Page 9 - Code de Vino, # 16/22, s/s 2018
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9 Wine Club Code de Vino #16
— Vahe, are you aware of your new position? bodegas, buy 1.5 liters of wine for five hundred lira... You
know, friends, a guitar, some wine... Every day, every day...
— Yes, they’ve told me I’m wine president of Armenia now. Then I went to America, started working in different
restaurants, and attended a restaurant college. Both at
work and during my free time I was drinking different wines.
— What a great opportunity to meet a president without
all the formalities! How did you come into wine, and
what is your source of inspiration? — What were you working as?
— My first really good wine was a Chianti. It was so different — I was a waiter and bartender.
from all the wine I had tried before it in Italy, and even ever,
for that matter! I was 19 back then, and I remember my first
sip: “wow, this is an awesome wine!” — Like a true president.
— In college, I started as a waiter, and in 1985, I opened
— Do you remember its name? my own restaurant.
— It was a wine my friend’s grandma made in Italy. She
was making Chianti, and we were drinking almost a liter — Yes, this is the path of a real president! All jokes
every day. It is such a vivid memory of Italy for me. Then I aside, this title wasn’t given to you on a whim... you
moved to California. made it all this way on your own.
— Exactly, I didn’t inherit it or anything. I’m a proletarian
— So it was in Italy where you had your first revelation. president! (Laughs.) The restaurant was in Berkeley,
What region were you in? California. It was very Mediterranean: wines from Tuscany,
Italian, French, and Spanish cuisine... it turned out to be
— I was in Gela, Sicily. We used to drive around the one of the most popular restaurants in California.