Rogue Sommelier

What the heck is a "Rogue Sommelier?"

Well, a classic Sommelier is a highly paid trained wine professional.  Yes, there are actually schools where you can go learn this stuff.

The Rogue Sommelier is NOT one of these. 

Wine is an incredibly complex subject.  To be a competent sommelier, you must possess an exceptional memory and spend hours training your pallet to the nuances of wine.  Yes, there are people that can tell you that THIS wine was made from grapes grown on the NORTH side of the vineyard.  (And crushed by the gentle feet of left-handed virgins to boot.)  This is all well and good.  But just like that brilliant doctor that can tell you everything you want to know about fungal foot spores… you just want someone to help you find the right treatment without feeling like an idiot for asking.

For us… we can certainly ENJOY a $100 bottle of wine.  We can also enjoy a $15 bottle of the same varietal wine.  Does that make us bad people that we can’t justify that extra $85?  Perhaps.  Please ask us again when we win the lottery.

The Rogue has nothing against the classic Sommelier.  I'm sure they're very nice people that treat their mother with respect and help take the garbage out on Thursdays just like you and me.  But if they intimidate the average wine drinker with their expansive knowledge and holier than thou attitudes, ehh… the heck with ‘em.

Wine should be fun.

Gosh.  That sounds profound.  The Good Lord gave us a pleasantly intoxicating way to enjoy fruit.  He gave it endless variety.  He made it healthy.  He made it so simple that you COULD make it in your bathtub.  (Note: Those Zinfandel bathtub rings are murder to get out.)  Wine has been everyman’s drink for at least six millennium.  Wine comes before beer… except in the dictionary.

A sommelier should be your tour guide to wine.  Not a gatekeeper.

Enter the Rogue Sommelier.  We call him the Rogue Sommelier because he's not quite conventional, and it sounds better the “anti-sommelier”.  Actually, the Rogue Sommelier is the brain child of Morgan Shea of Lancaster, PA. He's the wine manager of a 60,000 patron a year dinner theater, an actor, classical fencing instructor, artist, leather worker, and a really neat guy.  I know because he's paying me to write this.  So if you want to blame anyone… its HIS FAULT.

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