New Year’s Resolutions from 7 wine pros!
Jon McDaniel, wine director of Gage Hospitality Group in Chicago, including Best of Award of Excellence winner Acanto and Award of Excellence winners Beacon Tavern, Coda di Volpe and the Gage: My biggest resolution for 2018 is to drink more! Now, before you send me to Betty Ford, I taste possibly hundreds of wines a week for placement in our restaurants and education, but I rarely have time to drink them. I think it is so important to put yourself in the guest context to truly appreciate a wine and how to apply it. My goal is to create more time for myself to pop bottles with my friends and colleagues to appreciate wine, not just taste to consider a purchase.
My other resolution is to share my new project with the world: Second City Soil. This is a website featuring all things Chicago wine—a way to promote features of restaurants, producers, sommeliers and events that can help spread the word on the amazing wine community in Chicago!
Harley Carbery, wine director for Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and Delano Las Vegas, including Grand Award–winning restaurant Aureole Las Vegas; Best of Award of Excellence winners Fleur by Hubert Keller, RIVEA Las Vegas and Stripsteak; and Award of Excellence winner Libertine Social in Las Vegas: Definitely taste more and more wines from the far reaches of the world. So, not staying stuck on my favorites from Burgundy and Champagne, but continuously trying more and more new wines [that] maybe I haven’t tried before [and] keeping an open mind while trying them. And then, of course, enjoying as much Champagne as I can!
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