Featured User: Ian Staub

Ian Staub is a partner at Roses’ Taproom in Oakland, CA, where they just rolled out a small but harmonious California-based wine program. He lives in the foggy and beautiful Outer Richmond district of San Francisco with his wife Megan and their small fluffy mutt Ella. During the day he works at the intersection of architecture and technology, but he is always looking forward to the evenings when he can share a home-cooked meal and a great bottle of wine with family and friends. Delectable: What sparked your passion for wine? Ian Staub: When I moved to San Francisco in 2011, a year after graduating college with a degree in music, I went up and down the main drag in my neighborhood passing out resumes. I quickly landed a job at Plumpjack Wines (one of their two retails shops in SF), where I was immediately thrust into learning and selling wine. We would have tastings with sales reps once per week, and despite being the new guy, I was invited to taste with our buyers. One day, Gideon Beinstock of Clos Saron came in the door and his intensely wild natural wines really blew me away. They were unlike anything I had tasted up to that point. That left a mark, and I still savor any opportunity to enjoy wines from Gideon and his disciples out in the Sierra Foothills . Over the last few years, my passion for wine has intensified, likely driven by my increased attention to food, and my love for cooking. Wine is always at our table at home, and my wife and I absolutely love sharing our bounty with friends and family as often as we can. D: What wine region are you wild about right now? IS: Patrimonio, Corsica . My wife and I spent this past May on our honeymoon in Europe, where a major highlight was visiting the remote, rugged, and gorgeous island of Corsica. I had read about the lengths winemakers in Patrimonio went to plant grapes in the arid, mountainous terrain there, but seeing the landscape in person and walking amongst the vines with the winemakers themselves was amazing. From an outsider’s perspective, the island has a perfect synthesis of French and Italian culture, though it has had centuries of near-isolation to develop its own fiercely independent style. I love the savory, herbal qualities these wines exhibit – they reflect the proximity of the crystal clear Mediterranean, and the wild Maquis herbs that grow across the island. D: What is the most unusual wine you’ve ever tried? IS: La Garagista Grace & Favour White Pétillant Naturel . I’ve had a few opportunities recently to taste Dierdre Heekin’s incredible wines from Vermont under the La Garagista label. Due to the cold alpine climate there, she farms cold-resistant hybrid grape varieties which have very different flavor profiles than the Vinis Vinifera most are used to. This wine, enjoyed recently while camping, had some wild musky tropical fruit notes, a floral quality, a touch of RS, and absolutely ripping acidity. In truth, this wine was right in my wheelhouse, and not all that unusual in the grand scheme, but the fact that these hybrid grapes are expanding the palette of flavors available to winemakers is so cool. D: What is your golden rule for wine? IS: “Drink what you like” is great advice, and I do agree. My personal golden rule is to drink handmade wines, made as naturally as possible, by small artisanal producers. These wines reflect the place from which they come – the geology and climate, the people and their traditions, the culture as a whole. Wine that is manipulated and coerced into tasting a certain way to fill a marketing niche or receive favorable point ratings doesn’t say much to me. D: Say you’re not allowed to have wine, what is your second option? IS: I love a cold, crisp lager . Luke Janson, my cousin and head brewer at Roses’ Taproom, is unusually great at brewing beers on the lighter end of the spectrum. Early Beer, our California Kolsch, is my go-to – it’s light, crisp and bready, and served 10oz at a time to make sure it’s cold and goes down easy. D: Choose a movie, book, quote, or song and pair it with a wine IS: Leonard Koren's Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers & Clos Saron Home Vineyard Pinot Noir . Leonard Koren is one of my favorite authors and designers. His books are quiet works of art; they have a handmade feel, and they are published in small runs by his own imprint out near the ocean in Point Reyes Station. This book explores the Japanese aesthetic philosophy of wabi-sabi, "a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional.” Gideon Beinstock’s wines speak a similar language; they are unapologetically representative of their place and the season. In a way they are “incomplete” in that they often encourage lots of time in the bottle to fully show their beauty. Like Koren’s books, the wines of Clos Saron are singular and personal, handmade and imperfectly perfect. What is better than that? D: If you were a wine, what wine would you be? IS: I am always smitten by the light red wines of the Jura region in France, specifically those made from the Poulsard grape. I like to think I reflect some of their qualities: I’m easygoing, not a hyper social or public person, but I usually get along well with those I encounter. I’m a bit unusual and nerdy, good with food, and versatile.