Most of us can recall a teacher or professor whose idiosyncratic style still manages to bring a smile merely at the mention of his name. Bernie Bergen was the lone holdout amid a department rife with Skinnerian acolytes and unreconstructed behaviorists. Once, he stopped in mid-lecture, pointed out the window at the Department of Psychology and pronounced: “Those people in there—they want to tell you the mind doesn’t exist…And they’re wrong!”
In true Nabokovian fashion, I discovered Nabokov in Bergen’s sociology seminar, stumbling upon his obituary in The New York Times while waiting for the lecture to commence. Bernie held joint tenure from both Dartmouth Medical School and Dartmouth College, teaching interdisciplinary courses in Psychology and Sociology with mellifluous allegories citing “little Roscoe,” an elusive mystery even unto this day. I forget the formal title of his course, but the paper I wrote deconstructing the persona of Allen Ginsberg’s mother from his commemorative Kaddish garnered me a most distinctive grade of A-wow! It was the last sociology course I took.
My ongoing efforts to draft the business plan for Sostevinobile requires Your West Coast Oenophile to be a bit of a sociologist these days. I suppose my paltry academic training in this area will excuse the broad generalities I construct, though my well-honed skills as an author do require that I be a piquant observer of the human condition. Last Friday, I attended a charitable event in the Green Room of San Francisco’s War Memorial and Performing Arts Center that was billed as A Community Affair: Summer in the City. The theme of this ambitious, albeit meritorious, gathering was Wine Tasting with Asian American Community Organizations.
Let me start out with an encomium for this highly commendable undertaking. The beneficiaries from this event included the Asian Community Mental Health Services, Gum Moon Women’s Residence, Community Educational Services, Kearney Street Workshop, Narika, SF Hep B Free, Richmond Area Multi-Services, the Wa Sung Service Club, and, a personal favorite, the peripatetic Asian American Theater Company. Noble endeavors, all.
Apart from the obvious social nature of this event, many of the attendees insisted to me that they were present in order to support these many causes. My subjective angle on the affair, however, noted that an even healthier percentage of the nearly 500 guests came to appreciate and experience the wine. For a relative neophyte, this, indeed, might have been a nice introductory tasting. Sixteen or so vendors brought a plentiful skew of local wines, along with a smattering of imports that I chose to overlook. Still, it’s hard for me to countenance a tasting where roughly half the wine poured could easily be obtained on the shelves of Safeway or BevMo. This isn’t meant to denigrate the various offerings from such industry standards as J. Lohr, Wente, Rodney Strong and Francis Coppola Winery—all certainly produce commendable, if not laudable, vintages. It’s just that I would have personally preferred a more ambitious lineup to have been assembled.
A number of the other wineries, like Artesa, Fleming Jenkins, La Famiglia, and Tres Sabores may not be in the common vernacular, even though they were previously known to me. Some, of course, were revelations even to me, including Armida Winery, Blacksmith Cellars, Snows Lake Vineyard, and Verge Wine Cellars. Even more encouraging to see were Alejos Cellars and Korbin Kameron Vineyard, both owned and operated by Asian American vintners. Like the promoters of this event, I am thankful for everyone’s participation.
Still, off the top of my head, I could rattle off another half-dozen Asian winemakers who would have gladly shown their wares at this gathering. More broadly, in the course of writing this blog over the past six months, I’ve covered over 400 wineries, each of which would have been glad to open their label to a new audience. The attendees last Friday’s gathering were entitled to a more comprehensive wine experience; Sostevinobile will be more than happy to contribute our resources and assistance to planning future events.
Of course, I would be remiss in not admitting a large degree of enlightened self-interest in attending A Community Affair. A large part of Sostevinobile’s mission is to provide a commercial establishment that can break down the de facto ethnic segregation that exists in Bay Area commercial venues and entertainment.
It is an anomaly that has long perplexed me. On most other fronts, we have arguably achieved a harmonious integration in our society here, particularly among the Asian and Caucasian (including Hispanic-identified) ethnicities, that constitute nearly 90% of the Bay Area populace. Schools and universities are seamlessly integrated. Most workplaces reflect a rough cross-section of the community. Social interplay and intermarriage has become fairly pervasive. Yet one would be hard-pressed to identify a drinking or dining establishment that attracts a representational mix among its clientèle.
Back in the mid-1990s, one such establishment made an all-too-brief splash on the San Francisco dining scene. With a kitchen manned by up & coming chef Alexander Ong (now of Betelnut), Orocco billed itself as an East-West supperclub and delivered with considerable panache behind the considerable vision of Michael Tieu. The food was incredible, the lounge was seductive, and the musical ensembles always inviting. Most strikingly, it drew an incredible mix that cut through the ethnic balkanization found everywhere else at night. As my very, very astute Korean girlfriend commented on more than one occasion, “this is the only place we can go that doesn’t feel like one of your places or one of mine.” Unfortunately, financial mismanagement, along with the imposing median strip along Geary, precipitated Orocco’s premature demise, but it still stands as a shining beacon that has yet to be replicated.
Fast-forward to today, and one starts to see an affinity for wine as a new harbinger of unity. In my ongoing development of Sostevinobile’s wine program, I frequently attend wine tastings, visit numerous wineries, and habituate a wide range of wine bars. In all these instances, I am increasingly struck by the high level of endorsement from the Asian communities—an observation I hear echoed by the winemakers and proprietors, as well. This is why I am tremendously heartened to see a gathering like last Friday’s command such a large turnout, and why I feel the need to exhort promoters of similar events to devote a high level of attention to the quality and variety of wines that they offer. You have an eager clientèle on hand; executed properly, informative wine tastings can only increase their enthusiasm .
At this stage, there is probably little point in my delving deeper into my sociological exploration of these matters. The empirical evidence I have seen tells me that the wine program we are creating for Sostevinobile cuts across ethnic divides and will offer considerable appeal to all we welcome into our establishment. Like the omen from Field of Dreams, the task that lies ahead seems clear: “build it and they will come.”