Chef Gene on Wines and Spirits

April 28, 2009 | 09:03 AM
Category: • Spot Features

The Wine and Spirits Club Philippines is a group of enthusiasts, collectors and newbies bound by a passion for learning, discovering and enjoying drinks as much as eating good food. Chef Gene Gonzalez shares with SPOT how the group started, what they really do when they get together and muses about being the Philippines’ very own ‘Thirsty Traveler’.

SPOT: What was the inspiration behind Wines and Spirits Club Philippines?

Chef Gene: I used to be Manila head for the Confrerie dela Chaine des Rotisseurs. It’s the oldest club in the world and is dedicated to the upliftment of food and service. It’s a gastronomic society that’s recognized worldwide. Am also a member of the sub-group, Ordre Mondial des Gourmets Degustateurs, a Wines and Spirits group reachable only to those who can afford to be members of this group. The dinners are quite expensive and you are amongst and in the midst of hard-core wine collectors and hard-core gourmets.

I met a group of yuppies who are more nonchalant about the title of being a ‘gourmet’. We like eating, we like drinking wine and the role of club is really to spread the appreciation of food and wine. We thought of democratizing the appreciation of wines and spirits and the appreciation of food that goes with it so we set up the website for the Wines and Spirits Club Philippines. The site is also the storage of our database, the storage of our essays, the storage of our writings. It’s a treasure trove of our memories. People can come in and people can read what we’ve been doing, what we’ve been eating, what we’ve been drinking. And it’s the greatest, I would say we have the most active talent. You have the best collectors who wish to share their experiences. They are not selfish at all about giving advice to newbies about what to do, where to get wine. It’s become a forum. And it can go from the very serious to the most humorous.

SPOT: Is this just a purely online community for now?

Chef Gene: We have our own pocket events like dinners. The dinners can be fun, like once we had the themed “Brown Bag Dinners” wherein we bring a bottle of wine, and nobody knows which wine you brought. We serve it in a brown bag, totally unidentified. You might know your wine, you consistently drink it, but you don’t know the sequence of when it is served. And we vote for the best wine and the worst wine. The person who brought the worst wine of the evening pays the bill. But it’s fun. And what you realize from these dinners are, sometimes the most expensive, the priciest and the highest-rated wines by all these foreign critics are not always correct. They may not be appreciated by certain talents

SPOT: Do you have strict guidelines on the membership or it’s just really a group of people who love wine and other drinks?

Chef Gene: All you have to do is log in and register. Eventually we might have to put a premium on that to become a member. But right now all you have to do is log in, get involved in the forums and attend the events. It’s really a fun website. People have seen the value of being a member and getting involved.

SPOT: Tell us about your first experience of trying beer or wine?

Chef Gene: My first beer was when I was around five years old. We had drunkard relatives who thought it was funny to give a kid a beer. I got vamped out then eventually there would be these really ritzy parties in my lola’s place. They had cocktails in some area in the living room or in a salon. When the guests would leave, I would go and drink the leftovers. I was always fascinated by watching television, by movies like The Cask of Amontillado, how they would be able to identify these wines, how their talents could be so trained. And with wines, beers or spirits, if they come in moderation, it’s fascinating, especially the process of how they are made. They just have to be well explained, how they’re paired off with food, how the cultures use them, whether they use them for entertaining, or for ceremonies. It’s fascinating. It’s also universal - the taking in of these beverages.

SPOT: What are your personal wine favorites?

Chef Gene: It really depends on the meal but I’m very partial to Spanish wines, probably because they’re memories of poverty. They were what were affordable before when I was receiving a meager salary and these were beverages that I could afford. And Spain is now one of the centers of cuisine in Europe. They have really gone a long way. Also, because one of the biggest vineyard owners in Spain is my friend, Miguel Torres. I’ve been welcomed in his vineyards and his expansive plantation and learned so much from his group, everything from wines to brandies.

SPOT: Did you ever attend wine appreciation classes or wine courses?

Chef Gene: I didn’t attend any wine appreciation courses. I picked it up from people who dined and I always had an open ear. Also, my family is a family of foodies. They’d rather die than not eat good food. My education came straight out from their table and of course, I read a lot and learned a lot when I started joining the wine clubs.

SPOT: Would you ever want a job like that of the Thirsty Traveler’s at some point in your life?

Chef Gene: Yes, I’m quite a fan. I would love to. In fact there’s only one person that has documented local drinks and spirits and the book is out of print. And unfortunately, my copy was eaten by termites. It’s called “Inumang Pinoy” by Edilberto Alegre. It’s a very rare book. He’s the only person who has documented Philippine spirits. He’s written about basi, lambanog and someone should follow up on these. And nobody’s doing artisanal rums. We have a rum industry but it’s all mass-produced.

SPOT: Where do you go for wine? Beer? For other drinks in Manila?

Chef Gene: I actually bring my own because we know all the suppliers anyway. Although, there are some really good places that carry good wines like Barcino. There are some good places that carry good inventory and they’re not expensive. I just bring my own and then I just pay corkage. Some of the best places in Manila recognize that if you are a wine drinker, you normally order good food and you order well so they don’t really hit you on the corkage or they give the corkage for free cause they profit a lot from the food you order.

SPOT: If Chef Gene were a drink, what would you be and why?

Chef Gene: I think I’d be wine. I think I’d be a spicy Spanish red.

For more information on the upcoming events of the Wines and Spirits Club Philippines, log on to www. winesandspiritsclub-philippines.com.