Andrea Immer zips down the aisles at Sam’s Wines & Spirits, her 5-foot-2-inch frame barely visible over the racks and rows of boxes. She rests momentarily, leaning over to caress a bottle of Pommery Brut Royale Champagne. “I love, love, love this one,” she says, and then skips onward.
That’s not the kind of personality you’d expect from a master sommelier. But neither is Immer’s approach to wine.
“This whole wine thing is just like trying food–you have to be open,” said Immer, the former beverage director of Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Windows on the World. “Look, we’ve finally got sushi all figured out. Wine can’t be that hard.”
It can, of course. Like baseball or the movies, wine can be instantly appreciated or endlessly analyzed, depending on your inclinations. Immer urges beginners to just sit down, relax and enjoy the show.
Immer’s claim is laid out just as plainly in “Andrea Immer’s Wine Buying Guide for Everyone.” (Broadway, $12.95). More a reference than a sequel to her 2000 best-seller, “Great Wine Made Simple,” the buying guide focuses on taste, availability and value–the criteria she says most people consider when shopping for wine.
“My purpose is not to look down on people for what they drink or how much they spend,” Immer said. She and a group of tasters included reviews of boxed wines and jug wines in the buying guide. “If it’s a big seller, then it’s a valid wine.”
That attitude, combined with her credentials, has kept Immer in the spotlight as a new kind of wine insider. In addition to her books, she writes a column in Esquire and teaches wine courses at the French Culinary Institute in New York. She insists that a beginner’s appreciation is based on the reliability of commercially produced wine and a national flavor palate.
“Immer has a good sense of the country at large,” said Joe Spellman, a master sommelier at Paterno Imports in Lake Bluff. Spellman formerly was sommelier at Charlie Trotter’s. “She’s not writing for me; she’s writing for a much larger demographic.”
Immer aims to familiarize puzzled or curious mainstream wine drinkers with 90 percent of the wines they might encounter at the supermarket, liquor store or restaurant. In her books, she hardly mentions terroir or 50-year-old Burgundies. Instead, she promotes the easy-to-master notion of tasting the wine in the glass.
Learning by tasting
Immer sends consumers straight to the supermarket to navigate the racks and purchase wines based on the type of grape. Riesling, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot noir, merlot and cabernet sauvignon, the industry’s top sellers, are her big six. The learning part is done in private–usually at home among friends. Each lesson starts with the basics, with Immer coaching consumers as they learn vocabulary, read labels and set up comparative tasting sessions. She doesn’t bother with vintage dates.
“We don’t need any more preconceptions about wine than we already have,” she said. That’s not to say Immer isn’t glad to have the 1990 Chateau Palmer she bought after helping with the Bordeaux harvest that year. But the subtleties aren’t her subject.
“With most commercial wines, consumers don’t have to worry about the vintage because they’re consistent from year to year,” she said.
Wine writing too often focuses on obscure bottlings that are distinctive but largely unavailable to the public, according to Immer. Those wines also command prices too high for everyday drinking. She cringes at the $100 price tag on the 1999 Joseph Phelps Insignia, for example.
“I think people are whacked to think that this bull market of upping prices could just keep happening,” said Immer, who left a job on Wall Street in 1990 for the wine business.
“All cycles are built on a curve–with ups and downs.” With the recession, prices for many wines have eased.
Finding good values
Perhaps Immer’s financial background is one reason for her continued passion for French Champagne. “It’s the last world-class wine that is price accessible,” she said. And in large metropolitan areas like Chicago, the bubbly stuff commands especially competitive prices because it’s so widely available.
Another favorite in the Immer household is a $10 bottle of Marques de Caceres Rioja Crianza from Spain. “It’s among my very favorites,” Immer noted in “Buying Guide.” She’s pleasantly surprised with the cherry fruit and toffee spice of this commercial wine that’s still full of character. “And you can drink it with everything!”
Finding bargains at every price is a technique Immer honed with the Starwood hotel group, where she bought large quantities of wine, wrote wine lists, and trained bartenders and servers across the country. She discovered that wine must compete with other luxury beverages on the market, from bottled water to juice and soda.
“And the chances are, you’ll like a wine more if it’s less expensive anyway,” she said, noting that price is relative to a wine’s distinctive qualities. Those attributes can be acquired tastes. “So a wine that is double the price is not always twice as good.”
A jumping-off point
Immer hopes to coach beginners to the point they can discover the styles they like and determine the prices they’re comfortable paying. According to Fred Dame, the president worldwide of the Court of Master Sommeliers, that’s exactly where appreciation begins.
“It’s just like learning a sport,” he said. “You have to master the fundamentals, and then you can take it as long and as far as you wish.”
For many consumers, getting over the fear of ordering wine with dinner is enough confidence to last a lifetime. It can save business deals and impress a date. And it doesn’t have to be expensive to be memorable, Immer said.
“All it has to do is make a dinner or event special,” she said. “If we pushed everyone to only drink the highest quality, most expensive, world-class wines, we wouldn’t have enough to go around.” And in fact, not having enough to go around is what pushes wine prices up. A high price tag is no guarantee of satisfaction.
Immer’s ground rules
Here are some tip for tackling the wine aisle:
– Determine what price you’re willing to pay and stick to it. Buying wine is no different than purchasing groceries or clothing. There are bargains to be had at every price.
– Look for the categories or styles you like and branch out from there. If you liked that malbec from Argentina, ask a clerk for other wines that might be similar in style.
– On the subject of advice: Wine-store workers tend to taste a lot of wine. Ask them what they’re drinking these days, and why.
What to bring?
Invited to a party? Buying wine for a special event? Here are a few suggestions from Andrea Immer.
Birthday party: An Italian Moscato d’Asti is slightly sweet, and the hint of orange blossoms will go well with chocolate or vanilla cakes.
Potluck dinner: Beaujolais is an inexpensive crowd-pleaser and very versatile.
Back-yard cookout: Try a robust red zinfandel, which will match the smoky meats and spicy flavors.
Company party or business gift: Choose a California cabernet or Champagne. Both wines are respected and send messages of esteem, value and regard.
Camping trip: A dry rose can withstand the beating in a backpack. It’s also low in alcohol, so it will taste refreshing after a day of hiking. Great with campfire food.
— N.M.
