Ithaca Cornell Airplane Crash

Wine Notes: QFC Mt. Tabor gets serious about its wine selection

Once a month, Katherine Cole profiles a local retailer that offers exceptional selection and value in wine.

Every Friday between 3:30 and 6:30 p.m., Mt. Tabor-area residents gather to gab and sip wines from small French glasses while nibbling on appropriately paired cheeses. Nearby, glass doors slide open to reveal a well-stocked wine cellar, perfectly chilled to 57 degrees.

These regular tastings take place not at a neighborhood restaurant or wine bar, nor at a bottle shop or upscale organic grocery.

They happen at QFC.

Your neighborhood supermarket used to be a place where wine was sold mostly by the box or the jug. But in recent years, domestic consumers have developed more discerning palates. In 2010, the U.S. overtook France as the world's biggest wine market; we're now a nation of serious oenophiles.

Grocery stores are reacting to this market shift: A remodel three years ago at this QFC on East Burnside included the installation of a chilled walk-in wine cellar; tastings are conducted using stemmed glasses rather than plastic cups.

For the budget-minded, grab-and-go displays of wines from around the world for up to $10, or Northwest wines for less than $20, make shopping easy. But with close to 2,000 labels to choose from on the shelves, this wine department is worth browsing at a leisurely pace. Displays of dry rosés and organic and biodynamic selections anticipate the questions of savvy shoppers.

The chilled walk-in wine cellar is reserved for higher-end bottles from the northern Rhône, the Napa Valley, northern Italy and rare gems like cult Loire Valley producer Didier Dagueneau's "Silex" sauvignon blanc from 2008 (the year the acclaimed vintner tragically died in an ultralight plane crash) for $111.19. I'm fairly certain I've never seen this wine in a grocery store before.

The ability to react to consumer demand, says wine steward Marilyn Maruca, is what makes her workplace unique among supermarket wine departments, most of which now rely on computers. "We are a little more flexible than larger chain stores," she says. "Some of the big stores can't order directly from local vintners if they don't have vendor numbers (for the computer)."

Maruca and fellow wine steward Rob Hoffmann stock a selection that reflects their eclectic tastes, as well as what her customers are asking for.

Cornell Professor Dies in Plane Crash at Age 39 | The Cornell ...

Originally published July 26, 2007

Prof. Sergio Servetto, 39, electrical and computer engineering, died in July in solo plane accident near Keuka Lake.

Servetto recently bought a single-engine Cessna 150 in Michigan and was flying the small plane back to Ithaca alone, according to a University release. Early Tuesday morning, the plane crashed in a wooded area along County Route 113 close to Bath, N.Y.

A native of Argentina, Servetto has worked at Cornell since 2001.

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