Du Jour: Ian McCaffery, Martin Wine Cellar

A wine’s alleged taste profile can sometimes include descriptors that may seem familiar but which still elude the taster. Gooseberry and cassis don’t appear frequently on the produce aisle, and how exactly is stone fruit different from just peach? Martin Wine Cellar Manager Ian McCaffery has made a point of decoding such descriptors so that wine tasting makes more sense. If he can’t recall what passion fruit or star anise taste like, off he goes to find a real world example he can hold, smell and taste. Such empirical investigation is at the heart of McCaffery’s personal affinity for wine, which started when he waited tables in his native New Orleans. Knowing about wine—and how to pair it with great food—was an essential part of a life in upscale restaurants.

Later, McCaffery joined Martin Wine Cellar, the venerable Crescent City purveyor, and helped open its Magazine Street store and its first store in Baton Rouge in 2007. His expertise—and his practical method of training the taste buds—is at the heart of Martin’s wine tasting classes, conducted in revolving four-week sessions. Among other exercises, he adds common flavors to neutral wines to demonstrate how profiles emerge.

By day, McCaffery dispenses solid advice about wines and how to pair them from Martin’s new home at 7248 Perkins Rd. By night, he’s cooking, pairing and sampling at home. While wines have served all sorts of purposes throughout their long history, McCaffery believes one prevails: “In the end, it’s all about drinking wine with food.”

To read previous Du Jour features on local chefs and other culinary experts, click here.