Selecting Wines

Video Transcript

"I'm here with Mr. Tino Fazio, owner of Fazio's Ristorante in Oshawa. And we're here in his marvelous, marvelous wine cellar. Tino how many wines do you have here? Right now, honestly, we have about 13,000. 13,000 bottles? More or less. 13, 500. No less than 13,000. Wow you've been as high as 14 or 15, weren't you? In 1989, 1991, 92, 93, 94, I had from 20,000. You remember that? From 20,000 to 24,000. Ok now tell me, how do you go and pick your wines for your cellar and for your customers? Now I know you go to Italy quite often. Something I did like right now; I went to Sicily to Fazio Winery. Something about there is I really like the wine there. I really do like it. I like the operation they do. The operation is very clean, very organized, nice personal deal when you go there. So you go to wineries to select your wine, and you go to trade shows? When I go to the wineries, if I see the wine is good, I take it. Well sommelier has, you cannot sell what you like usually, you cannot choose what you like. You have to think about the joy of the customers you have. So sommeliers are a person that is taking an average, so I'll teach them more ways to go to try to find, in a line of wines, to find a classical wine, which is going to be his line of conduct. Then he is going to choose on the right and the left. My desire is to run a restaurant that moves product, so I'm really taking a key from my clienthle. We're blessed with having a very regular clienthle base, and what they're into is what I'm looking to purchase. As wonderful as the wine may be, if I don't sell it, it doesn't really help me at all. It may look lovely on the shelf, but that's not a very practical way of purchasing. Movement of wine in the last little while seems to be heading back towards more old world styles. More spicy and earthy notes. We've moved away from these big fruit bombs that were sort of the passion for quite a number of years and introduction to a number of regions that are not the standard or not the recognizable "biggies". With the Chileans and the Argentineans and some of the Austrian wines, I actually purchased some lovely wines out of Israel recently. It's all about price point. It's what you purchase and your expectation based on that and what you're looking to match it up. Personally I drink anything that's well made, because I find matches for it across the board. I may have my particular desires, or my particular favorites, but truthfully if it's well-crafted product, I'm pretty much a happy camper to have some glasses."