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Interview with Matthew Citriglia, MSBy E. S. Brown on 4.25.2006 |
Matthew Cirtriglia is one of only 150 people in the world to hold the prestigious title of Master Sommelier. On April 3, 2006 I had a chance to sit down with him and discuss the world of wine. The topics ranged far and wide, from service to satisfaction and from taste to the future of wine. In the end it was just two guys in the wine industry talking shop, one wine geek to another. What follows is part one of that conversation.
On his start in the wine business:
EB You mentioned that you originally went to college for electrical engineering, but I also read that you first worked in a wine shop at age 14. Was that a family shop?
MC: Yes. I come from a family of very humble beginnings. My Mom laughs that I am one of the foremost authorities on wine and food. We always had plenty of food, and wine was always a part of the dinner table. But my first fine dining experience didn’t happen until I was 21 years old. I was invited to a dinner at this nice restaurant. I didn’t have a jacket on. I just walked in with my jeans. Fortunately the Maitre d’ at the restaurant made me feel very good. He pulled me aside and gave me a jacket. When I sat down at the table there were five forks and all this silverware. I had no idea. I was so incredibly uncomfortable. But it was actually one of my best experiences, because the server knew that I was uncomfortable, and helped me through the process without making me feel stupid. She was very good, and she really took care of me, made me feel good about being in this group of very experienced wine and food people. Here I was 21 years old, first time seeing any of this, and she really made the experience for me.
When I was 13 I worked in my dad’s gas station beverage store. We had about 400 square feet for the wine, and an old bay that had been used for fixing cars which at the time was completely packed with soda pop, and a huge walk in cooler that was jam-packed with beer. I would be outside pumping gas, and then I would come in and ring up the beer and wine. I did this all through high school and college as well. I was surrounded by wine and I became fascinated by it while watching the wine reps come in and taste with my dad. They would pour from these brown paper bags, and my dad would try to guess the varietals and wines. By the time I was 17 I was starting to take an interest in it, but I still didn’t understand what I was surrounded by. Looking back on it today I was surrounded by Lafite, by Grand Cru Burgundy, by estate Rieslings.
EB: I don’t know of anyone else who probably had greasy fingers from checking the oil while selling Grand Cru Burgundies or 1st Growths.
MC: When I was going to college that’s when I started reading about wine and really taking an interest in wine. When I was in my last semester for my electrical engineering degree my dad became sick with cancer. I dropped out of college to run the family shop. I could have just let the managing partner take over and return to college, but several of the wine sales people at the time pulled me aside and told me that I should think about staying in the industry.
EB: They could tell already that you took a keen interest and that you were pretty sharp with the different regions and areas? Obviously you must have had a pretty good palate even then for the sales people to say that.
MC: Well yeah, though I wasn’t allowed (old enough) to drink any of it. The nice thing about my Dad was that wine wasn’t a forbidden fruit. It was just part of what we did. I would come in and taste wine with the sales people at just 18 years old.
EB: A lot of people talk about having a wine epiphany, was there one specific point at which you said to yourself “This is what I want to do?”
MC: When we had our wine shop I realized that I didn’t want to be an electrical engineer. One of my dearest friends Larry O’Brien, who is also a master sommelier, had just finished taking the advanced test. We started talking about the Master Sommelier program. The following year I went out and took the advanced test and I was just blown away. Here were 24 other like-minded individuals who were just as geeky as I was, just as dedicated to the profession as I was, that I could actually talk with and have a conversation about wine at a level that I had never been able to before with anybody. They were all there to take this exam, and I was hooked immediately. And then I took the exam and I was incredibly humbled at how much I didn’t know. I suddenly saw how much there was out there. From there it was a matter of seeing where the bar was and asking myself “Ok, now how do I get to that bar?”
On the Court of Master Sommeliers:
EB: To what do you attribute the raise in popularity of the Court of Master Sommeliers and the desire for more individuals to try and achieve the different levels of certification?
MC: The Court has created and developed something that is very much sought after. There are a variety of other certifications out there: The MW, the Society of Wine Educators, even other sommelier societies out there. All of these are very good programs. None of them have been able to cultivate a group of people that want to go through their program the way that the Master Sommelier program has. This has nothing to do with the level of difficulty. It has to do with our communication skills. People think that the MS program is cool because our Masters are accessible. People call me all the time. I pick up the phone and return phone calls. We all do. We want people involved in the program. We want people to pass the exams. If we have 500 masters or 800 masters next year, the more the better. It’s really about the pursuit of excellence. Those that have passed understand that you never achieve excellence, you can only pursue it. If you continually pursue being better than you were the day before you will eventually become a Master Sommelier.
EB: So it’s still an ongoing process for you?
MC: I understand the world of wine better today than when I passed in 2002. I couldn’t believe that I passed because I would talk to the masters and think that I was still nowhere near their level. And today I understand that the reason that I passed was that I understood what it meant to pursue excellence. All that have passed, we don’t stop learning.
In the last 5 years since I became a master in 2002 there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of masters who have passed the exam. These new masters have been excited about the possibility of getting involved in the process, in giving back to the community. People go through the exam and think that after passing the exam there is this big fat pay raise and all this fame and fortune that comes along with it. That’s not what happens.
EB: That’s too bad because that’s what I’ve been telling my girlfriend.
MC: Your life is exactly the same that it was. It’s like getting a PhD. OK, you have a PhD. Now what? The Masters that I believe are the happiest are those that have realized that they need to give back everything that they got out of the Court. I realized the next day that I needed to give back. To educate, to help with the seminars, to talk with the candidates and lecture and help people with the aspects of serving and tasting and learning about wine. Many of the new Masters really understand that, and they want to be involved.
EB: You have been instrumental in adding the new Certified Sommeliers Exam. Why was this necessary?
MC: We have a two year waiting list to take the Advanced portion, so we have created a mid-level exam to help alleviate some of the wait time. For some people the Advanced course is just too much, it’s just too much. So we created something in-between so that people could have the title of Certified Sommelier. It’s not as difficult as the Advanced but it certainly tests your ability to service, to talk and serve and communicate what it is that you have in your mind while tableside.
On Serving:
MC: Many restaurateurs hire servers like cattle. They give the server the bare amount of information, and never give that server a sense of career option, that you can make a great living doing this. If the owner of the restaurant has that attitude, why should the attitude of the server be any different? A lot of times it is just a matter of the upper management changing that attitude and giving the impression that this is an honorable profession. Once the owners take it serious, the servers will take it seriously, and the service will improve.
I don’t think any one person gets out of high school and says “I want to be a server for the rest of my life.” Some people get satisfaction from building houses, some people get satisfaction out of piloting a plane. Then there are people like myself who get satisfaction out of taking care of other customers, out of making them feel good during dinner. Helping them enjoy things that they may never have tried before. That’s what gives us a thrill.
Check out Part 2 of our interview with Matthew Citriglia
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