The Wine Master

Awaiting my interview last Friday morning with Mary Ewing-Mulligan, owner and president of the International Wine Center, I admired, on the receptionist’s desk, a vase filled with delicate flowers including a feathery leafed, yellow-flowered plant I couldn’t identify.As Ms. Ewing-Mulligan ushered me into her office, I asked about the plant in question. Ms. Ewing-Mulligan looked at it closely.“I think it’s dill,” she said. “I remember seeing it growing wild when I jogged in California.” She put a stalk to her nose. “Not much smell,” she said. Scratching into the stem with a fingernail, she smelled again, then put it to my nose. Voila! The smell of fresh dill.That scratch and sniff exercise was an indicator that, while Ms. Ewing-Mulligan could pass for a corporate lawyer, her realm is the olfactory senses. Since 1994, she has been at the helm of the IWC, the only wine school in the city to offer three-tiered certification by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, a global education organization. While other wine schools typically focus on an amateur’s appreciation of what’s in the glass, the IWC emphasizes a more academic approach aimed at professionals in the wine trade. Last September, the school moved from downtown to spacious new quarters on Seventh Avenue a few blocks south of Penn Station.For its most ambitious students, the IWC’s curriculum is a step toward attempting to earn the title of Master of Wine, a British designation considered to be the wine trade’s most prestigious credential. (There are currently 247 “M.W.’s” worldwide.) While a candidate must pass extensive exams and write a dissertation, the most daunting test requires a written analysis of multiple wines tasted blind. Each must be identified by varietal, origin, vintage, and for quality. In 1993, Ms. Ewing-Mulligan became the first American female M.W. It took her five years, during which, she said, “I had a lot of failures. There were moments when I thought that the struggle was not worth it and that I’d gained everything that I needed from it. It sent me searching into my heart.”With her husband, Ed McCarthy, Ms. Ewing-Mulligan wrote “Wine for Dummies” (Wiley, $21.99), first published in 1995. Wine books don’t usually become enormous bestsellers. But “Wine for Dummies” has done exactly that, with more than 1 million copies in print. It has been translated into 15 languages, ranging from French to Korean and, most recently, Serbian. Ms. Ewing-Mulligan grew up in a suburban Philadelphia household that, rather than wine, “heavily featured milk.” As a newly minted English major from the University of Pennsylvania, she knew “absolutely zero about the wine world,” but got her first job from the Italian Trade Commission, where she promoted both Italian fashion and wine. “Eventually, I had the choice to go 100% one way or the other,” she said. “I went for wine because people in that business had always been kind, encouraging, supportive, and humanistic. Strange, because the wine world is perceived to be full of snobbism.”Taste alone isn’t what pushed Ms. Ewing-Mulligan deeper into wine. “There was the intellectual fascination,” she said. “I remember thinking that even if someone could wave a magic wand so that you could know every grape variety in the world, come the next harvest, you’d have to start all over again, because every vintage is different. So you can never totally grasp it.”Beginning in the late 1970s, Ms. Ewing-Mulligan did stints brokering a portfolio of Italian wine and doing promotion for Monsieur Henri, a Pepsico-owned importer known for Yago Sangria. But, she said, “I wasn’t made for sales. I wanted to work where I had no commercial allegiance. I wanted to own my own options about wine. So I joined the International Wine Center.” Founded in 1982 by the late Albert Hotchkin Jr., the center was first located above a wine bar called Tastings on West 55th Street. The IWC offered wine-appreciation courses and dinners at which winemakers could present their own wines matched to appropriate dishes. While the IWC still welcomes amateur students, most who enroll work for wine importers, wholesalers, retailers, or restaurants.Ms. Ewing-Mulligan and Mr. McCarthy built a 3,500-bottle insulated wine cellar at their home in Baldwin, Long Island. The couple is completing a new book called “WineTaste,” to be published by Wiley in November. “One thing I know for sure,” Ms. Ewing-Mulligan said with a laugh, “is that, having ‘Wine for Dummies,’ I don’t dare lapse into jargon.”Crib NotesBefore ending our interview, Ms. Ewing-Mulligan agreed to answer a few bothersome questions about wine:What do you say to people who are overwhelmed by the choices in a well-stocked wine shop?Ask for advice, but don’t worry about making the one right choice. There are many good wines and many good choices for each situation. The most important thing is to communicate your wishes.How much should one have to pay for a “serious” bottle of wine?I really think quality is not the issue. You could spend $50 for a California cabernet sauvignon and decide that it’s too oaky or ripe. Or that a $50 Bordeaux is too restrained. You can get very good wines from, say, the south of France which cost under $15 but are as good as any $35 domestic wine. But you have to like the style.Any advice for a person who likes wine but can’t tell one from another?You need to think more about what you are tasting. Start by a bigger glass. Hold the wine in your mouth longer. Think about its texture in the front and back of the mouth. But it all starts with thinking. Making distinctions isn’t easy today, because many wines are tasting more alike.Do you see any particular wine type coming on strong in 2005?Syrah, as a grape, is one I am definitely keeping my eye on. Portugal, with all its wonderful native grape varietals, is starting to do good things with Syrah, as is Israel and South America. And, of course, there’s Washington and California.Do you ever swear off wine?At home, Ed and I don’t drink wine with our dinner during the first two weeks of January. It sort of recalibrates us. But I keep reaching to the upper right-hand corner of my place mat and wondering where the wine glass is!International Wine Center, 350 Seventh Ave., Suite 1201, 212-239-3055, www.internationalwinecenter.com. The next available first-level course begins on March 3.Tuition is $598 plus $10 registration fee (including all course materials and wines) for eight classes.

The Wine Master

The Wine Master

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