Drinks: June Rodil of Second + Congress On Going Greek And Champagne Love

Whether at The Driskill Grill, Uchi, or Uchiko, if you've done some fine dining in Austin, June Rodil has probably stopped by your table to talk about wine. Now reunited with Chef David Bull at Second Bar + Kitchen and Congress, Ms. Rodil is currently serving as the beverage director for the Congress Avenue triple threat. Having been named Texas' best sommelier in 2009 by the Texas Sommelier Association, Rodil is continuing to work toward a coveted Master Sommelier designation while also cultivating quite a wine list at Congress. She recently spoke to us about wine trends, spirits, and which wines are in fact her favorite children.

You worked with David Bull for a long time at The Driskill, and then when he went to Dallas you were at Uchi for several years, and now you’re at Congress + Second. Did that take a little bit of adjustment? It seems like a sea change moving from focusing on Japanese food and a more seafood-based menu to these multiple spaces at Congress and Second where there’s a broader array of options?

Oh, definitely. At Uchi, firsthand, there were sake pairings to deal with as well. I do have a little homage to Uchi at Congress where I have a couple of sakes, because there’s so much sake information that I cultivated in that restaurant group. But I’ve stepped away from that. Everything at Uchi seemed to be white wine friendly. And with David’s food, everything is heavier and it’s just so red wine friendly. It’s actually, it is more like a sea change, I love the way you put that. It just made me broaden my horizons, and allows me whenever I’m asking to bring in wines to taste, it allows me to taste more red wines. Which actually helps me in my studies whenever I’m doing wine tastings for my sommelier exams!

David’s food is stylistically a little bigger, a little heavier, just by design. How much of a challenge has it been to cultivate essentially two different selections for both a high casual concept and then a really high-end fine dining concept? Because the lists are different, correct?

Yes, they’re totally different. It’s been really fun. It’s been awesome. You don’t want to get bored with one wine list and that’s why it was fantastic that I had Uchi and Uchiko, too! Now it’s two wine lists, two concepts completely, and multiple bars. It is challenging because there’s more work and more research to be done. I have to separate myself as far as understanding the type of clientele, the food, and cuisine that each concept is cultivating. As a young restaurant, you’re still kind of trying to find your footing and your identity to present to the public. At the same time, I’ve got to be in the trenches with the chefs and understand what their concepts and visions are for each restaurant so I can move the programs into the same realm. It’s really fun, though.

There are a lot of trophy wines on the Congress list. Do you have any “most coveted” bottles? I was really excited to see some Cayuse Syrah on there - I need to save up for that. Is there anything that’s a personal trophy of yours or something that you’re just super, super proud to have on the menu?

Oh God, it’s so hard.

Yeah, it’s picking your favorite kid, eh?

I know! You have favorites, but you never say which one is a favorite. (Laughs) Right. I have many kids, but I can’t say which one is my favorite verbally. In Second Bar and Kitchen, there are actually no trophy wines. It’s not meant to be that kind of list. It’s actually a great stepping stone into the Congress list. There’s nothing over $100 there. It’s not meant to scare you with price. It’s just meant to engage you with something new. That’s what I love about Second Bar and Kitchen. That menu is full of really cool little gems where you’re like, “Oh, I’ve never tried this before. Why don’t I give that a try?” And the price range is such that it’s not too much to part with. It’s just enough to be adventurous with your money, you know? I guess at Congress the Cayuse is a very good example. I waited and waited for those wines because it’s hard to get on that list. I was able to get three brands of that, so that was fantastic. But for me, it’s probably the champagne, the grower producer champagnes are my loves, that’s what I would be drinking.

That’s what you’re saving first in a fire.

Oh exactly, yes, I’m just hauling this one cooler out of the emergency hallway, basically. But yes, those [grower Champagnes] are things that I actually went to Champagne and visited the producers for and asked for allocations of wine and then they brought them through the airport to me, with my name on them. So they’re very special to me. And are the hardest to sell.

Definitely. In our experiences at the venues, you’re out on the floor talking to people and working very directly with the customers and the diners in the restaurant. Do you often have to talk people out of pairing disasters or do people usually head in the right direction with wine and food pairing choices?

You know it’s really cool - people are so open, I love it! It’s been so fantastic; people often give me license to bring whatever I want. And for me that’s kind of a scary thing, because I have no idea what their palate is like to begin with. Pairing disasters do happen absolutely, but in the end, people sometimes come into the dining room not for pairings but simply to enjoy a glass of wine or to enjoy their food separately and if that’s the sense that I get from them, I’m never going to make them stray. I’m going to let them enjoy what they set out for. But for the most part, people have been really open about my pairings. I mean, if no one wants to drink sake or beer in the tasting menu - and I have those pairings - I’m more than happy to change it up for them. It’s mostly about enjoyment and customer satisfaction.

You have embraced some cool technological wine trends in the sense that you have an Enomatic (Italian wine machine) behind the bar so that you can offer higher-end wines by the glass and do so at decent pricing, and then over Second, you are doing the wine kegs from California so that the wine stays fresh and affordable. Are there other wine trends generally that you are excited about of late?

I think that the biggest trend right now in the industry is Greek wines. They are so hot right now, and it’s because they’re so interesting and very affordable and I think because people are just being more open. I think if you approach people with an open mind and they trust you and you’re excited about what you are doing for them, they will be willing to try new things. Right now, I think that there’s such excitement within my industry with other sommeliers and wine directors about Greek wines coming into the market. They’ve been received so well and so happily that I hope that consumers will latch onto that soon.

That’s a great trend. Another trend that I’m seeing is that California wines are becoming more restrained. They’re not such fruit bombs and oversaturated. I think that recently, people are starting to realize that they do want something a little bit lighter and more acid-driven with their food because it pairs better and so they’re taking maybe a small step back from over-oaked - or wines that are being consumed too young. I see that, which is really cool. I mean I’ve seen older wines by the glass too, which is amazing. We have a 2002 Portuguese blend and a 2003 Lebanese wine so we’re kind of exposing older wines and showing consumers how they taste and kind of giving a sense of patience in finding some things that go well with your food and wine pairings.

At the recent Hill Country Wine & Food Festival, you led a seminar on locally produced wines. It’s been a hot topic of conversation among the foodies around town lately that there may have been a big jump in quality in Texas wines in the last couple of years. I just wondered what you think is going right for Texas wines? Perhaps what grapes are working best, or what might give hope that we can catch Virginia or New York and some of these areas that are really doing some interesting stuff regionally in the USA.

Yes. The quality level of Texas wines has been improving exponentially. I've done wine tastings of Texas wines, and this is probably my third year that I've done a mass number of producers and just within those three years, the wine quality and the wine level of interest has been astronomical as far as improvement.

I think a lot of it too, as an industry, Texas is becoming fearless as far as grape varieties. We're taking a step back from trying to be Chardonnay, Cabernet, Pinot Noir - the international varietals that people find are recognizable. They’ve realized that that's not really working with our climate here. We have different climates from the Panhandle to the Hill Country. Texas is hot, so it makes sense that we're using grapes that are Mediterranean in climate where it's just going to be warmer. Tempranillo is working well, Italian varietals, Montepulciano, Vermentino - and granted these aren't notable names for a novice wine drinker, but for the most part, I think 97% of wines produced in Texas are consumed in Texas, so it's state pride that allows people to give it a try anyway. And then they're trying a new grape, which is amazing, and they're trying a product that's even better than if they were trying a grape that was internationally recognized by a beginning wine drinker. So it's improving the wine industry as a whole, and also the Texas agriculture industry as well. They're getting more people to try new things, and then more people are planting different grapes so you have more grapes on your vines for the entire state. It's a really cool thing that's going on.

When people get nerdy about wine or spirits, part of the reason is that you can literally never learn everything about it. You can do it every day for 50 years, and you can still be trying new things and learning more. Is there was anything that you’ve picked up recently that you think is a fun fact or something that you didn't know that you picked up in your recent travels or education?

Sure. Right now, the biggest thing I'm learning about more and more are the spirits, because I've never managed a spirits program before. It's totally new to me, and it was one of the most appealing things to move into this company as well because had I stayed with Uchi, wonderful as they are, they didn’t plan on getting a spirits license in this point in their evolution. So working at Congress, I’m also managing a spirits program. And with the team of Adam and Billy, they create the drinks and I get to learn about the spirits. I work on the costs and the purchasing, that's what I do. But really, I'm just so enamored with these new spirits, because they are new alcoholic beverages to me. And it is something that relates to my studies outside of work - I hope one day become a Master Sommelier. So I love to defer to them and to see something new. I ask a lot of questions: “What the hell is this vermouth? Why is this the one that you chose for this drink? How does it taste different from this? What is the country of origin?” It's endless because after you learn about all of the wine countries and wine producing regions of the world you start to realize, oh, I need to know about beer, I have to know about sake, I’ve got to do spirits. Then you realize, OK, tea and coffee. It's something that you have to know about to be a beverage director or a wine director of a company. It's essentially what you're in charge of, so you have to know. So in this case, I take a step back, make sure things are running well, and Adam and Billy create these drinks. I've learned so much in the six months since we've been open. Without them, I don't think I would have passed the third level of my sommelier exam in April because I learned so many things about spirits - and it was on the test! And it's fun. It’s nice, too, because if you drink wine all the time, acidity in wine wrecks your teeth. It's too much. It's nice to have a beer or cocktail to change things up.

Thank you for talking to Austinist, June.

For more information on Second Bar + Kitchen and Congress, visit their official site.