The match game

Kristin Jonna with two of her favorite food wines: She's holding a glass of Laetitia Brut Rosé, and the bottle is the Perrin & Fils Rasteau, which always gets high points from critics.

The Detroit News
By Sandra Silfven
Uncorked at: Vinotecca
September 13, 2007

Kristin Jonna can pair any food and wine. What wine goes with warm Chocolate Truffle Cake?

If you own a wine bar, and have a chocolate cake on the menu, you can bet there's a wine on the list to go with it.

Kristin Jonna, owner of Vinotecca in Royal Oak, has the answers if you have questions about food-and-wine pairing. "I have two basic rules," she says. "Pair according to region: Drink Italian wine with Italian food. And don't compromise what you like to drink; otherwise, you're headed toward disaster."

Some foods, though, can pose a challenge. But, as I said, Jonna has the answers.

That chocolate cake? "I always go for port, or dark extracted dessert wines, such as Lone Oak Raspberry (from Michigan)."

A wedge of blue cheese? "Robust reds. The saltiness of the cheese even enhances the wine. I like the Perrin Cote-du-Rhone."

Seared tuna? "It can stand up to the butterscotch of a big Chardonnay, to a Pinot Noir, or even a peppery Syrah such as Quepe.

"There's one wine that can stand up to almost everything," she adds. "When we ordered the nine-course Chef's Tasting Menu at the French Laundry in Napa Valley, we only ordered one wine: Rosé champagne. It will never offend. It will always heighten the experience."

You can reach Sandra Silfven at (313) 222-2440 or ssilfven @detnews.com.

Answers about wine from those in the know

May 20, 2006

BY KELLEY L. CARTER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

KRISTIN JONNA, owner of wine bars Vinotecca in Royal Oak and Vinology in Ann Arbor

QUESTION : What are people doing when they swirl their wine around before drinking it?

ANSWER: People are volatizing the esters. The phenolic, or smell, components lie just beneath the surface of the wine. When we swirl, we are allowing these phenolics to come floating out of the glass to create aromas.

Q: When people sniff wine, what are they smelling for?

A: We are first and foremost smelling for flaws. Nail polish remover, vinegar, sherry, burnt matches, cork and wet newspaper are all the tip-off aromas indicating the wine is spoiled or bad. After we have ruled these out, we are then smelling for the bouquet of the wine. Certain smells can indicate specific varietals or regions and give us a hint about the level of complexity. Remember, 80% of what we taste is based on what we smell, so this is a very important step in the process of evaluating wine and food.

Q. I'm going out to dinner with five friends to a seafood restaurant, and we want to order a bottle of wine. What kind should we order?

A : First of all, drink what you like! If you are a red wine fan, you are not bound to white wine here just because it is the classic pairing with seafood. Simply choose a lighter red. Secondly, food pairing is mostly about contrast or complement.

If the fish will be covered in a butter sauce, then try a slightly oaked chardonnay to complement, because it will often have a buttery quality. If your fish is spicy, contrast it with something slightly sweet. Food pairing is an art and difficult to apply in many settings. Just beware of the very bad combinations like oily fish and cabernet or sauvignon blanc and steak. Light foods, light wines. Heavy foods, heavy wines. Other tips: Consider sauces as much as the base of the dish because this is usually where the predominant flavor is.

Q: Why should I pay more for expensive wine when I can't tell the difference?

A: Most people can tell the difference, but they are simply not exposed to great wine. In every tasting I do, both the novices and the experts can find the most expensive or well-made wine in the room when tasting blind. You can drive a Pinto your whole life and feel good about it, but the day you sit in a BMW, you know that you were missing out on quality.

ELIE BOUDT, owner of Elie Wine Company in downtown Royal Oak.

Q: What does it mean when someone says a wine has legs?

A : That's a lingo that refers to the way that the wine would cling to the inside of the glass and the way it drips down on the inside and as it moves down. What that means is that it's the glycerin in the wine that leaves marks on the glass. Glycerin is complex sugar molecules. It's something you associate with fuller, mature grapes. A good wine has to have legs. A riper grape would be much more flavorful. If the wine has the legs, it doesn't mean the wine is good. But a good wine has to have the legs. It's something you see typically with younger wines.

Q: Give me some wine names that are mispronounced most frequently, and tell me how they are really pronounced.

A: It's much more phonetical than people think. Pouilly-Fuisse, a French red wine, is pronounced poo-YEE foo-e-SAY and Beaujolais, another French red wine, is pronounced bo-jo-LAY. They're two of the most common names that you see. They're both French and typically people have problems with French.

KELLY REED, 26-year-old Ann Arbor resident who has been drinking wine for about two years

Q: I'm new to wine drinking. What's a good type of wine to start out with?

A: I find that the pinot grigio is a very easy flavor to incorporate into your palette. It works well with several different foods. I like really light, crisp wines. The flavors aren't that strong. They wouldn't offend someone while drinking it.

ED BOSSE, owner of Simply Wine in downtown Birmingham

Q: Can you give me suggestions for five must-have starter bottles under $25?

A: They come in and out of stock really quickly, but whenever anyone is putting together a cellar, I always tell them to start with a base of inexpensive wines. For me, it would be like Vila Malbec; Salice Salentino; Chateau St. Jean chardonnay; Horse Haven, which is a sauvignon blanc, and Chumeia pinot noir. If you want a great French champagne, get Varichon & Clerc.

Q: I want to explore the world of French wine, but I can't understand the labels. What are the basics to help me understand what I'm drinking?

A : I would get a handle on the grapes of France. There are probably five or six major grapes there. Find out what those grapes are, which is pretty easy.

One of the grapes would be merlot, for example, and so there are some merlots that are juicy and easy to drink and then there are merlots that are earthy. It would be real fun to pick those five grapes and then try it made in different parts of France.

Normally, people will come in, pick a grape and get two or three bottles from that area and then have a lot of fun with it. Also, with French wine, almost all of the wine is meant to be had with a little bit of food. Sometimes people get thrown off when they don't have it with food.

WINE'S NEWEST SIPPERS: Twentysomethings

Trend-setting drinkers are switching from beer and martinis

May 20, 2006

BY KELLEY L. CARTER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

For Amber Shapiro, drinking typically meant cocktails with girlfriends -- not necessarily because the drinks tasted good, but because they were what everyone else her age was drinking.

That all changed when the 22-year-old University of Michigan grad took a trip to Argentina.

"Wine is huge there," she says. "I think that wine has become this thing to do. When my friends and I turned 21, we did it to savor the taste, as opposed to just drinking to drink. Wine is a very social thing now."

Shapiro -- who is heading back to Argentina in June to work and live for a year -- is part of the growing number of young wine drinkers.

"We found a 33% increase of young drinkers in the last five years and a 50% increase in young men," says Patrick Coyle, spokesman for Dancing Bull Wine, a company that markets to younger wine consumers. "It's probably the largest generation we've seen since the baby boom generation. We have high hopes in the wine industry for this generation continuing their interest in wine."

Wine industry surveys and polls say that young people between 21 and 29 are increasingly moving toward wine as their drink of choice. For the first time ever, wine overtook beer as the alcoholic beverage of choice for Americans last summer. And in the younger age group, beer has taken a dip in popularity, while wine has significantly increased, according to the Wine Market Council. To this younger group of drinkers, wine is the more sophisticated beverage of choice, but not everyone knows how to consume or purchase it.

..........Kristen Jonna: Planning a benefit bash

Vinotecca marks first year with new wines

Detroit Free Press
By Sylvia Rector
Free Press Restaurant Critic
April 5, 2006

Can it have been a year since the Jonna family opened its successful Vinotecca wine bar in downtown Royal Oak? The concept -- too rare around here -- is a hit.

Now, Kristin Jonna and staff are not only marking the anniversary with an April 12 benefit bash, they're unveiling a new food menu and a dramatically different wine list by new wine director Paul Hannah.

Jonna says the new list is "almost like starting over. We spent the year learning what customers want to know about wine and what they want to try, and they're much more experimental than we dreamed."

Tickets to the 7-9 p.m. event are $25 and will aid the Oakland Pet Fund and Royal Oak Animal Shelter. Reservations requested. (417 S. Main, Royal Oak; 248-544-6256).

And there's more to celebrate: the launch of Vinology, an even larger wine bar and restaurant at 110 N. Main in Ann Arbor, coming in a month or so, Jonna says.

Wine bar slated for former Mayer-Schairer building

Business Review
Washington/Livingston
By Jennifer Daniel Szymanski

A member of a longtime wine-loving family is branching out on her own with a series of concept restaurants, one of which is slated to occupy a notable Main Street location.

Kristin Jonna, daughter of John Jonna – who founded Merchant of Vino – will open Vinology, a wine bar, restaurant and retail shop later this year in the former Mayer-Schairer building on Main Street.

“We’ve been working on Ann Arbor for over two years now,” said Jonna, who not only came up with the restaurant’s concept and design, but also carefully selected every wine that will appear on the menu. It’s her first solo project as well as her first stint as a business owner.

Vinology will feature a large selection of wines from every major region available by the bottle, glass, and in “sample pours.” The restaurant also will offer tapas and an artisan cheese station. It will seat nearly 200 people and will encompass 8,000 square feet on two floors: the wine bar and restaurant on the ground floor and the retail store on the lower level.

The retail store will sell every wine that’s on the menu, said Jonna, as well as... (read more) pdf file

The delights of the vine

metrotimes
By Jane Slaughter
5/11/2005

As my oenophile companion Michael walked into the new wine bar Vinotecca on a Saturday night, an acquaintance assured him, “You'll have fun.” Since that acquaintance happened to be the sommelier at Holiday Market, we took him seriously.

And that's Vinotecca's premise: to take wine seriously and have a blast doing it. Well aware of the intimidation factor in wine appreciation, owner Kristin Jonna, of the Merchant's Fine Wine Jonna family, says, “Vinotecca's main goal was not to be a stuffy wine venue. My father and I are recognized in the community as educators who are very casual, approachable and friendly. We can bring wine to anybody.

“We believe that educating is the key. You can take somebody who's inexperienced and who's intimidated by wine, and in a one-hour seminar convert them to someone who understands their own palate. What do you like? There's a wine for everyone.”

So patrons can learn from... (read more)

Raise a glass at new Royal Oak wine spot

Detroit Free Press
By Kim Silarski
Free Press Special Writer

The lowdown: Vinotecca \`vee-no-`tek-ah\ n. 1: a wine library 2: a fun, new wine and tapas bar and retail store in downtown Royal Oak designed to entertain and educate grape nuts and novices alike. John Jonna and his family, who own the Merchant of Vino wine stores, have just unveiled the prototype for what they hope will be a series of intimate, inviting spots where patrons eat, drink and shop for wine in one classy, compact space. Vinotecca is the final piece of a dining and entertainment complex at Fifth and Main, joining the cool Belgian brasserie Bastone, zesty Café Habana and the basement nightclub Cinq.

They're all owned by the same investor group, which includes Fox News anchor Fanchon Stinger and her husband, Tony Camilleri, who dine frequently in their own establishments. Everyone's so confident in the Vinotecca format that they're plunging ahead with a second location in Ann Arbor; that's set to open this fall.

The atmosphere: To the wine-challenged: Have no fear. Some patrons are looking to stimulate their sophisticated palates but, as with any good library, Vinotecca's goal is... (read more)

New wine bar in Royal Oak toasts the grape
Smoke-free Vinotecca offers full range of wines and liquors, plus Belgian beer and light foods.

DetroitNews.com
By Molly Abraham
Detroit News Restaurant Critic

ROYAL OAK --The first two elements of the planned trio of restaurants on the corner of Main and Fifth streets in downtown Royal Oak have been in place for nearly a year now.

Bastone, the Belgian-style brasserie and brewpub, and Cafe Habana, an evocation of a Cuban cantina, had a head start on Vinotecca. But starting today, the wine bar with a light menu of tapas completes the lineup when it opens its doors at 4 p.m.

It's a good-looking space, long and narrow with an industrial style open ceiling with ducts and... (read more)