That’s Why the Lady is a Sommelier

Bruce Schoenfeld in Tucson

What does a restaurant look like that’s owned and operated, in part, by a Master Sommelier? In the case of Tucson’s two-month-old VinTabla, created by Laura Williamson, MS Class of 2005, along with her venture-capitalist husband Kinney Johnson and executive chef Bruce Yim, it has inlaid cork on the floor in the bar and a retail shop in the foyer selling wines arranged by descriptors instead of geography.

It also has 130 different wines from around the world, many of them from wonderfully obscure wine regions or grape varieties, served by the glass and also the two-ounce tasting pour. “What’s fun about my list is, people come and say ‘I don’t recognize anything, so I need your help,’” Williamson says. “It’s not a huge commitment to try a two-ounce taste.”

As one of only two Master Sommeliers in Arizona (and one of only 13 female Master Sommeliers in all of North America), Williamson is marketable. And these days, so is wine. Williamson, who has worked as waitress, sommelier or wine director for a dozen restaurants from Little Rock to Maui, sees MS-affiliated eateries as a trend. “As people achieve the accomplishment they realize, ‘The universe of wine is my oyster. I can do whatever I want,’” she says. “They like the synergy of food and wine, and a restaurant is the best place to get that.”

But while Master Sommelier Bobby Stuckey brought his bona fides (and his sous chef) from Napa’s French Laundry, where he used to run the wine program, to Boulder, Colorado, to create Frasca, the city’s most ambitious and accomplished restaurant, Williamson is thinking accessible, unintimidating, and small – as in those small pours, and equally small bites. Her restaurant, open for lunch and dinner every day, serves tapas-style and Asian-influenced appetizer plates, along with a handful of entrees. It has live music and a thriving bar scene. And if the 37-year-old Williamson isn’t trotting around the world to MS events or sourcing wine for the Small Vineyards import company, she’ll greet you at the door. “When they meet me for the first time, they don’t expect me to be young and gregarious,” she says. “They expect me to matronly and boring.”

At my visit this week, the small plates were terrific. Air-dried beef with grainy mustard, a fist-sized lobster roll, snapper ceviche, and crab dumplings all paired well with Williamson’s impressive collection of food-friendly wines. And the wines, priced from $2 to $9 for a pour, kept coming. During my first hour at VinTabla, I drank Gruner Veltliner, South African Chardonnay, Puligny-Montrachet, Riesling, Slovenian Sauvignon Blanc and Tocai Friulano. And those were just the whites. “I can get people to have three different small-plate courses, and have three different tastes with each course,” Williamson says. “We do flights, but personalized for each diner, based on what he or she has ordered on each night.”

The restaurant is still working out its kinks. Large plates, such as Peking Duck and a whole, fried snapper, are presented without serving implements, and guests are left to fend for themselves. Service can be uneven. But Tucson, not the most daring community in culinary terms, is catching on to the wine-centric concept. The night I was there, every table in the restaurant was drinking wine. Williamson reports that a third of all diners even order wine there at lunch.

In all, fully half of the restaurant’s gross income comes from wine, which is an incredible achievement for a place without any trophy bottles on the list. In other words, the money doesn’t come from millionaire businessmen spending $10,000 on Chateau Petrus or bottle after bottle of Silver Oak to celebrate successful deals, but from a wide range of diners, young and old, drinking everyday grapes such as Barbera and Sauvignon Blanc to accompany their food, one meal after the next. If that’s what a restaurant run by a Master Sommelier looks like, let’s have plenty more.

 

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