BevMo’s longtime cellar master just might have the best job in the wine world.
Wilfred Wong is paid to travel the globe, visit the world’s premiere wine regions, and taste an unfathomable number of fine wines; he tastes and evaluates at least 8,000 wines every year, plus beer and spirits.
It’s his task to stay current on wines, assess them, and search out new up-and-coming wineries.
Wong recently took a few moments out of his busy schedule to talk with me about the new BevMo! store opening in Santa Maria on Friday, Nov. 16.
He had just returned from an Australian wine-judging trip, and the lifelong San Francisco Giants fan was on his way out the door with tickets to the World Series that night.
We chatted about his famous scoring method, how he keeps track of so many beverages, and his favorite Central Coast wines.
“I love the area,” Wong said of Santa Barbara County. “The Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays from that area are actually some of my favorite wines in the U.S.A.”
Some of his longtime local favorites include Sanford, Zaca Mesa, and Cambria wines. Wong is also a fan of the elegant reds coming out of the Santa Rita Hills east of Lompoc.
“Sta. Rita Hills is fascinating. The Pinot Noirs from that area are wild and flavorful. I think there’s a lot of personality in those wines—they are coming on strong,” Wong said.
From San Luis Obispo County, Wong singles out the north county for being “just a fantastic area for Zinfandel.”
“Paso Robles is near and dear to my heart. I love the Zins,” Wong said. “I like Peachy Canyon—it’s a really good winery. I like Tobin James as well.”
According to Wong, the Santa Maria location will have more Santa Barbara County wines than other BevMo! stores.
“All of our stores that are in very high-end, high-quality wine regions like Santa Barbara County will have a higher representation of wines from the area,” Wong said. “We intend to be a strong neighborhood supporter of the vintners in the area.”
While Wong likes to promote local wines, he points out that “to understand wine, one has to know the whole history of wines throughout the world—how the grape behaves.”
So, for a full understanding, Wong travels a lot. Every year he goes to France, Argentina, and Chile. He also visits wine regions in Italy and Germany.
“My favorite area that’s really hot right now is Argentina, near Mendoza, which is a big district with lots of wine,” Wong said.
Mendoza is emerging as a leader in producing Malbec, a reasonably priced red wine.
Wong just returned from Australia where he was one of 12 international judges at the 2013 Sydney International Wine Competition, where he and the panel did a blind tasting of 600 wines.
“Every wine brings a new flavor. Every time you taste a wine you have to let the wine tell you what it’s about,” Wong said. “You can’t go in preconceiving certain flavors in a wine.”
I asked him if he’s a supertaster, or if it’s years of swirling, sniffing, and sipping thousands of wines that make him such a knowledgeable wine expert and judge. It’s likely a combination of the two.
“I think I have a really good palate. I know my palate is trained. And the experience of tasting as many wines as I do a year and on a basis that doesn’t stop, keeps me in tune to all the wine regions of the world—and it also keeps me very experienced and grounded,” Wong said. “So, it’s a combination of innate skill, experience, and also being focused on the important wines that one has to taste.”
Wong calls himself an “extreme researcher,” recording wines very carefully. When he tastes wine, he inputs his notes on his iPad, e-mails them back to the BevMo! team, then drops all his notes into his spreadsheet.
BevMo! customers benefit from Wong’s exhaustive research. Wong developed a 100-point scale, even before he came to work at BevMo! in 1995. Description cards are attached to the displays of almost every beverage in stock, and some scorecards include Wong’s initials, “WW.” His stamp of approval weighs heavily for many guidance-seeking shoppers.
“I only put into print the scores of the wines I favor,” Wong explained. “If I don’t really like a wine that much, I will just give it a generic description without my name on it.”
Santa Maria’s new 10,000-square-foot BevMo! features a selection of more than 1,695 wines, 1,690 spirits, and 1,560 beers. And Wong tastes them all: “I’m a big fan of all kind of beverages. I love tequila. I like bourbon. I like my ales.”
The store also has frequent wine tastings, occasional 5-cent wine specials, online wine sales, and a wine club.
“I love working for BevMo! It is a labor of love for all of us,” Wong told me. “While it’s not rocket science, it’s genius. It’s a lot of intricate work involved in the store.”
Santa Maria’s new BevMo! is next to Trader Joe’s at 1309 South Bradley Road. Check out bevmo.com for more information and Wilfred Wong’s blog.
Sun food and wine columnist Wendy Thies Sell likes to swirl, sniff, and sip, but not necessarily in that order. Contact her at wthies@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 15-22, 2012.