The San Francisco Giants have added a new star to their line-up, a master sommelier to help the wine game at Oracle Park.
Evan Goldstein is the first sommelier ever hired by a pro sports team.
“With baseball, we say hot dog and a beer for good reason and we’re looking forward to trying to help change that experience,” he said. “Not replace the beer, but maybe have wine be as strong a part of the experience as the beer is.”
Goldstein is a bit of a phenom off the field, he is the highest designation a wine professional can reach.
There’s only about 270 of them in the entire world.
The San Francisco native and lifelong Giants fan became the youngest ever to pass the ultimate wine test — at the tender age of 26.
“My primary goal here is to make wine, and make the culture of wine, a paradigm shift in what people can expect in professional sports today,” said Goldstein.
He’s helped the Giants with wine before, now he’ll be elevating Oracle Park’s multiple wine bars.
Whether it’s hosting wine tastings on off days, or helping fans pair grigio with garlic fries.
“The thing when you’re trying to pair wine with garlic fries is you have the pungency of the garlic so what you need to do is have something to counterbalance that,” said Goldstein. “I would suggest two elements to that. One, really bright acidity, so a crisp refreshing wine like you might find in a white wine, say a sauvignon blanc, a pinot grigio, albarino or something like that, but also something that’s on the earthier side.”
Goldstein will also work with current and former players who are interested in wine to refine their palettes.
“There are a lot of players I know that have an interest in wine but really don’t know where to begin, how would I start?” he said. “If I do want to go to wine country on my day off, where do I begin? So we’re probably going to have some little classes, some mini-bootcamps, some tastings. How to taste wine, what to look for.”
So, even though the Giants very likely won’t make the playoffs, they are now league-leading – in vino.
This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.
Source: NBC Bay Area