Olympia sommelier offers virtual wine tastings through Uncork & Unwind

At first, the idea of a virtual wine tasting sounds a little strange. I mean, you can’t taste through the Internet, and how much fun would it be to watch someone else drinking wine?

But the online tastings Olympia sommelier Ben Clark is offering while Washingtonians stay at home include the wine — three or four bottles — which participants pick up beforehand at Uncork & Unwind in Tumwater.

Still, tasting and teaching about wine over the Internet wasn’t something Clark had ever considered until efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus upended business as usual. A few weeks ago, he read that some wineries were organizing online tastings and suggested the idea to Uncork & Unwind owner Michelle Pierce.

“I like crazy ideas,” Pierce told The Olympian. “I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ ”

At the first tasting last week, Clark led the 60 or so participants through a discussion of what they were smelling and tasting, talked about how and where the wine was produced, and gave his audience a glimpse of his personal wine cellar (in a temperature- and climate-controlled spare bedroom).

The whole thing ran more smoothly than some of the online business meetings he’s attended, he told The Olympian. “I was expecting a little bit more chaos,” he said.

Pierce — who is also offering weekly online book clubs and wine discussions and selling what she calls “Stress Relief Wine Packs” — is pleased that she’s able to keep the business afloat. “We’re making at least enough money to pay our utilities for May,” she said.

Clark, one of South Sound’s few certified sommeliers, teaches classes at Uncork & Unwind and the Olympia Golf and Country Club; consults with restaurants, stores and wine bars; and works for a wine distributor.

His passion for wine is such that his spare bedroom cellar holds about 1,500 bottles. But when he first found himself in the wine business — the first time he lived in Olympia 20 years ago — he didn’t even like the stuff.

When he was in his early 20s, Clark was working as a chef at Coast Hotel and Resort in Olympia, now the Hotel RL, and a manager’s abrupt departure left the hotel with a lot of extra wine.

“The guy had been stockpiling a bunch of wine in his office and slowly taking it home, and he got caught,” Clark said. “So we had a ton of wine that we had to get rid of, and management came to me and asked me to start doing wine pairings and wine dinners.

“At this point, I knew nothing about wine,” he said. “I didn’t drink wine. We had a team meeting, and we opened a few bottles and tasted them, and I hated every single one of them. But I took the challenge to heart and really dove in.”

He left that job and Olympia a few years later, but his interest in wine continued to grow. He kept working with wine and learning about it, became a certified sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers in 2006 and studied enology and viticulture at Walla Walla Community College from 2012 to 2013.

In 2017, he returned to Olympia, where he now devotes much of his time — and a good chunk of space — to wine.

And, as he showed the oenophiles tasting with him April 10, there’s a little beer in there, too.

Virtual Wine Tastings

• What: Sommelier Ben Clark is offering online guided tastings through Uncork & Unwind. Each tasting includes three or four bottles of wine. (If you’re staying at home with one other adult, that’s more than you’re going to polish off in a day, right? No worries there, because many wines taste even better on day two, Clark said.)
• When: 5:15 p.m. Fridays through May 2.
• Where: The tastings happen online via Zoom. Wine can be picked up from Uncork & Unwind, 324 Custer Way SW, Tumwater.
• Cost: $61-$108
• More information and registration: 360-943-9463, uncorkunwind@comcast.net
• Also: Uncork & Unwind is also offering free online book club meetings on Tuesdays and wine socials on Wednesdays and selling “Stress Relief Wine Packs.” Email for details.

This story was originally published April 16, 2020 at 5:45 AM.