VUE

Navigating the world of wine can be both challenging and rewarding if you know your stuff. However, oentimes when it comes to picking up a bottle or ordering during a night out, we cling to wine's own equivalent of an old wives' tale. Does all wine truly get better with age? Does a screw cap mean poorer quality? ese are just some of the questions we ask ourselves. While deciphering fact from fiction on your own can prove to be insurmountable, I enlisted the guidance of John Jansma, who serves as wine director for Ninety Acres at Natirar in Far Hills. Jansma is someone who, even during his adolescent years, has been fascinated with wine and spirits. Waiting tables and bartending during his collegiate years led him to transition into beverage purchasing, sales and eventually, he became a restaurant sommelier. Jansma holds a sommelier certification from the Sommelier Society of America and most recently, took first place in New Jersey's Iron Shaker competition. O N B E I N G A S O M M E L I E R : "ere's nothing that gives us more excitement as wine professionals than someone who can say, 'Hey, I heard about this and it sounds really cool, but I know nothing about it – give me the basics.' We thrive on this and it gets us really excited. e world of wine and spirits is so broad. A lot of times I'll have a guest who comes in to ask me a question about something that I'm not 100 percent on, then we'll both learn something – which is really cool. I'd rather they ask me about something that totally throws me off and see if I can get through it." T H E T R U T H A B O U T S C R E W C A P S : "I would say that screw caps are awesome for the environment. ey're really great because they have the technology that corked wine doesn't really have. Corked wine is still really a big pain for everybody. Most wines these days (about 90 percent) are made to be consumed and enjoyed pretty quickly – within five days. It's always been this way, people want the instant gratification." W I N E ' S B I G G E S T M Y T H : "I think the biggest myth is that wine gets better with age. It's more like, a few wines get better with age. e wines that actually get better with age are the ones that are extreme in their youth – you'll know it when you taste it. Wines from Bordeaux that are really young or wines where the acid content is so high that they rip the enamel off your teeth. Typically they are expensive to begin with so you're not going to go in and buy a $30 bottle and want to lay that down for 10 years. ey're probably in V U E N J . C O M 105

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