San Francisco — Do you think you have what it takes to be a professional bartender? You must be good at blind wine tasting. Only about 5% of people who take the exam pass it.
And Chris Gaither is one of them.
“It’s something that came with a lot of perseverance and perseverance,” says Gaither.
Seeing Gaither at Ungrafted, the San Francisco wine bar he owns, it’s hard to imagine he didn’t know much about wine until college, when he got a job at a restaurant where he needed to. And he liked it.
“Eventually, I became one of the people in the restaurant who knew about all the producers,” Gather recalled. “I’ll have my co-workers ask me, ‘Hey, what does this person taste like?'” Chris recalled. What does that person taste like? Can you talk to my table here about this guy from Campania? What is this Taurasi? .
He decided to pursue wine as a profession, and moved from Georgia to California for a coveted internship at The French Laundry.
“From the moment I got here, I was invested,” says Gaither. “Then I came to San Francisco, and became part of the San Francisco wine community. I really enjoyed it and haven’t looked back.”
Gaither has set his sights on becoming a master sommelier, someone who specializes in all aspects of wine service and wine and food pairing. He passes the advanced bartender exam on the first try, and also meets Rebecca Fineman, the woman who would become his wife.
“We met when we were waiting for the results of the advanced exam,” says Feynman. which, at the time, was being held at Disneyland.
They ended up marrying, opening Ungrafted and becoming parents, all while trying to become accomplished bartenders. Rebecca passes the exam in three attempts, but Gaither falls short.
“It was really hard,” Gaither recalls. “She did most of the work. And I’m really grateful for that. But she also motivated me. She said, ‘You know, you can do that.'”
“I think what I said was, ‘You have to do this,'” says Feynman.
The master sommelier diploma consists of four stages ending with a three-part exam covering theory, service and tasting.
Says Gaither, “You have to taste six wines, blind, not knowing what they are. You have to describe them in uncertain detail. You have to get most of them right in terms of what you call them. You have to do it in 25 minutes.”
While Gaither is now down, this segment took him seven attempts to pass. And in 2022, 10 years after starting his operation, Gaither is a professional bartender.
“The first feeling was just a relief,” Gaither says. “I finally did it. It’s over.”
Now Gaither, being one of only four black sommeliers in the world, is considering his winemaking experience.
“I’ve been either the only or maybe one of a handful of black people in every restaurant I’ve worked in my entire career,” Gaither says. And yeah, every place I talked to felt like, “Oh, cool.” Good. Good. Something in me wanted to continue.
Now every Thursday, Chris does blind tastings at Ungrafted for fun, shares them online with his followers, and invites others to try in person as part of the restaurant and club’s wine community.
Welcome to the world of wine, for those who may not always feel like it.
“I hope this shows people that it can be done,” says Gaither. “And then, that motivates and encourages other people who are like us to do it.”
In addition to Ungrafted, Chris Gaither and his wife also open another Thrive City wine bar in Chase Center called GluGlu. It is scheduled to open this summer.
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