Incredible interview with Bobby Stuckey

So refreshing to see this level of honesty, and perspective.

Really cool article. Great take. I have had good and bad experiences. There is nothing worse than a Somm with air of superiority, and a list to go with it…

I am biased having been there a ton since their soft open. Bobby and his crew are great. You can tell what a good place it is to work as so many of the staff stay there for a very long time. Others move on to senior positions elsewhere. Wine wise I have always just put myself in their hands. It is clear happy guests are their objective function and what makes them tick. It is great to see good businesses and people do well.

I like Bobby. I’ve met him a few times at the Little Nell, Frasca and he has a new place in Denver called Tavernetta. https://www.tavernettadenver.com/

Luv it…”The natural wine movement is the Fox News of wine”.
Does that make Sweet Alice the Sean Hannity??
Tom

Alice has written extensively about the problem of flawed wines getting passed onto people because of their stories. She would be more like Robospierre. Helped start a revolution but watched it run away from her.

That was a good article. The sad part of it is that I would imagine the majority of the sommeliers he’s criticizing will read that article and immediately decry it as a grumpy “old” man who is out of touch with today’s wine drinker.

Good article for sure. Bobby is a clear thinking dude. Thanks for sharing.

Good read, thanks

I have never met Bobby Stuckey but I am very impressed with his thoughts. He really nailed it.

I really enjoyed reading this article. Here is a man who knows a bunch about the business, who is still very active in it, who also sells wine and therefore gets to see all angles of it.

So many in our industry - and this happens on the winery side as well - just want to push stuff on their customers without actually finding out what the customer really is interested in. We’d rather sell you than listen to you - and that’s just wrong on so many levels . . .

Cheers.

Great article. Frasca is one of my favorite restaurants in the USA.

Nice story and thanks for sharing.

So you are going to be switching from Rhone varieties and moving into ultra-premium Pinot Noir, Chard, and Cab at value prices?

It’s probably just me, but knowing the late Mark Pape, (who was Bobby’s mentor at The Little Nell in the early 90’s- and then reco’d him for the job). It just rubs me the wrong way when he throws him under the bus in the beginning of the interview. Try for a moment to name an area of the world with all the blue chip wines in the late 80’s and early 90’s that wasn’t a bit sniff.

Oh you are one funny guy, aren’t you?!?!??!

Go into any tasting room or go onto any website and see how wines are described - flavors and aromas, etc. At the end of the day, these are all just ‘suggestive measures’ to try to entice folks to purchase wines. How many times have you smelled or tasted a wine in a tasting room, looked at the notes that are there to describe the wines, and gone WTF?

Different strokes, my friend . . . and how are your cab sales going?

I think more will read and not see themselves - willfully obtuse -

Good article. Stuckey was our somm at Little Nell many years ago. First time I got excited by both what a somm had to say and their recommendation. Ended up with a 1988 La Turque, which was dazzlingly perfect for the occasion.

Doesn’t matter, in either outcome, that’s EXACTLY who he is addressing

Glad to see so many took the time to read it. I so rarely read interviews like this, but it really took me by surprise how outspoken he was. He clearly is not happy with the state of the union, and speaking out in the wine business hasn’t always been met with wide eyed optimism, but this should be a wake up call especially when you consider who conducted the interview too.

Really enjoyed that. Thanks for sharing Ian.