STAFF FOCUS: Vinny D'Ambrosio
So how did you get into wine?
When I was 18, I worked at a restaurant that had a wide selection of really classic wines — a lot of California Cab-type things. I didn’t know anything about wine then, but that job really piqued my interest because I could see the demand for it. After that job, I gravitated towards the world of craft cocktails and ended up at Rogue, which had a really great cocktail program. And then — basically by accident — I ended up with the job of buying wine for the restaurant. All the wine reps I worked with were really interested in teaching me the ropes and eager to help me learn. And that’s when a lot of things were starting to shift in the wine world. We began to see really cool, natural wines start showing up in earnest in Virginia in 2015. It all started picking up speed and I’ve been stoked about wine ever since.
What are your favorite wines at the moment?
I pretty much always want something that feels fresh and light. Balance is important. The “New California” wine scene feels like the heart of my career. Those producers — like Steve Matthiasson, Hobo, and Arnot-Roberts, along with so many others — make the wine I want to drink 90% of the time. And they’re important to what American wine has now become. It’s so much easier to avoid conventional, less sustainable, and non-organic wines. It’s all so fascinating.
What about the other 10 percent of the time?
The Jura region is really captivating me at the moment. Many folks love the Jura because it’s quirky — it’s atypical for Pinot, Chardonnay, and other wines to really have their own identity around different grapes, like Trousseau. The flavors are just unique and delicious.
(For the uninitiated, the Jura is a French wine region in between Burgundy and Switzerland. Vinny’s planning on doing a class in March all about it — stay tuned for updates!)
What’s something about you that folks may not know?
I read wine lists like other people read the news. I like to find different restaurants’ wine lists on the internet and pore over them — there’s just so much you can glean from a really impressive list. I love seeing patterns and disparities between wine lists from people I respect. Plus, throughout the past five years, we’ve been in this moment of shifting tastes, and a lot more people are honing in on what natural wine is all about. There are thousands of years of tradition that led up to (and are part of) this new trend towards natural wine, and it’s fascinating to watch that evolution continue through today’s wine lists.
What excites you most in your work at Common House?
Hosting classes and wine programming as this extension of what people normally get in a capsule-sized form at the table. I can give diners a 30-second run-down of the wine they’re tasting — if we have an hour-long class, I can talk about producers, production methods, and more in-depth tasting notes to really paint a better picture for people.
Anything else?
For a long time, I’ve also wanted to be a part of something with room to collect wine. It’s been exciting to build the wine list for Birdie’s and help shape it into its own identity. Curating the retail wine offerings in Birdie’s has also been a really fun challenge and our wine cellar is slowly becoming a true collection of wine. The main floor is filled with approachable bottles, but the wine cellar will ultimately be a place you’ll go to see some really amazing wines.
Check out Vinny’s wine offerings at both the CH Richmond restaurant and Birdie’s — and catch his programming events throughout the month via our Goings On page.