Christopher Dooley is a sommelier and the Assistant Wine Director at one of the world’s most highly rated restaurants: Eleven Madison Park Restaurant in New York City. The restaurant’s impressive wine list boasts an average of 5,000 wines, so to say that Dooley knows wines is an understatement!
Dooley spends his day interacting with customers to assure that they have exactly the wine experience they are looking for while dining. He also orders wine, curates the restaurant’s wine list, and coordinates wines with foods.
Further, he works with a team of sommeliers to assure that the wine list reflects what they deem to be the most important inclusions for a restaurant of Eleven Madison Park’s caliber.
During the filming of Wine Revealed, we had the chance to sit down with Christopher Dooley and talk about what he looks for, and what novices and aficionados alike can look for when tasting wines. Dooley shared some thoughtful observations with us.
When he tries a new wine, he will immediately look at the color and check for sediment, clarity, and light. He looks directly down into the glass and compares the color in the core to the edges – this can be a clue as to oxidation.
Next, he puts his nose to work, “My kinda favorite part is the aromatics, I think for the most part I could just smell a glass of wine and be totally fine with that.” He smells for flaws, fruit, non-fruit, minerals, and oak. He then tastes for structure: “I look for the body of the wine, the alcohol, the acid, tannin, phenolics, things like that.”
Dooley explains that acid is tasted high and in the back of the mouth, and you experience salivation as a result of it. He goes on to describe tannins as an astringency that is pleasant and compares it to over-steeped tea.
As to the structure of the wine, “I think body and alcohol tend to go hand in hand, or body and sugar… so the higher the sugars you have, the more kind of saline or weight the wine is going to have.” Higher alcohol may be perceived as sweetness, he adds.
And finally, as to the finish, “What am I thinking about after that wine has been swallowed or spit, whether it’s fruit or non-fruit or just kind of what that wine’s lasting impression is.” Sometimes a taste really lingers, and he enjoys what he terms “the poetry of the wine.”
As to his own personal preferences, Dooley is somewhat eclectic, “Chardonnay is my happy place… I love Burgundy, Burgundy’s one of my favorites.” He was in New Zealand recently and fell in love with a Pinot Noir there. He also finds that many Oregon wines are wonderful and delicious.
Dooley discussed Old World and New World wines with us, and states, “I think in general in the New World you’re just going to drink a lot more sunshine… you’re going to see higher ripeness, it’s going to be more fruit-forward, you’re going to see higher alcohol levels in general.”
Old world wines, on the other hand, have more minerality or savoriness. You will get smells like rocks, dirt, or mushrooms, Dooley explains, “Sometimes the fruit isn’t the first thing you smell when you put your nose in the glass.”
“In the end, I think that wine is meant to be shared,” he asserts, “it’s more fun to share it with other people…Wine is kind of the embodiment of humanity… you’re drinking humanity in a glass, and I think that’s the most exciting part because you can learn so much through it.”
