Seattle is home to award-winning sommeliers

By night they stride from table to table at some of Seattle's finest restaurants, wearing suits and smiles, helping aficionados and novice drinkers alike navigate the wide world of wine.

By day, a half-dozen of the region's most accomplished young sommeliers are eyeballing flashcards of wine regions, grapes and oenological terms. Or participating in mock examinations to practice for qualification tests. Or, as on a recent misty morning, foregoing extra sleep to gather in the quiet dining room at Canlis for a weekly study group with mentors wine consultant Bob Bain and Acme Wine Co. buyer Lars Ryssdal.

At a time of day when most taste buds crave coffee or OJ, they set aside their lattes to blind-taste wines from around the globe, identifying the mystery wines solely by sight, smell, taste and memory.

"People always talk about the glamorous life of a sommelier," jokes Canlis wine steward and 2007 Best Young Sommelier in America Chris "Sven" Miller as the tartness of one sample prompts Bain to grab at his throat and grimace. "Some of the wines can be a little hard to taste in the morning."

Time was, a restaurant's sommelier, or wine steward, often was the general manager, a chef or even the hostess playing double duty to sell more house wine. Just a decade ago, barely a dozen wine stewards certified by industry groups such as the International Sommelier Guild worked in the Greater Seattle area. Now that number's nearly tripled, according to the state wine commission, and restaurants like Waterfront Seafood Grill and Wild Ginger make a point to boast how many sommeliers they have on staff (eight and seven, respectively).

All this is the natural outcome of a state ever more fascinated with food and wine, says master sommelier Shayn Bjornholm, education director for the Washington Wine Commission. Many of the state's nearly 500 wineries are winning national acclaim.

And for the past decade a core group of its sommeliers including wine directors Erik Liedholm (Seastar Restaurant and Raw Bar), Cyril Fréchier (Campagne) and Ole Thompson (Wild Ginger) has committed to making Seattle's wine lists and service as well-respected as its cuisine.

"This is such a dorky pursuit on the face of it, but tableside, it helps me serve my guests," said Thomas Price, an advanced sommelier at Seattle's Metropolitan Grill and member of the study group that meets at Canlis. "We're not doing this to be snobs."

Young talents

Stuffy and boring they are not. Many of the region's most talented sommeliers are younger than 35. More than a handful are women. And those hours — sometimes years — of studying to be the best of the best is paying off.

In the past two years, local wine stewards have out-tasted, out-served and out-tested challengers from wine hubs including the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, Denver and New York to win the coveted Best Young Sommelier in America title from food and wine society Chaîne des Rôtisseurs USA. They anticipate a possible threepeat in May.

Seattle also will send its first-ever contestant (29-year-old Miller) to Austria come October to vie against the world's best young sommeliers for the international title (2006 winner Jake Kosseff turned 33 before his chance to compete).

After free coaching and encouragement from Bjornholm and other luminaries of the local wine community, Miller, Kosseff and other local wine stewards will soon sit with the Court of Master Sommeliers for a rigorous examination of their knowledge, service and charisma that could put them at the pinnacle of their profession — if they are among the lucky few who pass and earn the title master sommelier. Washington has only two now: Bjornholm and winemaker Greg Harrington in Walla Walla. Las Vegas has 16 (including former award-winning Canlis wine and spirits director Rob Bigelow, now head of wine at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas).

"You're in that nice stage where a lot of the young talent is just discovering their abilities," said Frederick Dame, a master sommelier based in the Bay Area who manages scholarships with the Guild of Master Sommeliers, an industry group. "I think the diners in Seattle are in for a real treat."

All these titles, the result of enough practice and study outside of work to qualify as a second job, are proof the region's sommeliers are boosting their service skills, wine knowledge and business savvy to match that of colleagues in larger, more prominent markets.

And that means access to more of the world's best wines, Bjornholm says. More great wines being poured in top restaurants means a better selection at every price range as wine shops and supermarkets strive to meet the growing expectations of local wine lovers.

Seasoned mentors

In the past, a talented sommelier likely would leave Seattle in order to work as a full-time sommelier or earn incomes into the six figures. But the explosion of the local wine scene means work opportunities now extend beyond fine-dining restaurants — options that encourage talent to put down roots. You might find a sommelier holding court at a wine bar (Chris Horn of Seattle's Purple Café and Wine Bar), representing a wine importer (Fréchier, before he took the job at Campagne), working in a wine shop (Arnie Millan of Esquin Wine Merchants) or teaching at such institutions as the Northwest Wine Academy at South Seattle Community College (Canlis assistant wine director Dawn Smith).

"In a small market like [Seattle], New York or Las Vegas will usually steal them immediately. But I think they're sticking around, and the best part about it is the way they all pull together. I think that's why they've been successful," Dame said. "When you have a bunch of guys and gals pulling together like that, it tends to really raise the bar."

What's making Seattle so successful right now are mentors such as Bjornholm and others willing to help less-experienced sommeliers hurdle that bar, said Dan Gulbronsen, who coordinates the national young sommelier competition for Chaîne des Rôtisseurs USA.

With scholarships available for further study and plenty of folks willing to share the cost of wines for tasting practice, sommeliers are coming from other states and as far as New Zealand to join study groups in Seattle, expand their knowledge and land better gigs, Bjornholm said.

Back at the Canlis study group, Canlis sommelier Kevin Weeks is irritated that his guess of one mystery wine's origins is 10 miles off. And Kosseff is feeling his sleep deprivation.

Kosseff recently launched a series of extravagantly expensive dinners held at high-end restaurants, pairing multicourse meals with rare wines that run hundreds of dollars a bottle. He's simultaneously working as a wine consultant, which has meant putting his masters-exam studies on the back burner. He squints, sniffs and sips at one of six mystery wines and begins describing all he notices.

"It's ripe, ripe yellow apple. It's candied orange peel, and also tons of lime and lime zest ... there's a feeling of spun sugar on the palate." Five other wines and 25 minutes of running commentary later, he's frustrated.

Ryssdal leans in like a tenured college professor and reminds Kosseff of how far he's come and what's at stake, encouraging him to renew his commitment. "I'll be glad to help get you back to where you were."

Price, who likes to joke that he tastes 60 wines a week to save his customers the trouble, nods when told of Ryssdal's pep talk. He's been there, too.

"I couldn't have passed my exam without him," he says.

Karen Gaudette: 206-515-5618 or kgaudette@seattletimes.com