Earlier this year, sommelier and food blogger Hande Leimer moved to Rome with her husband Theo. Though the fabulous foods of Rome certainly had much to do with the couple’s decision to settle in the Eternal City, their real focus was wine. They came to Rome so that Hande could indulge her love of Italian vintages – an interest that has manifested itself in the creation of a new wine-tasting business, VinoRoma.
Hande and Theo spent months searching for the perfect apartment - a task that’s always a challenge in Rome where prices are high and quality is extremely variable. In particular, the couple was searching for an apartment with a large and elegant space – one in which Hande could host guided wine tastings – and at long last they found a beautiful home in the Prati neighborhood, not far from Castel Sant’Angelo on the banks of the Tiber River.
Always eager to learn more about Italian wine, the eCool team recently paid a visit to Hande and Theo’s new abode, where we admired their floors with hand-painted seventeenth-century tiles, and reveled in the thought of drinking wine around their fireplace on cool spring evenings. We took the opportunity to interview Hande about her interest in wine, to score some tips on drinking Italian fruits of the vine, and to learn all about VinoRoma.
So, enjoy! And the next time you’re in Rome sign up for one of Hande’s fabulous wine tastings. Visit VinoRoma or the Institute of Design & Culture in Rome to sign up.
Can you tell us a little bit about your background? Where did you grow up and in what places have you lived in the past few years?
Just recently I learned the term “Third Culture Kid” and now I know how to define myself! I grew up in a German-Turkish family in Istanbul, but had extensive stays in the USA during high school. Later I graduated from an American University in Istanbul; moved to Germany for my second career; changed careers, cities and countries; lived in north Italy for one and a half years; went back to Germany; and am now living in Rome! Are you dizzy yet? I was, especially of the course of the last two years, when I was managing 3 households simultaneously but didn’t call any of them home.
You began your professional life in a career that had nothing to do with wine, right? How did you become interested in the fruits of the vine?
Oh, I have been a stage manager for international music acts in big venues in Turkey (I was young and loved rock music!), an account manager in an advertising agency (my learned profession - I majored in marketing), a software programmer and consultant (more money for equal amount of time – the wine drinking and travelling had to be financed!)… and throughout all these careers, I was drinking wine.
My family was very interested in food and my parents regularly had wine with dinner, and allowed my brother and I to sip it even as teenagers. But I have to admit that we rarely had any sophisticated wines, they just didn’t exist at the time in Turkey. Basically the choices were “cheap” and “bit-more-expensive” or “red” and “white”.
It was with moving to Germany, traveling in Europe and earning money that I started paying more attention to wines. Lucky for me, my husband was also interested though he had no prior experience or knowledge, so we started exploring the world of wine together. We went to tastings, took seminars, visited vineyards, and geared our traveling geared more and more towards wine regions… So, I kind of slid into it, wine makers started calling me “the nose”; friends started commenting they finally understood what was meant by all those fussy words about the aromas when I described a wine to them; and people started asking that I put together some wines for their cellars.
So a couple of years ago I decided to do it right and live not only for wines but also from them! I trained to be a sommelier.
How is it that you decided to move to Rome? Is there something in particular that attracts you to this city?
Let’s see; I love food, wine, sunny weather, the southern way of life, people from different cultures, big cities with a bustling but relaxed atmosphere (does that make sense?), being called a ragazza even though I’m 37… I couldn’t think of being any other place! Also, here I can meet enough new people whom I can infect with my passion for Italian wine.
Many people find wine to be a bit scary because they worry that they don’t have enough knowledge to pick good wines or to serve them with the right foods. If you could give a single piece of advice to those looking to learn about wine, what would it be?
Oh, I know the feeling! Not having grown up with knowledge and proper experience myself, I can really relate to that kind of intimidation. My message is that there is nothing to be afraid of!
Yes, wine professionals engage in boisterous talk and endless discussions, but that’s just something we do amongst ourselves. In truth, professionals are dying to get as many people as possible interested in wine – that way we can all sit together, enjoy a good meal with a good wine and have a great time.
So my one piece of advice would be to ask endless questions. If you feel someone is snickering at you, just turn your back and leave. But that won’t happen often, believe me, as we are all crazy about wine and love to talk about it! A second piece of advice: taste as many wines as you can. Over time you will develop your palate and be able to choose the perfect wine for every situation.
How important is it to match wine to food? Should we worry about going wrong in that department or are there general rules we can follow?
Well, there are horrible combinations that can ruin a meal. Here’s some basic rules: if you are eating out, ask for help from the sommelier or the waiter. In most cases, he or she should know the dishes and the wines better than you do. Yet, your waiter or sommelier doesn’t know much about your taste, so you might want to give them some hints about what you like and don’t like.
If you don’t trust the waiter or when you are at home, try to imagine the taste of the dish, then try to imagine the tastes of some wines you know, and then think about which foods and wines would match up well. Likeness is the way to go most of the time. If the dish is light, the wine should be, too; if the dish is more substantial you also want a stronger, fuller wine with it. Color matching is not necessary, but trying to keep within the region is a most helpful idea. Dishes and wines of a region evolve and emerge complimenting each other. And Italian wines are perfect food companions, unlike most French wines which are more of the “meditation” type.
Let’s talk local. Can you describe some of the qualities that characterize wines from Lazio (the region surrounding Rome)?
Lazio is a most underestimated wine region, but it is up and coming. Wineries are putting a lot of love and effort into the indigenous varietals and trying to iron out the mistakes of the past, namely the bland and high-yield whites produced in massive quantity. You can get some very good value whites in the areas around Rome (look for Grechetto, Malvasia and Trebbiano, especially from the Castelli Romani region around Rome). In regard to red, check out Cesanese, a red indigenous varietal, which might be the next big thing. There are also some Merlot blends that I love, of the easy drinking, no oak, type.
You also write a food blog, correct? Can you tell us about some of your favorite Roman food discoveries?
Yes, on my blog Food Vagabond I write about everything food related (from recipes to restaurant reviews to personal opinions). Needless to say, the blog has become rather Rome-centric since my move to the Eternal City. The quality and abundance of fresh produce here is unbelievable: Rome is so central that you have easy access to everything Italy offers. Puntarelle, artichokes, and broccoletti are just some of the vegetables that are specialties of the region.
But the one product I am in love with (as is everyone to whom I have introduced it) is guanciale: This cured (not smoked!) pig’s jowl is my all-purpose secret weapon and transforms any dish from good to heavenly!
When my husband Theo and I go out we also prefer traditional Roman trattorias because the traditional cuisine offers simple food with few but superior ingredients- think of pastas like carbonara, amatriciana, and cacio e pepe which are from this region.
Through your new business, Vino Roma, you offer Rome’s visitors and residents the opportunity to attend a wine tasting in a beautiful palazzo overlooking the city. Can you describe one of those wine-tasting evenings for us?
Just a couple of days ago a guest wrote to tell me that though she has been drinking wine for at least 10 years, she had never learned as much as she did during her wine tasting with me. And, she didn’t even realize it during the two hours we were together because she had so much fun. That pretty much sums it up!
My goal is to gather a group of nice people who are interested in wine. Together we drink some Italian wines and have a good time while everyone learns a few new things without sweating it.
An added bonus is that our tasting room is really amazing: Most tourists come to Rome, stay in a hotel, see all these gorgeous buildings from the outside and never ever get a glimpse of the inside of a Roman apartment, where real people live. We were lucky to find this beautiful palazzo from 1886, very centrally located right on the banks of the Tiber. The floors are made of hand painted 17th century Venetian tiles; we have some nice antique pieces of furniture from different epochs, and even a functioning fireplace (who knew it could get cold in Rome?). It is really a unique experience sitting there sipping wine - I still have to pinch myself at times!
I offer a standard tasting 4 times a week (check for dates on vinoroma.com, usually Wednesday thru Sunday at 5 pm). Beyond that, I’m thrilled to design special tastings around a guests’ specifc interests (with advance notice, of course) – these can revolved around a particular region, a particular type of wine (whites, reds, Brunello, Piedmont etc.), whatever you fancy, as long as it is about Italian wines. These special tastings are also more flexible with the start times and duration.
Humor us with one final question that’s been a source of curiosity for some time. There’s a famous wine tasting tale that says that when red and white wines are poured into opaque black glasses, even highly trained sommeliers often can’t taste the difference between them. Is that true? If so, what’s the explanation?
Oh, that might happen to me, so I have to be careful with my answer now! Usually when we start judging a wine, we examine it visually, looking at its color in terms of depth, hue, clarity, as well as at its liveliness. These are all visual clues that tip us off as to varietal, style, age, and production method – all in all, very good tools for understanding wine.
But these visual clues might also subconsciously mislead us about another important aspect, the nose, provoking us to detect particular expected aromas, while causing us to overlook others.
Opaque black glasses are designed to eliminate the pre-conceptions provoked by the appearance of a wine prior to tasting.
When you drink wine without these visual clues - if you have a good nose - you might detect aromas that are commonly associated with another style. For example, red wines can have aromas of peach and lemon commonly associated with whites, while buttery aromas are found in both whites and reds. So, yes, when drinking without visual clues, one might make mistakes. You could think you’re drinking a white wine when you have a fruity and light pinot noir in your black glass. But this doesn’t happen very often to highly trained sommeliers.
Visit VinoRoma or the Institute of Design & Culture in Rome to sign up for Hande’s guided wine tastings.
