In the Wine Trade, Experience and Taste Trump Age

Sitting in an office chair at the back of University Wine Shop, between Harvard and Central Squares, Kelly A. White admitted she was an unlikely member of the “stodgy, elitist” clan of wine experts.

A recent Brandeis University graduate who studied neuroscience and fine arts, White has had an unorthodox career path. She started working part-time in wine stores when she turned 21, and she has just completed a wine education program with the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, a Boston University affiliate.

“When I first came to work here, I couldn’t tell a Manischewitz from a Montepulciano,” she said. “I had to develop an almost encyclopedic knowledge of wine to be taken seriously in this business.”

In any given week, White samples 30-50 wines. She said she has tasted every wine in the store, so that she can offer customers—including students from Harvard and MIT—advice on what kinds of wine to buy for their dinners.

White said that student wine tastings focus on a three-step evaluation—the look, the smell and the “mouthfeel,” or taste.

Popping the cork off a bottle of 2003 Commanderie de Peyrassol, a wine grown in the vineyards of south France, White illustrated this three-step process.

“Look at the way the color progresses from the center of the glass to the rim,” White said. “I’d describe it as a pale salmon color, kind of peachy.”

She gently swirled her glass and sniffed.

“It has a floral element to the nose,” White said, inhaling the faint aromas. She completed the process by taking a little sip of the wine, which she said was “very dry”— indicating it had a low sugar content.

By relating tastes, smells and sights of wine with the basic vocabulary of wine enthusiasts, White said she hoped to give students confidence in shopping for wines and ordering off a wine list.

“I’m training them to be good consumers and drinkers and to trust their palates and relax,” White said. “Wine should be fun.”