Shanghai's sexiest sommeliers share their most orgasmic wines(3)
Philippe Huser
Hometown: Chexbres, Switzerland
Restaurant: Napa Wine Bar & Kitchen, Wine Residence, 57 Jiangyin Lu, near Huangpi Bei Lu 江阴路57号1-2楼 近黄陂北路, +86 21 6318 0057
How did you first get interested in wine?
I was born and raised in a small village and all my neighbors were wine makers. I even asked my dad when I was little, how come we don’t have a vineyard? It seemed everyone else did! I began tasting started when I was three years old. Tasting and tasting wines, that’s how you get into it. Then I went to hotel school in Switzerland and took the general courses on wine. When I joined the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong, they could see I loved wine and they asked me to re-do the whole wine list.
I always say I’m not a sommelier and there are a lot of technical things I don’t know. But I know all the wines from my 850 label wine list and I can recommend anything on it, no problem.
A wine that could give you an orgasm?
A Champagne Salon blanc de blancs I had recently which is 100 percent Chardonnay; it has a complexity and minerality which is elegant but at the same time it takes you minutes and minutes to get all the flavors. It’s really an experience of the soil; it has a lot of personality. Many Champagnes are blends but this is one year, one vineyard, one grape. You can almost see the vineyard, it’s very pure. This is one of the only wineries that releases just three wines under the Salon name every 10 years. They are extremely selective and you can definitely taste it. It’s not on my list now but it will be soon.
What’s a sexy date wine?
You don’t want to focus so much on the wine, you want to focus on the person you are with, so I’d recommend an American zinfandel, a serious wine. There’s enough body and structure for a man but it’s also elegant and fruity, so good for a woman too.
Another wine for romance is the Calon-Ségur from Bordeaux. It’s the only serious wine with a heart on the label, it’s a historic label. This is a beautiful, typical Bordeaux; it's very high quality but not crazy expensive.
