New Denver Ambassador Erik Segelbaum: “too many sommeliers use their wine program as a record collection of their favourite hits”
Star Wine List’s new Denver Ambassador Erik Segelbaum is a sommelier, consultant, educator, journalist, importer, distributor, manufacturer… you name it. Having worked in hospitality for over 30 years, he knows a thing or two about great wine, great wine lists and just what wine lovers around the world are looking for. He introduces us to Colorado by adding 13 Red Stars in Denver and one in Boulder.
Erik Segelbaum grew up in Toronto, with a large part of his life also spent in Seattle. Spending 10 years as a fine dining chef gave him his first taste of wine (“chefs drink a lot”), and the chance to spend time working with sommeliers to create pairings for dégustation menus: “with my palate developing, the love for wine was obviously next.” He also makes no bones about the fact that the sommelier route was more lucrative than staying in the kitchen.
“I graduated from university with a crippling student loan debt,” says Erik, “and having been a chef for so long, I watched the captains come in three hours after me, leave three hours before me, and make three times as much as I did. And I knew that my wine knowledge would translate into me being able to earn much more money in the front of the house, so I became a captain.”
Early into a stint at a prominent South Beach hotel, Erik was made a wine director: “that was 22 years ago and I haven’t turned back.” He has lived in Denver for the past three years and now brings his broad expertise to Star Wine List.
Check out our new guide to the region, here.
“I’m excited to bring Star Wine List to Denver because this is such an under-appreciated and underrated city with an absolutely incredible culinary and wine scene,” he says. “Frankly, I’m equally not excited because Denver is kind of like our secret and we won’t want everybody to know and turn it into another New York!
“But no, seriously, it’s got such an incredible food and wine scene and it definitely belongs on a global stage. Additionally, because Colorado really only has the one major metropolis – there are other major cities here but not to the level of Denver – it means that, as a state, we get a lot of access to great wines without a lot of competition. So if you’re a buyer in Florida, you have to compete with Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Naples, Jacksonville, etc., for the state’s allocations of wine; in Denver, you don’t. It’s basically Denver and then the mountain resorts that you’re really competing with, so it’s easier for restaurants to get access to really high quality wines that would otherwise be unavailable in other, more saturated markets.”
Erik’s first wine directorship was at South Beach’s Vix at Hotel Victor, with positions following at Schwartz Brothers, Royal Caribbean cruise ships and Starr Restaurants over the course of two decades. He is an Advanced Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers (Americas) and a Certified Specialist of Wine with the Society of Wine Educators. In 2018 he launched SOMLYAY, a consulting business designed to offer genuinely useful forms of education and training to restaurant staff.
“Number one, many companies can’t afford a high level wine director that’s got financial acumen but every restaurant needs one. The other aspect was the educational side of things. I got so tired of going to the same cookie-cutter wine event for a different winery or group of wineries, or usually regional organisations, and it was just the same format where you’re basically tasting a bunch of wines and sitting through a tasting note; none of the how and why, it’s all the what.
“So I wanted to be able to help lead a room. First of all, fill the room with the right contacts and connections so that the right buyers are in the room and then, also, present information in a way that truly resonates with them. So not ‘what are the wines?’ or ‘what is the information about the region?’ but how and why. How do you work with these wines? How do you make money with them in the program? How do you train your staff? Why would you want to incorporate them into your restaurant?
“As an example, I use Beaujolais and talk about how there’s no competitive set for Beaujolais Blanc. So if you want to pour a white Burgundy by the glass from a more consumer-well-known region, you’re going to pay a lot of money, and you’re going to have a very expensive glass of Chardonnay and people aren’t going to really necessarily love it for the value proposition. Versus, you can get an incredible Beaujolais Blanc – also white Burgundy – for 9/10/11 bucks a bottle; you can charge 16/17/18 bucks a glass and make great money when there’s no competitive set on it, so that people don’t think you’re gouging them – they’re just super happy. Whereas you, as the buyer, are making a tonne of money and increasing your guests’ happiness. So I really wanted to be able to educate in a way that connects and resonates.
“Another example with Beaujolais is: ok, you’re a sommelier, you love Beaujolais, you have five crus of Beaujolais on your list – how do you teach your staff to explain that to the diners in the most succinct way to understand the difference between Juliénas, Moulin-à-Vent and Chiroubles? And if you can’t be in every conversation, which you can’t, here’s the information of how you can actually sell those wines through your staff, without them just dying on your list.
“So I really started SOMLYAY to help people understand the business of wine and to be able to provide top-level consumer trade events. Also, I offer private cellar acquisitions and liquidations, so any collectors who are trying to acquire wine in general, specific wines, legacy cellar planning for themselves, for their children, etc.”
If that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, Erik is a founder and Vice President of the United Sommeliers Foundation, providing resource and funding for sommeliers in critical financial need. A response to COVID, it helps those in the industry whose income or ability to earn is affected by natural disasters such as Hurricane Helene, medical emergencies, and similar; to date it has raised just over $2 million.
Then there’s GoodSomm, a luxury lifestyle wine club offering curated wine boxes with heart – and some serious exclusives. “Good Somm is the place for people who love wine to take the next steps on their wine journey,” says Erik. Members receive a box of five wines and a varying “sixth thing” that’s typically either a high-ticket wine or a personal recommendation from Erik. They are then eligible for special experiences when travelling, gaining insider access to wine estates that either don’t usually welcome guests or can offer his contacts elevated experiences when they visit.
Erik also co-founded the wine importing and distributing company SWIG Partners, is in the final stages of launching a line of quality canned cocktails, and writes on the side. As he kicks off his role as Denver Ambassador with 14 Red Stars, we asked him what wine lovers can expect from the Colorado capital.
What makes Denver's food and wine scene unique?
“I think Denver has a lot going for it. Number one, it’s a large city but it’s a manageably large city. It’s not a mega metropolis like Tokyo or Cairo or New York or London, so there’s a lot going on here. Culturally, there’s a big population, which supports a lot of restaurants and a lot of diversity.
“Also, being in the mountains, we have the benefit of incredible local cuisine and farm input – this is ripe, fertile land for produce but also huge farmland, so there’s a lot of access to really good local, agricultural product. But because we’re a major metropolitan city as well, there’s enough demand for the best of the best to be flown in from coastal waters – fish, seafood, things like that. So we really have everything in operation here. You’re just as likely to find Colorado lamb rack next to Hokkaido scallops on a menu.”
How does it compare to other cities in Colorado?
“In much of Colorado and the Rockies, you have all these ski resort towns – Vail, Aspen, Steamboat Springs, etc. What Denver has going for it is that, in these towns, the culinary demand there is largely wealth-based tourism – they kind of want to live in their own bubble, versus Denver, which is a lot more cosmopolitan, has a lot more than just seasonality to it. So restaurants can really afford to explore, to push limits, to get creative, knowing that they have a year-round population to support them.”
What makes the perfect wine list?
“I’m so glad you asked me about what makes a perfect wine list! Contrary to popular belief, a perfect wine list is not a bunch of great wines that happen to be available for purchase. To me, too many sommeliers use their wine program as a record collection of their favourite hits, and it should be a perfectly mastered soundtrack to the operation – it should fit the ethos or the theme, the cuisine. You know, I was just at an Israeli restaurant that had two Israeli wines out of 50. I’m not saying don’t have non-Israeli wines but like, fit the theme of the wine program.
“It doesn’t have to be huge, it can be tiny. In fact, some of the ones I submitted were like 30 wines on the list. But they have to make sense to the operation, not just be a bunch of random, weird wines that no server knows how to sell and no guest understands.
“Also, that’s from a consumer-facing side. From a trade side, a wine list should be a sales tool – it should be designed to drive revenue and encourage sales, and 99% of the wine lists are just documents of information of what’s available. So it needs to be organised in a way that’s user friendly for staff and for consumers alike. One wine does not a category make, so if you have that one Assyrtiko that you just had to have, don’t just put ‘Greece’ with that one Domaine Sigalas and that’s it – lean in.
“I don’t believe in catch-all categories, so ‘other,’ ‘assorted,’ ‘interesting,’ ‘unusual’ are all very lazy and basically telling everyone you suck at your job. So let’s use that Assyrtiko example: you must have the Domaine Sigalas. Cool. So if you don’t want to bring in two more Greek wines and have a Greek wine section (you don’t have the space for it, your program isn’t big enough, that’s totally fine), make a section called ‘high acid whites,’ make a section called ‘island wines,’ make a section ‘volcanic wines,’ make a section ‘Mediterranean wines’ – there are so many ways that you can do this.
“Also, never list in price order – that’s the best way to leave money on the table. So again, from a consumer standpoint, the wine list has to make sense to the operation and be easy to navigate. From a trade standpoint, it’s got to be a sales tool.”
Read our new guide to Denver with Erik’s recommendations, here.
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