Wine as a Reflection of Place with Vanessa Price

Tell us about growing up in Kentucky. What first drew your curiosity in wine, and how did that evolve into a career?

Vanessa: I think my path was like a lot of people in our industry - I never really set out to be in the wine industry, the wine industry just sort of happened to me. It wasn’t something I grew up with at home or was really ever around me socially, and it certainly wasn’t something that I ever thought I could have a career in. My parents didn’t drink much at all growing up, but when they did, it was more bourbon than fermented grape juice. While I was in college, I got a serving job at a winery in downtown Louisville near where I went to University of Louisville. I didn’t know anything about Wine, and most of what was produced there were hybrids and sweet wines grown in the Ohio River Valley AVA. A far cry from Napa Valley, but it was enough to give me the wine bug. When I moved to New York City, somewhere I had no opportunities, no savings and no prospects (I just really really wanted to move there!!), the first job opportunities that I found were working in wine bars, events and marketing around wine and other every-level jobs. I was broke but I was having fun - more fun than some of my childhood friends who pursued more traditional career paths. After a few years, I realized I might be able to turn this whole thing into a career. I wasn’t quite sure how, but I knew it sounded fun.

In your path from Kentucky to Montauk, what were some key turning points or moves that brought you here?

Vanessa: I’m actually not based in Montauk full time, only the summer months. I’m based in New York City and the Lower Hudson Valley the rest of the year. I’m a downtown Manhattan girl and have been for 20 years! Sometimes I look back on the path of my career and I wonder if I took the wildly circuitous route or if I took the path that gave me the widest breadth of experiences (probably both). Along that route, there were several bosses who taught me what kind of boss I didn’t want to be - and even better, there were bosses who became mentors and helped to guide me through the industry and supported me as new opportunities came along, and I moved on to them. Having that support was definitely one of the key factors in my success, I could not have done it without their guidance and kindness. I hope to do the same for others, as I have become a boss myself, I know the difference it made in my life. Also getting my education formalized through the WSET made a meaningful difference. While there is certainly something to be said for going grass roots and teaching yourself everything you know (which I have a lot of respect for anyone who does it this way), there is also something to be said for doing the courses, putting in the study hours, having the discipline to sit through those exams and come out triumphant on the other side. I have my level four from WSET and I really hope one day to pursue my Master of Wine, should I ever find the time!

You’ve been involved in launching Mavericks Montauk and Wildflower Farms. What excites you about how wine fits into the vision of those projects?

Vanessa: My role in each was very different, but equally awesome. With Mavericks, as the Managing Partner the entire project from concept, to design, to renovation - which was almost 2 years to complete on a 100+ year old building at the easternmost edge of Long Island - to the actual operating business was under my purview. Building the team and breathing life into the place – plus designing the Wine program, it was a lot and a long time coming. For several years I just kept my head down and kept chipping away at all the obstacles that stood between us and opening our fine-dining, seasonal 240 seat restaurant. My wine program at Mavericks excites me tremendously because with a few notable exceptions, there are not a lot of mindful programs of any size in the East End. It's a tough market to do any hospitality concept in, let alone one that needs the capital invested to create a wine program of any size. I think the sheer breadth of what we are able to offer there excites me.

With Wildflower Farms, my husband is one of the General Partners, and I do the Wine direction for the hotel. While I was a part of the project from the early days when it was still just a construction site, I can’t take credit for the beautiful work they did designing and conceptualizing that property, it’s in a league of its own with the magic it showcases of the Hudson Valley! However the wine program is me, and I am so grateful they have given me the leeway necessary to make that program a reality. And again, the magnitude of the program is not something often seen in the area, which we hope promotes even more reasons to come and visit us when you find yourself in the neighborhood.

Wine often mirrors place. How has your environment influenced the way you experience or pair wine?

Vanessa: I am very happy that both programs have an emphasis on New York wine. The hotel actually grows a lot of its own vegetables on a 9 acre property attached to the property where guests can come and visit which is awesome. We do harvest dinners throughout the summer in a beautiful spot called Maple Alley that’s a 30 maple tree lined pathway that we set a long table down and post dinners throughout the summer that focuses on vegetables that are in season. We have an asparagus dinner in the spring, carrot dinner, tomato dinners, pepper dinners you name it.

When you look back on your journey, what’s one “aha” moment when you knew wine was going to be more than a career?

Vanessa: My book, which is now a national bestseller, actually started as a column in New York magazine once upon a time. The first article that I wrote for them was about pairing sour patch kids and semi-dry riesling from New York State (always repping) and people lost their minds. The piece went viral and the reactions were far reaching and strong. Some people thought it was awesome, some people thought it was blasphemous. But the intense reactions told me that there was something to this idea of speaking honestly and candidly about Wine.

You address this in your book Big Macs and Burgundy; do you have a personal philosophy when interacting with a bottle that helps demystify it for others and how do you make it approachable?

Totally! I try to focus on finding sensory or textural elements of the wine that are easy to relate to for someone that might be trying a new type of wine for the first time. While I definitely think that expected tasting notes like “dried rose petal and herbaceous undertones” are valid descriptors of wine, I don’t know how much they help someone that’s just trying to dive into a glass. Telling the story of the place, the people, the climate or some really neat piece of information about the wine is usually a more effective way to elicit genuine interactions with the wine and help people feel confident in sharing their experiences with a bottle as opposed to having to take my word for it.