TalkTime: The Mistress of Wine
INTRODUCING OUR NEWEST COLUMN:
SHORT Q&A WITH INTERESTING PEOPLE!
Indian-American Alpana Singh might not be a household name, but in the wine industry she is a phenomenon. Passing the master sommelier craft exam at 26, she was the youngest ever to clear one of the world’s most challenging competitions. Now a master sommelier and Chicago restaurateur, Singh proves that the path to success need not be a traditional one.
Your parents owned an ethnic store when you
were a kid. How has that influenced your path?
My parents are from the Fiji Islands and immigrated
to Monterey in the seventies. I was brought up
in a traditional Hindu home and then when I was
around eleven, my parents opened an Indian grocery
store. Because I was required to work at the store,
I couldn't do fun things like hang out with friends
or participate in school activities. I've always had a
tremendous amount of responsibility heaped on
me at a very early age. That is great for work, but I
have a very difficult time relaxing. We romanticize
work ethic, oftentimes it comes at a personal cost.
So how did you get from there to the wine industry?
Was that a natural progression of some sort?
I worked in a Monterey restaurant and wine
shop and always enjoyed history and science and
geography so learning about wines was a natural
fit. That's when I decided I could either go to college
and get myself into a lot of debt or pursue the master
sommelier exam. I have seen financial
insecurity up close as a child and decided to
take a different path that did not involve
traditional education. I threw myself into
the exam because I didn't have a safety net.
At age twenty-three, I moved 2,000 miles
away from my family, to Chicago to work
at a fine dining restaurant, Everest. It's
been fifteen years since I made that
decision and I've never regretted it.
And now you have two popular
restaurants in Chicago…
I passed the master sommelier
exam but still I felt like something was
missing, and then I started doing a PBS television
show, Check, Please! covering fine dining
in Chicago, but still emotionally I was
floundering. So I threw caution to the wind
and started my own business, The Boarding
House. That was three years ago and now I have
Seven Lions as well.
That's awesome to see you go for what you wanted.
It seems like it was as much about the journey as
the destination…
It’s a sensibility of Hinduism to say that every
action has a reaction. There's a purpose to our being
here. In our culture it’s very common for us to live
based on somebody else's prescription for us. There
really is no shame in following your path.
You were the youngest woman to pass the master
sommelier exam. It was a huge deal. Can you explain
how big a deal that really is?
There are about 230 people around the world
that have ever been able to pass the exam in its
40-year history. The exam has a 3 percent pass rate;
it's known as the most difficult in the world to pass.
One of the parts is that you have six wines in front
of you and 25 minutes to figure out the grape variety,
the country of origin, sometimes specifically to the
town, and the year that the wine was made.
You use pop culture references to explain wines.
Can you give an example?
Take a Cabernet; that's a classic, a stalwart. I
would call it the Amitabh Bachchan of wines. It’s
suave and debonair. A Cab is like Amitabh Bachchan
in a turtleneck. Pinot Noir is more fragrant and has
feminine guiles, so insert a femme fatale from Bollywood
movies here.
Have you visited India's wine regions?
No, I have had Sula Wines from Nashik [about
112 miles from Mumbai] but that's about it.
What did you think?
It was fine, but I'm not ready to say that it's
really ready to dethrone some other standard fare. I
applaud effort. Anybody who has the gumption to do
that, you have to support it, you really do.
What would you say is a wine that goes well with
Indian food?
I would recommend a fruity Prosecco because
it's sweet and has bubbles. In Indian food, the spices
linger in the oil and so you need something to refresh
your palate and get rid of all the oil. Unfortunately
Cabernet, the Amitabh Bachchan of wines, doesn’t
work with Indian food.
What do your parents think now about your
success and path over the years?
They love it. You know the first people that
watched me, my parents and my aunts, I would say
that they were genuinely surprised. Myself included.
I could never have pictured any of this and feel
like I've only just begun.
Poornima Apte is a Boston-area freelance writer and editor. Learn more at WordCumulus.WordPress.com.
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