Week 8: Sara Kavanaugh
by SonnyLee on Mar.28, 2012, under Weekly Guests
Assistant Food and Beverage Director/Sommelier, Grill Room and Polo Lounge at the Windsor Court Hotel
A native of Shreveport, Sara Kavanaugh joined The Grill Room in Fall 2008. Her vast knowledge of wine growing techniques, regions, storing and grape varieties, as well as her extensive travels through European wine regions enables her to create astute pairings to the creative dishes of The Grill Room.
From a young age, Sara exhibited an exceptional interest in food. Sara earned her degree in Culinary Arts and Food Beverage Management from Johnson and Wales University in Charleston, South Carolina, then proceeded to earn her wine certification at the prestigious German Sommelier School in Koblanz, Germany. Sara is also a certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommelier, a designation she received in January 2007. Before coming to The Grill Room, Sara was the Assistant Sommelier to Rick Rubel at Charleston Place, where she was in charge of a $550,000 wine cellar.
March 28th, 2012 on 7:08 pm
Sara Kavanaugh spoke of an unfamiliar subject to me: wine. Don’t get me wrong, I like to drink it, but I don’t know much about it. Reading the wine portion of a menu at a restaurant is like trying to read a foreign language. Anyway, the lecture with Sara was all over the place for me. I had a hard time grasping the whole purpose of her lecture and how it relates to this course. I know that Irvin had her talk to us for a reason, but I left the classroom with a clouded understanding of what was just discussed. To be honest, I kind of felt bad for Sara because I felt that some of the students in the class were attacking her, and I could definitely see the panic in her face as the students questioned the central purpose of why she was speaking to us. If I would have to guess, the purpose of the lecture was that wine is very much a part of our culture here in New Orleans. I learned from Sara that wine mostly originated in Eastern Europe, and New Orleans is prominently European culture. Evidence of this is that Sara said she has sold more European wine here than anywhere else in the United States. In relation to this, the food and beverage industry is a prominent industry in our culture. People come here from all over the US to eat and drink, so wine is probably a big industry because of tourism. It is also popular for business meetings to be centered around food and beverages, so one could see why wine is affiliated with prestige and etiquette. It brought upon some controversy when Sara said the most expensive bottle of wine she has ever drank was $6,000. Some students said that this price for a bottle of wine is ridiculous. “The market drives the pricing of wine,” said Sara. She also explained to us that there are many factors that determine the price of a bottle of wine, such as the history of the winery it came from, there may be a small amount of it, and whether it is first growth, second growth, etc.
March 28th, 2012 on 7:26 pm
I just noticed that in Sara Kavanaugh’s biography above, it did not include that she is currently the Sommelier at the prestigious Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans. This is the #1 hotel in Louisiana and the #6 hotel in the nation.
Sara also told the class about the Court of Master Sommelier program, which the goal of this program is to become a master of wine. It takes a lot of dedication and experience in the wine industry to achieve the title of a master because of the numerous tough exams. Sara said it normally takes years to achieve this status. I feel that you have to be very passionate about the wine industry and everything that goes into it to really be dedicated to achieving a master title.
I learned many new things about wine from Sara, such as why the quality of wine increases as it ages, the actual skin of the grapes makes the color of the wine, there are wineries in every state in the US, sulphur is in all wines to stabilize it, and wine breaks down when it is exposed to oxygen. The idea that interested me the most in the lecture with Sara is when one of the students asked her how wine is really apart of our culture in New Orleans. She answered, “You make wine a part of your own culture. You have to immerse yourself in the knowledge of wine to really understand what it is. Just like art, if you don’t take the time to immerse yourself in it and learn about it, you won’t fully appreciate it and make it a part of your culture.”
April 2nd, 2012 on 8:33 am
Sara Kavanaugh is a fun loving and energetic person. She carries herself with a grandeur that one can see she means business when at work. She was raised in Rustin, La and grew up in Shrevesport, La. She went to LSU were whe did not do so well and then worked as a barkeep in New Orleans. From there she went on to culinary school in Charleston at Johnson and Wales as a cook. She used this experience for a while then had an opportunity to travel to Europe. She studied in a sommelier program and became an assistant. She now holds a Court of Master as a Sommelier. Her travels have helped her to be a much better sommelier.
She believes wine in not a scarry subject. It is a billion dollar industry. She brought out how food and wine are much of the New Orleans culture. Since New Orleans holds a lot of French background she said it has an even higher incline to drink wine except around Easter or Lent when a lot of people will abstain from it. She says one of the hardest things about her job is listening to the customer and pairing up their discription of what they would like to drink to the wines that they have available or suggesting a wine if a customer is uncertain. This dealing with uncertainty is a real challenge.
Sara brought out a couple of interesting facts about wine that I did not know. She told us that wine has sulphur added to it to keep it from oxidizing so quickly and she told us that you might one that is fine and filtered to some degree, which gets out some of the impurities. However, you don’t want them all gone. The red wine gets its color from the skins being let in the wine for a period of time and then strained later.
April 10th, 2012 on 7:45 pm
As one of the few people in this city, and perhaps the world, who doesn’t like wine I didn’t think this class would be of much interest or relevance to me. While I still feel the same about wine as I did before Sara Kavanaugh spoke to us, I am now much more informed about it. The Windor Court hotel where Ms. Kavanaugh is a sommelier is ranked number one in the city and number six in the entire U.S.
One interesting thing Ms. Kavanaugh spoke about was the Court of Master Sommeliers. Only 186 candidates have earned their Master Sommelier Diploma, and only 17 are female. There are four levels of examination that one must pass before receiving their diploma and having the title of “M.S.” behind their name. Ms. Kavanaugh informed us that she has been trying to pass the exam for years but to no avail. Becoming an M.S. is a very serious and prestigious process. This was amazing to me to learn that there are actual wine degrees and titles, comparable to those in a medical field for example.
I learned a lot about the processes of making wine, and all of the different types during this class. Sulfur is added to wine in order to prevent oxidation. Oxidation of wine is what makes it taste flat after it has been opened. Madeira is a fortified dessert wine. What makes it interesting is that it came about by traveling through the Port of New Orleans. In typical New Orleans way, we areunlike other cities in that we sell a lot of European or Old World wines. Ms. Kavanaugh said that of all the places she has worked she’s never seen a place sell so many Old World wines as New Orleans. When asked “what makes a wine expensive?” Ms. Kavanaugh responded “the history of the winery, great vintage and limited release.”
While I am still not a fan of wine, and do not planning on becoming one anytime soon, I do appreciate Ms. Kavanaugh coming to speak to us. I learned a lot of things that I did not know prior to this class.
April 11th, 2012 on 11:34 am
When I saw that Sara Kavanaugh was going to be our guest in class today i had no idea what to expect. I saw that her job had something to do with wine and that didn’t help my expectations much either. Once she came into class i was in for a lesson about wine that could have never ended it seemed like but i enjoyed all of it. I don’t drink much wine, but it was cool to learn so much about it in one class. Things from the color of grapes or how long they soak in their skins go into play during the wine making process. Another interesting thing about wine is that it could be ingredients in the wine that give you a headache instead of drinking to much. Or it could be vice versa.
Sara Kavanaugh eventually learned that she would want to work in the food and beverage business and once she got an opportunity to work with wine it took off. It got her where she is now and she loves it. I could tell she really loved her job just by how she went on talking about it. She thinks no one should take wine seriously, but then wine bottles can cost 1000 dollars and wine cellars can cost 500 thousdand dollars. That pretty serious! But i understood what she meant by it, her job isnt anything worth stressing too much over and it should be fun. I learned alot this class from Sara Kavanaugh about wine and everything it entails.
April 11th, 2012 on 12:18 pm
Well this interview was very different to say the least. Our guest was Ms. Sara Kavanuah a sommelier at The Grill Room in the Windsor Court Hotel. Her knowledge on wine was quite refreshing but there was a slight disconnection between her interview and how it relates to New Orleans culture. I definitely don’t believe this interview was redundant but I wish we could have discussed how wine is relative to new orleans in an intimate way . Kavanuagh repeatedly claimed that food and beverage was a major part of New Orleans culture and while many might agree with her I still feel the interview was quite dry; lacking details on what wine means to New Orleans as a cultural aspect. Don’t get me wrong food and beverage is very important and relevant to New Orleans because we live and breathe diverse cuisines, but I wanted to know more about wine and it’s relativity to NewOrleans and the best advice she could give me was to take a wine class. Maybe she was confused, I don’t want to know more about wine as far as what different types of grapes make what wine, but what makes it special to New Orleans.
April 11th, 2012 on 12:19 pm
Sara Kavanaugh is the sommelier, or the wine expert for the Windsor Court Hotel here in New Orleans. Having her in class was a big change from some of our previous guests, especially Barbara Major. And that’s why I think a few people came off as rude- they didn’t understand how Ms. Kavanaugh’s profession connected to the overall message of the class. They were so abrasive as to literally ask her something to the effect of, “How does this apply to our class?”
Some class members took on the stereotypical liberal college student point of view. They didn’t care to know anything about the “elite,” therefore they closed their minds to the class.
Ms. Kavanaugh’s presence was relative to our class because it relates to the business class and tourism industry in New Orleans.
Tourism has been one of the largest employers in New Orleans since the late 80s, and in the post-Katrina landscape, it grows increasingly more important.
April 11th, 2012 on 1:51 pm
Sara Kavanaugh came to our class to discuss a topic that I am somewhat familiar with: wine. Sara’s biography states she has enjoyed food since a young age so it is not a surprise to me that later came a large interest in wine. She graduated from Johnson and Wales University in South Carolina then she traveled to Germany to earn her wine certification from the prestigious German Sommelier School. In 2007, Court of Master Sommelier certified Sara as a Sommelier. She has been in charge of some very large wine cellars in the city of New Orleans including the Rib Room, and now the Windsor Court. She is currently the Assistant Food and Beverage Manager at the Windsor Court, as well as their Sommelier. The Windsor Court’s Wine Cellar currently holds 8000 bottles of wine comprised of 900 different labels; the wine cellar is worth about $500,000. Besides overseeing the wine cellar, Sara also helps train and inform the Windsor Court’s staff on general wine information, specifics on certain wines, and helps empower the staff to feel comfortable selling wine to hotel guests. Sara also stated that she does a class, which is open to the public on the first Wednesday of every month to help others in the city understand wine and hopefully find a love of wine like her own. Sara has traveled all over the world to learn about wine, including Europe and Australia. She is very entergetic and passionate about her work which is very admirable.
Being in the restaurant industry I like to think I know a little bit about wine. If at the least what I like and what I don’t like, and I can explain why to others. I by no means am an expert on wine. Sara taught me a few things that I had never known before. One, wines from Burgundy, France are made from the pinot noir grape varietal and wines from Bordeaux, France are made from the cabernet grape varietal. This made sense because I have always liked Burgundy wines for daily drinking and Bordeaux wines if I was eating a heavier meal such as a steak. Two, there is sulfur in all wines, air breaks down and oxidizes wine, the sulfur acts like a barrier to slow this process down. Lighter colored wines such as a pinot noir need more sulfur to help stabilize the wine. Three, everyone has always said that red wine is good for your heart. The reason is the antioxidants in the skin of red grapes are what are good for your heart. Four, I never knew where wine originated; I assumed in Europe but never truly knew. The answer: Greece and Eastern Europe. She explained about why to age wine and what makes it expensive, the difference of old and new world wines. I already knew much about these topics but I think it helped the class understand more of what she was talking about. In the end, I felt bad for Sara because parts of the class did not understand why she would come and talk to the class and talk about wine. Some almost attacked her about whether it is ethical to drink a $6000 bottle of wine or how wine is culture in New Orleans, seeing as the grapes aren’t grown here, nor is the wine produced here. They understood why our other speakers came, which discussed the hotel industry, architecture in New Orleans, racism, etc., but wine was not something they saw as a part of New Orleans culture. Sara tackled this question very well she simply stated “your culture is what you make it, you make wine part of your own culture.”
April 17th, 2012 on 11:36 pm
In regards to Casie’s comment about red wine being good for the heart, I’ve heard from a doctor that the health benefits from alcohol are outweighed by a person’s chance of developing alcoholism. I’m sure the antioxidants are good for your health, though.
And other than tourism, this relates to the culture of New Orleans because it is alcohol, and even one of our students who questioned how it is part of New Orleans culture admitted to drinking wine, and enjoying it as part of her culture.
And so the argument is void. Wine’s part of our culture. Let’s get drunk and be merry.
Think Brave New World: “Orgy Porgy, Ford and Fun, Kiss the Girls and Make them One.”
Anyhow, I enjoy wine, and while I typically buy really cheap stuff like Yellowtail, and while the most expensive bottle I have ever bought is $11, I love to drink the stuff occasionally.
To me, it differs from other alcohols because it gives me a more relaxing than beer or bourbon.
Enough bourbon and I’ll be attempting to drop kick my friends in the head, as I’ve exemplified in 2009 in Pontchartrain Hall.
With wine, I could have a conversation with a beautiful girl as my cat rubs against my feet that sit eloquently on a Persian rug.
Now that’s cultural.
Maybe even…
New Orleanian.
Or I could fall down the abominable fence-and-rock levee at the fly when the river’s low.
Culture!
Bam. So, Sara Kavanaugh, the sommelier at one of the country’s finest hotels recommends fine wines to the social elite, based on the types of flavors they want to innebreate, achemm, accent their suave personalities.
Some range up to $6,000.
And their sale happens, but you don’t know it from your Mid-City shotgun double, around 9 or 10 at night.
You wouldn’t have known it, nor does it impact you in anyway, but nonetheless it does occur.
It occurred in the diverse social framework of New Orleans.
That’s why you’s sitting at home, struggling to make $400 rent, and the CEO of Entergy is pouring bottles of Dom Perignon on the Beyonce’s breasts in the Presidential Suite at the Windsor Court Hotel.
Or in this case, Giacomo Conterno’s Barolo Monfortino on Salma Heyek’s breasts in the courtyard of the Monteleone.
O, the vibrant culture of la Nouvelle-Orleans!
April 25th, 2012 on 8:50 am
Sara Kavanaugh came into our classroom optimistically to teach us a few things about wine, becoming a wine expert, and her experiences at the Grill Room in the Windsor Court Hotel as their own sommelier. Ms. Kavanaugh was very knowledgeable in her field and she was great at answering many of our questions about the production of wine, the industry, and even why we might need to have good wine etiquette in the future.
Unfortunately, when one student voiced what I had been thinking during the whole introduction, which was “how is this topic related to our class?”, she seemed less comfortable and more defensive. I do not think that any student in our class intended to offend Ms. Kavanaugh or make her feel uncomfortable. This class is a focus group, and we have been encouraged to be open and honest during interviews with our guests to get down to the very fabric of New Orleans. Although no student can argue that Sara Kavanaugh knew her wine, she seemed ill prepared to discuss New Orleans. Many of the connections she made between wine and our city were very vague, and could be applied to many other cities, and some of the connections she made involved sweeping generalizations about New Orleaneans that I, nor few of my classmates, could relate to. I appreciated learning about Ms. Kavanaugh’s personal experience with wine, but in the context of this class, it would have been much more enlightening to learn about something that has a more direct influence on the culture of New Orleans.
April 29th, 2012 on 11:13 pm
Sara Kavanaugh is a sommelier at The Grill Room in the Windsor Court Hotel. This lecture opened my eyes to the food and beverage industry in ways I’ve never seen it. Before this class I didn’t know that there were certified wine professionals. Now I know a little bit more about the wine industry.
This is the part in my blog where I talk about how this lecture is related to New Orleans and our culture. About that… At first I really didn’t find a strong connection between wine and New Orleans. However, thinking about it actually does. Whether it was that first intoxicating sip of wine, that burned your throat as a child at “first communion”, or whether it was later in life, most of us all have at least savored a little taste of wine. And that’s it! This class is designed to expose us to things we are uninformed about and/or to draw a deeper understanding of things we do know.
Of course this lecture wasn’t as deep as learning about how the tourism industry economically runs New Orleans with Al Groos or how architecture is so unique to our culture with Dean Schwartz. But in essence wine fits right in, because New Orleans is a place where it’s not so much about what type of gumbo you make, it’s about how you add your own flavor to it. Through Kavanaugh’s profession she explained how something different like wine enhances the culture of New Orleans.
May 2nd, 2012 on 12:02 am
New Orleans is a port city. People from all over the world come to see this great city in which we live. Not only are we famous for the architecture, music, the culture and the food but most important is our booze! We as New Orleanians love to party. People come here to walk down the famous Bourbon Street and grab a large hand grenade or go dancing on Frenchmen. But what about the people who don’t need to have a hard cocktail or a heavy beer? Wine is always fine to introduce into a party. It is casual usually light and in small and responsible portions it can be good for you. I personally enjoy the taste of wine whether it is French, Australian, or from California. There are many various creations of wine from sweet to bitter or from heavy to light and crisp. There are people who spend a lot of time creating that perfect taste that is going to complement the pallet.
I enjoyed having Sara Kavanaugh as our speaker. People do not understand the industry wine can produce. Kavanaugh is a sommelier at the Windsor Court Hotel. This is a high end position and this woman knows her stuff. I am a bartender myself and have worked in the French Quarter for four years at a restaurant. Having knowledge for even the cheapest wine (Yellow Tail) would benefit me as an individual. I was able to have conversations with people I would not normally talk to. Even though I enjoy and have a natural taste for wine it does not mean others need to shut it out. When you hear this certain alcohol being talked about people tend to get anxious and change the subject. Down in New Orleans there are parties, parades, festivals and many social gatherings. There is a New Orleans Wine and Food Experience where thousands come and sample some of the finest products of Wine.
There are also places around the city where you are able to sample wine such as W.I.N.O. There you can also gain many facts and information about wine. Sara Kavanaugh is a strong young driven woman who strives for the best. She is from a smaller town in Ruston, Louisiana (go bulldogs) and has made it in this big world. She has travelled the world and has spoken with the most knowledgeable wine makers. She now is employed at The Grill Room where she is able to pair your food with any wine your pallet desires. She has worked hard to satisfy even the pickiest of people and still keep a smile on her face or else she probably would not have that position.
May 3rd, 2012 on 10:52 am
In rereading the syllabus for the class it was tough coming to a conclusion as to why Sara Kavanaugh, Wine Specialist, was brought in as a speaker. It’s something i do for everyone that is brought in, analyze why this person was picked to come and speak to us. Taking a look at previous classes, and seeing all the people that were brought in, it’s evident that Irvin is friends with some pretty prestigious people. Perhaps it didn’t help that I was already feeling a bit indifferent towards this whole class, since we hadn’t had class in about a month. Not only that, but class was usually cancelled at the last minute which although i understand when an emergency is in place, that didn’t seem to be the case. With maybe over half the classes this semester cancelled, and the majority of them being last minute cancellations, well i guess i have made my point in feeling a little neglected and disrespected. I believe the word for how i felt things were being done is unprofessional. Nonetheless, the day we had class and Sara came in, i felt kind of let down. I couldn’t really tie this into the class’ purpose. I spoke up in class, i asked what does a wine specialist have to offer as a participant in this class? I was shot down pretty quickly by Sonny and told that i could leave if i wanted to, that i didn’t have to take this class if i didn’t want to. So, since i saw that conversation going nowhere, i shut up and still sat trying to figure out how what she was talking about played a role in the class. It didn’t help that a lot of really childish questions were asked by us students.
“When i drink red wine, my stomach hurts. What should i do?”
Well it feels to me that among the mayor, speaking on the topic of racism, and the chief of architecture from Tulane, yeah, this question is pretty childish.
Im not writing anything about what she spoke about because since i have a blog to write MY response to what i felt after that presentation, this is what i felt. Let down. I really honestly feel like that was a waste of a class.
This is all i have to say in regards to that presentation. I don’t feel it necessary to go on with this point for the remainder of my required words.
May 3rd, 2012 on 12:20 pm
Sara Kavanaugh was by far my favorite speaker of the semester. Wine is a very interesting topic to me. I do not drink wine, but this lecture had me very interested to try it. It was good for me because I have cooked with different types of wine before and there is so much you can do in a culinary aspect. I felt really bad for Sara because a few other students were interrupting her and being extremely rude. Their questions to her were mostly why is wine important to the history of New Orleans. If you are Downtown in New Orleans, you won’t find many restaurants that do not have a very large selection of wines. New Orleans is such a big city for culture and food. When it comes to fine dining, food and wine go hand in hand. With the number of restaurants owned by the Brennan’s and other’s such as Emeril’s and Commanders Palace, if wine was not available on the menu, then a good amount of their market would not go eat there. When you go and get seafood, you might add a white wine. Or if you get a steak you may add a red wine to your dinner to complement it. Another thing that sparked my interest was when Sara said she used to work in a fine dining restaurant and worked the saute station. It’s not everyday you see a woman working one of the harder stations in a kitchen and that is cool. She went to Johnson and Wales University in South Carolina and received her degree in Culinary Arts and Food Beverage Management. After this she went to Germany to become a Master Sommelier. Sara said that wine originated from Europe and New Orleans is mainly a European culture. To back this statement up, she has sold more European wine in New Orleans that anywhere in the United States. This class really got me interested in taking wine classes when I go to culinary school after I graduate from UNO.
May 5th, 2012 on 12:19 pm
Sara Kavanaugh is a very interesting person from here charming personality to the way to her road to success. Kavanaugh attended LSU an after some bad grades decided that kind of schooling wasn’t for her. I found this very profound a lot of people don’t search for something they really enjoy. I believe college although highly publicized, isn’t the end of all and be all of success. Through her journey in culinary arts and eventually into food and beverage she garnered the position of Sommelier at the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans.
During the class she shared facts about wine and its history. However, in the middle of a discussion about an expensive bottle of wine the class went from being very calm and easy-going into a heated debate on the ethics of buying a $6000 bottle of wine. In my opinion if you have the money to buy it, you are entitled to buy whatever you please. Paris Hilton bought a 100,000 dog house. Do I think it’s dumb yes. But at the end of the day if you can afford to buy whatever it is that makes you happy then, why not, if you’re not hurting anybody else?
May 6th, 2012 on 2:54 pm
Sarah Kavanaugh was a change of pace for the class from our previous guests, but just as important for getting a different perspective of New Orleans from a micro level i.e. wine. Ms. Kavanaugh being a wine sommelier at the Windsor Court Hotel is no small achievement even with a degree in culinary arts and beverage management from Johnson and Wales University. . A two hour class is not enough time to cover all I would like to know about wine, its history, and its religious associations. Ms. Kavanaugh provided us a brief history of wine, the regions of France where wine is produced, the process of wine making, and the importance of grapes , the soil conditions as they relate to wine. It was interesting to hear her tell us about the chemical makeup of wine involving sulphates and tannin as part of the grape to wine process. We discussed the importance of knowing about wine in the business world and how wine is an important aspect of the New Orleans tourism. I found the topic to be quite interesting, especially when I like to drink wine along with a good meal albeit I am quite satisfied with my $5 – $10 bottle of wine. One student had asked what the most expensive bottle of wine she had tasted and her response was $6000. I think I would avoid going to the toilet for six months if I were to drink $6000 bottle of wine. I would feel guilty flushing it down. Overall this class inspired me moving forward to either take a wine tasting or semester long wine history class.
May 7th, 2012 on 6:57 pm
This week’s interview starred Sara Kavanaugh who is the wine sommelier for the amazing Windsor Court Hotel which is the number one hotel in New Orleans and number 6 hotel in the United States. You have to have a real love for what you do to land a job like that.
I learned that wine is a billion dollar industry around the world. With the price of some of the bottles she was naming its not hard believe this as true. I have always known that wine is important to New Orleans culture, but we didn’t really go into why or how. However, I did learn that New Orleans and wine have some significant history with one another. During the prohibition of alcohol New Orleans as a state with a port was used to receive the transport of Madeira, and during the journey it underwent oxidation producing alcohol.
I enjoy wine, loved the lecture, and wish we could have had more time to talk to Sara; however, I find it hard to find so many words to talk about the interview. This is because the majority of the interview seemed like a debate to whether Sara and her important role in the wine industry had anything to do with New Orleans. I understand that wine is probably something that many people, including myself, know very little about. This is probably why most people were confused with how it pertained to the culture of New Orleans, but if everybody were to look back at the majority of the other interviews they would see that the interviews were somewhat similar in the content. The only difference I found was that the majority of the class already had an understanding of how every other speaker’s subject of specialty was important to New Orleans, whether it be architecture, hotel industry, racism or music. If they didn’t understand why they at least know it was. So, instead of learning about more about wine and the role Sara plays in the wine industry and why she is important to the industry, I felt like I was enduring an intense debate which led no where and gave very little insight on the topic of the lecture.
Regardless of this, I am even more interested in learning about wine than I was before this class and I would be interested in volunteering my time with Sara even after this class is over.
May 8th, 2012 on 1:59 pm
When I read up on Sara Kavanaugh I was extremely excited. I don’t know much about wine, but i do know that I enjoy to drink it. When Sara started talking though I realized there was a lot more to wine than red or white. She explained to us the differences in them and the work it takes to make just one bottle. I was shocked at the differences and time it took to create the differences in taste. I do believe wine has a huge part in culture today and Sara even touched on how many important functions or even business dinners revolve around the wine menu, which can be a scary thing to look at. I used to go to dinners with co- workers who would hand me the menu and have me pick out the bottle and it literally was chosen at random. Now I feel more educated on how to pick out the wine of my liking properly and not just hoping for the best. People in class were extremely rude to Mrs. Kavanaugh over the frustration on how much one bottle of wine could cost. I thought that wasn’t there place to hate on what other people do. New Orleans economy is mostly based off of the tourism and as a person who didn’t grow up in New Orleans I know how much food and drinks factor into peoples decisions to come and visit. So what they spend on it shouldn’t matter if thats what they choose to do, or have the money to do so. I was upset that we didn’t get to touch more on the information of the wine but more so why it was important. That ruined the lecture for me because I wanted to hear more about what Sara had to say, other than her having to constantly justify wines importance on culture and life in New Orleans.
May 8th, 2012 on 9:06 pm
The Success Brought by Determination and Hard Work
A response to Sara Kavanaugh’s interview
It has been years since I frequented the wine menu at my favorite restaurants, and even longer since I found myself delving into the grand qualities which wine can bring to an intimate setting; so when I found out that our guest was going to be a wine connoisseur, it felt as if I were being brought back to a previous life. Sara brought with her a vast cellar of knowledge and forte on what distinguishes an ordinary dessert wine from the most select choices of wine from the rarest vineyards.
Sara’s wealth of understanding on the subject matter came as no surprise to me. The one thing that did stand out, though, was the sheer determination she showed as she developed from a chef’s assistant up through many ranks of culinary occupations which lead her up to the position she holds as a certified Sommelier. I am certain that Sara’s high level of determination is a core quality that will continue to push her forward even to the prestigious position of Master Sommelier.
May 8th, 2012 on 10:06 pm
In this lecture we had the pleasure of hearing Sara Kavsnaugh’s perspective on the subject of wine and how it relates to our city and lives. Sara started her post high school life as a student of LSU but felt her heart wasn’t in it and soon left. This was strikingly similar to Bob Brown’s experience to me. Her love of food and culinary arts brought her to culinary school at Johnston and Wells. She continued her training at the German Sommelier School in Koblanz, Germany. Sara is also pursuing a Master Sommelier certificate through the Court of Master Sommelier, a title very few women receive.
Appreciating wine is like any art and takes a great degree of practice and a love for the intricacies of the medium. Just as an untrained musician cannot pick up a trumpet and play a great classic symphony, it takes much time and effort to create the art of a perfect paired meal in which the satisfaction received could be likened to listening to a beautifully performed piece of music. New Orleans is a city famous for Music, Architecture, and culinary delights. Wine has been an intricate part of human culture since the beginning of recorded history. Archeologists have discovered clay pots with remnants of wine residue dating back to around 6,000 B.C. It is truly completely intertwined with the rise of human culture as we know it.
Whether it be sitting in a plastic chair with a great ten dollar bottle of your choice listening to a grass roots band, or enjoying a collection of pairings with a full coursed meal at one of our cities Century old restaurant establishments, the joy of partaking in the fermented goodness with friends and family is the same. Enjoying wine does not need be a pretentious activity. I have friends that judge the best bottle by who got the best deal. I have literally found a three bottles for ten dollar sale. Yes I bought several. In fact, through many aspects of society I have dealt with, being particularly snooty about your wine is not ideal. I know I wouldn’t want to hang out with that person. Wine is about enjoyment and celebration no matter the price. As Sara put it, to calm the onslaught of misunderstanding, “at the end of the day, wine is just booze, although there are many intricacies.” I believe this coincides with a lot of what this class is about. Professor Mayfield has stressed to look at the interworking of the topics discussed and how they relate to the idea of culture we call New Orleans.
It is interesting to note that Sara mentioned the history of Madeira wine and how it relates to New Orleans. It was literally born in transit from the island of Madeira to the ports of New Orleans, a process that involved fortifying the wine for the journey and a little of magic given by the fact that it is so hot here that the wine was heated for a significant period of time. This is a wine that is consistently used in many famous New Orleans dishes and is employed in culinary aspects worldwide.
As for the moral repercussions of spending large amounts of money on the enjoyment of wine, you are treading the dangerous slope of socialism. Are you to say that a great masterpiece cannot be worth thousands of dollars? I recently saw a Dr. Bob painting priced at 4,500; maybe we should tell him he has to donate whatever excess above some contrived market value to the organization of our choice. Restricting free capitalism is just wrong. A wine of that price was artfully grown in centuries old vineyards with centuries of experience and meticulously stored for long periods of time. Perhaps we should tell some Italian supercar makers that there price is too high. Look into the luxury tax in your free time.
“Wine is bottled poetry,” Robert Louis Stevenson
“Wine is sunlight, held together by water,” Galileo
“God, in his goodness, sent the grapes to cheer both great and small; little fools will drink too much and great fools none at all,” anonymous.
May 9th, 2012 on 3:54 pm
When Sara Kavanaugh came to our class, I was surprised to learn that the wine business is such a detailed topic. Although I knew it was an industry involving a lot of money and the people in it containing so much knowledge about wine, I guess I’d just never thought about how many different topics that the business involves. I had absolutely no idea that you could be a wine master, and that there are many titles underneath that. I love wine, and it was the first alcohol I ever tried at a very young age.
May 9th, 2012 on 3:54 pm
I think that Sara’s profession is a very distinct and respectful one. She seemed to be quite intelligent, which made it all the more shocking how rude some of the students in the class were. Yes, we are allowed to state all the opinions we want, but if it’s an opinion about how the speaker is not applicable to the class, then it should be taken up with whoever decided she should come. It was really unfair for her to be attacked like that while making a presentation about her work, although she she dealt with it very well. On that note, I can see how people were upset that she was describing more about the details of wine rather than how it impacts New Orleans culture. I believe that the whole reason that some people were rude and unimpressed with what she had to say, what they let her say without interrupting anyways, was because she indirectly affects the culture, whereas the other speakers directly affected it. What difference does it make when you look at the big picture? The culture here would not be the way it is without everyone from the mayor, to the random guy playing his heart out on the saxophone and busking on the street. I learned some interesting things from her presentation and I think that we all should have just taken it as an opportunity to learn. Especially since half the classes were cancelled. This was for sure a part of why many people in the class were irritable.
May 9th, 2012 on 4:35 pm
Sommelier, a word I was unfamiliar with before this lecture. Sara Kavanaugh showed herself to be very skilled and informed on her craft. She was quick and stayed on her feet with whatever question was thrown to her.
When asked if or how wine could impact New Orleans the response was simple yet very valid. New Orleans lives by food and beverage. The difference is so many of New Orleanians drink hard alcohol, that wine sometimes gets looked as not having a part New Orleans culture. But it does. When you think of the multitude of business meetings that occur in the city, many of these meetings occur n restaurants with full page wine listings.
What also didn’t occur to me was how someone paying a little more for a glass of wine rather than a cocktail could not only benefit establishment such as the Royal Sonesta, but also their philanthropies. The more that’s spent, the more that can be given back. Sara Kavanaugh was interesting because she intrigued me on a subject that I had never previously given much though to.
May 9th, 2012 on 8:17 pm
Sara Kavanaugh is the “sommelier” (wine master) at the Winsor Court Hotel. It’s heartening to hear that she had trouble with college at first, as I myself have had academic trouble and have had a hard time deciding what to do. She worked in the restaurant business and eventually developed an interest in wine. She went to a wine school in Europe and eventually earned the “Court of Master Sommelier which takes years. She suggested that we not be intimidated by wine “its just booze at the end of the day, it should be fun.”
I asked about the headaches I get when I drink some wines. She said that some people are sensitive to the sulfer and/or tanin in wine. Some wines have more than others, I probably had one with a lot of tanin. Thin skin wines are lighter in sulfer.
I was fine with learning about wine, but some students didn’t see the relevance to New Orleans. The question “why is this important?” was asked rudely, in a rude tone, and in the wrong phrasing. They could have asked “what is the connection between wine and New Orleans?” and it would have been completely fine. This was one of the most disappointing moments in the class.
There are some wineries near New Orleans, but the climate is too humid so the wine is usually mixed with other fruit wines. The Becknale Family owns a lot of land.
People come to New Orleans to eat and drink, wine is a huge part of that, it is important to New Orleans and anyone who might be a professional to understand wine to some degree. I think its at least important to understand that Merlots go well with red meats, white wines with fish etc…
I mentioned that it is morally dubious to spend $6000 on a glass of wine. I did so in a respectful manner, much more so than the question “Why is this important?” (which most of the class loved) but none the less the class just kind of laughed at me. They just a group-think knee jerk reaction, rather than actually considering what I said. I would have been fine to respond to any questions they had, but they just reacted immediately. Mrs. Karanaugh actually liked my insight and shared the feeling of being uncertain of the ethicalness or such luxury while others struggle just to make ends meet. She was also disgusted with the class’s reaction. I think they would have been more mature if Irvin Mayfield had been there that day.
She likes “integrity” hates “can’t”. Likes “fuck” hates “whining”. She is actually pretty unemotional at work and values happiness above all. She recommended “Cart de Vin” and “Wine-o”. She urged us to try some $10-$15 wine, insisted that there are good inexpensive wines. One thing I’ve actually done since then is talk to the wine expert at Rouses and tried to figure out what wine I might like, one that is low on sulfur and tanin. I actually found a great wine this way, I would like to take her class at the Winsor Court, and I still might.
May 14th, 2012 on 8:40 am
Sara Kavanaugh was such a sweetheart! She’s a “sommelier”, which means wine master. Even though this class seemed to be a bit out of place in comparison to the other guests that graced us with their presence, I’m glad I didn’t write her off or tune her out as many of my classmates did. Sara works as the Sommelier or wine master at the Windsor Court Hotel. There, she selects and suggests wine selections for the hotel’s guests. I was blown away by the extent of her knowledge and passion about what some would consider to be a frivolous subject. I think many people missed it though. We come to college to obtain degrees that would ultimately gain us jobs. I’m not sure if there is any person who isn’t after the American Dream. Not too often are there people who don’t want to “make it to the top” Well, at the top there is WINE!. Sara expressed that when in business meetings or dinner settings it is important to know how to communicate with the “big wigs” of corporate america who are many times well versed in wine choices. I would put this in the same category with knowing how to tie the right knot in a tie. We all want to be somewhat impressive when making a good first impression right? Especially to the Boss! The the thing that stood out most to me was during her quick fire one word answer questions… She said she likes “integrity” and hates “can’t”. I can totally agree with her on these two points!