#3 - Eduard Seitan
Hello
See? I told you it’d happen. You’ve just gotta trust me (sometimes).
The Q&A
Eduard Seitan is a partner with One Off Hospitality in Chicago (avec, The Publican, The Violet Hour) and a certified sommelier. He also runs a nonprofit with his fiancee Debbie: Bark4Compassion. Their mission is to “provide freedom flights to animals who are seeking medical care, foster and forever homes.”
Eduard emigrated from Romania as a teenager and started his career in hospitality as a food runner at a local Italian restaurant. We drank some wine together.
We spoke in the outdoor space fronting Chicago’s popular West Loop restaurant, avec. Full transparency, our conversation took place during an 11-bottle tasting, instead of one full bottle. “11 bottles,” you say aloud — shocked, awed. Yes, 11 bottles. It was a challenge, but your intrepid author survived. Barely.
Eduard needed to taste some wines for his actual job — choosing which wines avec serves — so I completely understood. I hope you will too.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
SN: Eduard, thank you for joining me. Can you talk to me about wine tasting? Tips, tricks, general thoughts?
ES: Well, I started judging wine competitions probably 12 or 13 years ago and I got my sommelier certificate in… 2004 or 2005 if I remember correctly. But whatever, that’s not important.
What I’ve been learning about wine for the past 20, 25 years, you know, it accumulates. You learn a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but I’ve learned the most from other people.
So at these competitions I help judge, there’s usually a panel of four or five judges, maximum. On any given day, you’re tasting 100 to 140 or 180 wines. It’s debilitating. You start around 8 a.m. — it’s a hard start, man.
To avoid fatiguing the palate, it’s good to vary what you’re tasting a bit. I like to start with red, then maybe sparkling or rosé and then white. That way, your palate is able to wake up a little.
A few years ago at a state competition I was judging, I remember one of the last panels of the day was a 17- or 21-glass panel of big, flavorful reds. Some of them were okay, some great, but at one point, there was this lighter red, maybe a cabernet franc, and all the judges were like, ‘gold, gold, gold,’ and I was like, ‘What the fuck is going on?’
It was palate fatigue. Everyone was so tired of tasting the big, oaky reds, that something zippy and clean with high acidity made everyone wake up and get excited about it. We noticed, took a second, and realized it was because we had been tasting for seven hours.
So that’s how you and I are tasting the wines now, and how I would set it up if I were doing a tasting with friends. I also advise thinking about food while you taste wine. I’m automatically asking myself, ‘What do I want to eat with this?’
SN: That’s incredibly helpful. Early on in your wine career, you were known for choosing to serve wines that weren’t exactly well-known or super popular. Why were you making those choices?
ES: Well we opened our first restaurant, Blackbird (Editor’s note: Blackbird sadly closed during the pandemic) in 1997, and I helped with the wine list there but it was more classic French food, so classic French pairings.
But with avec, I wanted to choose rustic, Mediterranean-inspired wines. We opened avec as a wine bar, initially, but we quickly realized, ‘Shit, this is a restaurant.’ I tasted a little more than 1,800 wines for the opening wine list.
I wanted to do little-known regions and weird varietals. That was my thing for avec’s list. The most important thing is that the wine list always has to go with the food. For example, with our newest opening, bar avec, the chef wanted to do a Basque menu, so I chose the best wines to go with Basque food. If you’re serving Basque food with a wine list from Napa, I think that’s a terrible idea.
Those specific choices of mine, though, were because I loved those wines and wanted to explore them more. I’ve always felt like, it’s okay to try to teach people something, to push them out of their comfort zone a little.
I remember at Blackbird, I would buy this incredible Wyncroft chardonnay from Michigan and put it on our list. No one would buy it. My regular customers would come in and say, “I want to try something really tasty.” I would offer that chardonnay and they would refuse it. So instead, I would decant and present it without the bottle. Invariably, they would love the wine, and then I’d show them the bottle.
The Obamas actually used to come here and I would serve them —
SN: Excuse me? The Obamas?
ES: Yeah, they used to come here for dinner and I would make them drink the weirdest stuff, and they were absolutely enamored with those wines.
SN: Uh, wow, alright, wild. Anyway… I think a lot about the wine industry in general and its lack of accessibility and the weird, snobby attitude that surrounds it. It seems like, in addition to “weird” varietals and different tastes, you also try to factor in affordability for your wine lists. Is that an accessibility thing? What are your thoughts re: wine culture?
ES: Listen, when it comes down to it, wine is a fucking beverage. That’s all it is. Don’t make something else out of it. Some people can be incredibly particular about the style of glasses used for the style of wine you’re drinking, and that’s fine, but great wine is great when it’s in a styrofoam cup.
I always love to have a $19 bottle of wine on the menu, because I want to offer a young student or a young couple, or budget travelers — whoever — a wine list that doesn’t start at $40. I want to show that there are cool, tasty and drinkable wines for $19 a bottle. I think one of the best ways to make wine more accessible is for sellers to not mark up their prices as high. Make the margin a little less, and open up the opportunities for more people to try wine.
Wine is a democratic drink. It should be available to everyone.
For me, I don’t even buy expensive wine. I like cheap wine. If someone gifts me a bottle, of course, I’ll drink it, but I won’t spend a lot of money on wine.
The other thing is this: Wine is so subjective. I love being at a dinner or a tasting and engaging people and getting their opinions about what we’re drinking. Like, you like this wine, but for me, right now, it tastes a bit flat. But — is the wine tired? Or am I? I’m not sure.
SN: Makes sense to me. Moving on, how has the pandemic been for you? What have you been doing in your free time?
ES: I’ve been volunteering for Pilots N Paws (a non-profit organization focused on rescuing animals from kill shelters and getting them to adopting families) for about three years, and because of the coronavirus, I’ve flown more animals than ever before.
Any free time I have, I’ll go fly some dogs. Unfortunately, though, my plane — which is a piece of shit — has been in the shop, so I haven’t flown in like two and a half months. There are so many animals that need help, man. Being able to help them during the pandemic helped me.
SN: Much more admirable than my answer of, “getting through 23 rewatches of True Detective season one.” Okay, onto the recommendation section. What have you been watching, reading, listening to?
ES: I don’t really watch tv shows or movies. I read a lot of novels though.
SN: Any you recommend?
ES: Anything by Cormac McCarthy, but if I had to choose one it would be The Road. Oh, and then David Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and Gregory David Roberts’ Shantaram.
SN: How about music?
ES: LCD Soundsystem, always.
SN: Favorite thing to drink besides wine?
ES: Beer. My go-to is pretty much anything that Marz makes. I think they’re the best in the city.
SN: What’s a good, general life tip you think everyone should know?
ES: You should never camp at private campsites. Always camp at national or state parks. They’re the best and they’re always clean.
SN: Any requests for the readers? Could be a social media plug, whatever you want to promote.
ES: Foster a dog.
SN: What wine should people be drinking this summer?
ES: Rosé is great all year round, but in the summer, why would you drink anything but rosé? They come in so many different colors, flavors and body styles, you can just keep exploring them. They’re such versatile and incredible wines.
The other thing I would say is that the best advice I can give to anyone is to drink natural wines. That’s my number one piece of advice. They can get pretty weird and funky, but when I say natural, I just mean unfiltered, at least organic with nothing added or subtracted except maybe a low amount of sulfites.
SN: Let’s take this bottle we’re tasting right now, Domaine Santa Giulietta’s Grand Vin De Corse. What would be your pairing for the “height of luxury”? Think, fancy, gourmet dining.
ES: Oysters. Absolutely oysters. I’d eat two dozen oysters and a bottle of this for myself. Perfect.
You could also do a pork dish, maybe pork shoulder. This will cut right through the fattiness of the meal.
SN: And how about a “for the masses” pairing? Think a Tuesday takeout night, or your favorite junk foods.
ES: One of the best pairings I’ve ever done was like a month ago at bar avec with some of the kitchen staff. They were eating Flaming Hot Cheetos at the end of the night, and I grabbed a bottle of basque txakoli rosé and oh my god it was perfect. So definitely Flaming Hot Cheetos.
SN: Perfect. Thanks for your time, Eduard.
The afters
I’d love to hear what you thought about this edition and the first Q&A. Eduard is an incredibly cool guy, and I highly advise you to ask him about his “flying home through tornados” story if you ever see him. Eat and drink at avec, and One Off’s other properties — they’re really good. The vibes? Immaculate.
Thanks to those who took the survey last week. If you missed it, here’s the link! Just a quick reader survey about what you’re interested in.
After Eduard’s suggestions, I doubt you need mine, but just in case…
Here are a few recommendations for this weekend and beyond. If a bottle isn’t available for shipping, see if your local shop has it. If they don’t, ask about getting it in stock! Of course, store owners rely heavily on their own tastes, but they’re interested in knowing what you want to see on the shelves as well.
A note: As with buying anything online, read the shipping fine print before you pay. Some sites may not ship to certain areas, or shipping may be unreasonably expensive.
Before anything else, I’m going to say if you’re buying this from the Las Jaras website, read their shipping instructions first. It may be one of those bottles you have to get your local shop to send. Okay, now I will address the elephant in the room. YES, this is another incredibly light, incredibly drinkable summer red, and NO, I will not be shamed by your judgment. It’s really good, and you should drink it. Sorry, I’m predictable. Whatever. In addition to the Las Jaras website, you can also buy it here and here.
Domaine Glinavos Paleokerisio 2019
To be honest, I don’t know much about orange wine, and I know even less about Greek wine. That said, this was pretty cool. It was a bit sweeter than I expected it to be, but still really drinkable. The semi-sparkling is definitely “semi,” but lovely all the same. Plus, it comes in this adorable bottle that I took to be a “personal pan pizza” style of wine. Do with that information what you will. This might be another one you need to request from your local shop. You might be able to buy it here and here.
Some things I read this week that you may be interested in:
The Atlantic — One by One, My Friends Were Sent to the Camps
Grub Street — How Do You Tell the Story of Anthony Bourdain?
The New Yorker — A Haunting New Documentary About Anthony Bourdain
The New York Times Magazine — Why Jane Goodall Still Has Hope for Us Humans
Some tunes to soundtrack your weekend:
John Mayer’s new album, Sob Rock
Rostam’s new album, Changephobia
Kwaku Asante’s recent EP, ODE
Andddddddd we’re done. As always, I hope you liked this. I’ll see ya next week. Let’s try to keep it together until then.
-Sam
Wow that was super!, what an interesting fella, and I totally want a bottle of that pink stuff.
Awesome interview~I definitely want to go next time we are in Chicago.