Wine has a rabidly devoted, dare I say, Jonas Brothers quality to its fanbase. I suppose in part because of the mystique and romance in the ritual that takes place between the first shoot and first sip, and in part because people are just passionately insistent on getting drunk.
Recently I met up at Intelligentsia Coffee with Ryan O’Connor, Beverage Specialist at Whole Foods Lakeview, to talk a little shop, drink some of the best coffee in Chicago, and get under the hood of how exciting wine is able to find it’s way onto their shelves for you to buy.
Whole Foods probably isn’t most people’s first choice when it comes to finding great wine, it certainly wasn’t on my radar until recently. But if you’re ever able to drop by, I think you’ll really be surprised at the selection, and of course the help you’ll find.
I ordered a single origin espresso when I arrived, Ryan was already finishing up some tea and perusing a book of Percy Shelly poetry by the time I got there. The Clash were playing on shuffle on an iPod streaming through the sound system. Somehow between chats over local restaurants, cycling in South America, Frederic Bochet, vegetarianism, and whatever rabbit trails popped up along the way, we found time to talk a little vino.
Your first clue on this cat’s passion for wine is how he describes his job,
“I feel like I’m curating a collection.” Ryan says. “I want to find something that blows my mind, something I know that you’ll be like, ‘Fuck, yeah!’”
It’s a balance, he admits, between maintaining a bottom line (i.e. stocking things people want to buy) but also be able to carry wines that are fun and entertaining.
“I’ve got an eighty-dollar Cote de Nuits, you know, just crickets.” He says to to emphasize. “But sometimes it isn’t about price. I had this killer wine from Southern France, Le Clos, and at $7 it just didn’t move. I have no clue why”
Wine buying is a pretty fickle subject. But Ryan defintely has a passion for helping people find exactly what their looking for, and then broadening their horizons.
“I know someone’s not going to walk into the store tomorrow and ask for a domestic Arneis.” He says, cracking us both up with a little nerdy laughter. “But if I can talk to someone, find out what they do like, I can suggest something they never would have tried before.”
“Sometimes I have ten minute conversations with people telling me about wines they bought from me months ago,” he says with relish. “That’s what I live for.”
Ryan doesn’t actually drink, but he loves to taste wine. He’s all about scents, espcially. The first time I met him he was singing praises of a Saumur Cab Franc rose, which was the last thing I expected to be directed to at a grocery store. And he’s constantly on the lookout for something new and exciting.
“My goal is to find a refined Pinotage next week.”
Which, again, was pretty much the last thing I would have expected someone to say! Call him the Indiana Jones of wine, this cat’s working for you.
We ended the night with a little stroll down the street to Pastoral, a wine, bread and cheese shop for a little olive tasting, and to pick up a gourmet sandwich for the road.
What you can really say best about Ryan is that he is a searcher, constantly on the lookout for the best in everything. It’s great people like this that make the wine world such a great place to be in and explore. I think the Gaucho is a fitting title, and I highly suggest that next time you’re looking for wine in Lakeview, drop by and say hello. You won’t be disappointed.
