1970s. In more recent years, Yves Cuilleron’s Côte-Rôtie ”Bassenon” has become a favorite for its elegance and intelligence. Although I love Burgundy, most of us (short of Clive Coates) find ourselves humbled by that appellation, and should. But if I am permitted one Pinot Noir about which I can speak with some knowledge, having worked at the winery, the 2001 Chateau St. Jean Sonoma County Pinot Noir was pure pleasure — classic Pinot nose, and gorgeous color, made with balance and grace prior to today’s trend toward overly extracted, overly alcoholic New World Pinots. I have one bottle left from a case I purchased in the early 2000s. My wife and I both like it so well, I can’t open it without her permission.

DRP) If you could drink any one bottle of wine right now, what would you choose and why?

RP) Right now? I’m desperately warm, as a result of our unseasonable South Carolina “winter,” and so am enjoying a bottle Claude Riffault’s lovely “Les Boucauds” Sancerre — a favorite appellation of mine, for its sense of place.

DRP) What are the relative strengths of the Soby’s wine selection?

RP) Soby’s cellar features almost 600 selections and has received nine successive Wine Spectator ”Best of Awards of Excellence,” with five “Awards of Excellence” prior to that. We feature both breadth (Old and New World), and depth (verticals and large formats). In our market, California Cabernet Sauvignons are highly prized. We offer a wide range, with local favorites including Silver Oak, Caymus, Shafer “Hillside Select,” Harlan, and even Screaming Eagle, when available. One of our wonderful young sommeliers, Kevin Born, is now responsible for the Soby’s cellar, while I’m responsible for Table 301′s overall beverage program.

DRP) What are the weaknesses?

RP) Perhaps every adventurous sommelier will tell you that the weakness of his or her cellar is the inability to show an even greater range of interesting varietals. While a good somm does everything possible to inspire and educate his/her market, the reality is that perishability (white varietals and rosés that need to be enjoyed young), inventory management, and slowly changing preferences prevent offering everything we’d like — particularly in markets with fairly traditional tastes.

DRP) What new direction would you like to see the wine selection at Soby’s take?

RP) We’re taking a number of new directions that are exciting. With respect to selection, we have launched a systematic program of investment that will result, we hope, in earning Wine Spectator‘s Grand Award in 60 months. This honor, of course, depends on the judges’ evaluation not only of the cellar, but of our service standards, wine education program, and more. It’s presumptuous to say we can simply make a plan and achieve that honor. But we are approaching the task seriously and with the humility that one hopes will result in a good outcome. At minimum, our guests will certainly enjoy an even more stellar collection of wines.

We also have introduced iPad wine lists at Soby’s, using Incentient’s SmartCellar application. While printed wine lists are still available for guests who prefer that format, the iPads offer the opportunity for guests to “drill down” where they are interested. For example, someone might select “Wine,” followed by “Bottles” (as opposed to “By the Glass”), followed by “Red,” then by “Varietal.” At that point, if some varietals an unfamiliar, another click will take the guest to wines featuring that varietal. There, the guest can read about the varietal itself, see a map showing where it is grown, and read tasting notes for the wines in which it is used. We’ve found, since introducing the iPads, that guests are ordering a greater range of varietals — some which might have remained untasted in the past — and are also seeking out our verticals and large formats.

Finally, although the following new direction has not yet been implemented at Soby’s, Table 301 (our corporate restaurant group) has introduced wines on tap at our gastropub, Nose Dive, and expects to roll-out this option in our other restaurants as more wineries package wine in kegs. The distribution system is lagging behind guest acceptance, if our experience is typical. Thankfully, a number of wineries are willing to keg, if asked, and the infrastructure to provide more selection (particularly through the expanding efforts of Silvertap Wines in San Francisco and Sonoma County) is developing.