Culinary Wine & Food Adventures

Wine List Consulting Unlimited

Please feel free to write me directly about any subject at randycaparoso@earthlink.net. Enjoy! - Randy

"Almost thirty years ago it was notoriously difficult to find anything decent to eat in Hawai`i. I was there on vacation and had reached the desperation stage. In a little wine shop near my hotel in Honolulu, I asked if there wasn't at least one restaurant serving edible food.

"'Why don't you try Roy's?' came the answer, so I got the family in a taxi and off we went.

At the table, I opened the wine list first, as usual. My wife told me I looked like a cartoon character, with my eyes bulging out of their sockets. There, on the wine list, in Hawai`i, obtainable, was the Savennieres from Chateau d'Epire, one of my favorite dry whites, but unknown, esoteric, hard to sell. What the hell was it doing in Hawai`i?

"I roamed down the list and saw all sorts of unusual selections from France. But not just any wines; these were the dangerous ones. I asked the waiter if the wine buyer was on the premises, and that’s how I met Randy Caparoso. We became friends and he spread the word about a lot of my rather obscure wine imports. He loves making discoveries as much as I do, so we hit it off.

"What is a good palate? In my experience, every palate is different. The person who can identify ten Bordeaux châteaux in a blind tasting may not be able to tell which are good and which are banal. I have never met the perfect palate, one that comprises all the tasting skills and talents.

"What sets Randy apart? First, his open-mindedness. He appreciates diversity; in fact he adores diversity, and can appreciate all styles from all the world’s wine regions. That is a great virtue, because it means that his palate is not deformed by preconceptions.

"Secondly, he is a master at wine and food combinations. At Roy’s he has regaled me with combinations that had me stunned by their perfection and unpredictability. This talent comes from an incredible imagination, which allows him to foresee how a certain wine might act alongside a certain plate; and his powers of analysis, breaking down wines and dishes into their important components so that his imagination has something to work with.

"Randy’s stories are a lot of fun. There are a lot of lessons that can be learned; but never fear, the homework is delicious."

I'm sipping smoky XX-dark French roast laced with chicory and sweetened milk over the Times (NY or LA); combing used bookstores and popping paperback pulp like pills and sushi; creeping around blocks in search of "real" foods in local joints; and music, always there must be music...

Randy Caparoso has devoted himself to a multi-award winning career managing, judging, speaking, producing and writing about wine since 1978. He currently serves as a restaurant consultant, specializing in wine, mission conception, FOH management, nuts-to-bolts staff training, and special events planning.

As a restaurant wine professional, Caparoso is perhaps best known as a Founding Partner and the former Corporate Wine Director of the James Beard Award winning Roy’s restaurant group, started in Honolulu in 1988. Before retiring from Roy’s in 2001 to pursue his own winemaking business, Caparoso personally helped transplant twenty six more of these acclaimed restaurants in places as far flung as Maui and New York, Chicago and Bonita Springs, Florida; each location doing close to or over $1 million in yearly wine sales alone.

In recent years Caparoso has expanded on his specialty, serving as opening consultant and GM of a wine-focused restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee called Circa by John Bragg, as well as presiding as Chef Sommelier of the Five Star/Five Diamond Sea Island resort on the coast of Georgia. Venturing into retail merchandising, he has also managed the largest enomatic wine bar/retail store in the world as Vice President of Operations of The Wine Room in Winter Park, Florida.

Between 2001 and 2005 Caparoso was sole proprietor of Caparoso Wines LLC, an alternative label specializing in internationally sourced wines ideally priced for fine restaurant wine by the glass programs, and crafted specifically for contemporary style (especially Asian/Fusion) foods. Three vintages of Caparoso wines (2000 case average yearly production) were marketed in twelve states (primarily Hawai`i, California, New York, Florida and Georgia).

Among the major awards earned by Caparoso during his career:
· Santé “Wine & Spirits Professional of the Year” (1998 – the magazine’s first ever)
· Restaurant Wine “Marketer of the Year” (1993)
· Restaurant Wine “Wine Marketing Concept of the Year” (1998 – For Roy’s “Upscale Private Label Program”)

In addition, Caparoso has served as wine list judge for Sante's Annual Grand Awards and numerous times for wine judgings such as the L.A. County Fair, New World Wine Competition and Lodi District Grape Growers Association. He has spoken and led panels on many subjects for the Society of Wine Educators, Santé Restaurant Symposium, Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, Aspen Wine & Food Festival, Hospice du Rhone, Lodi ZinFest and Epcot International Food & Wine Festival.

Since 1981 Caparoso has also bylined biweekly newspaper wine columns (The Honolulu Advertiser) and served as a regular contributing editor for numerous industry magazines (including Santé, Practical Winery & Vineyard, and Restaurant Hospitality). He is currently Bottom Line Editor of Sommelier Journal, the Wine Editor for Edible Front Range, and the Wine Examiner for examiner.com.

In 1997 Caparoso was commended by the Academy of Wine Communications for Excellence in Wine Writing and Encouragement of Higher Industry Standards, and is an Electoral College Member for the Vintners Hall of Fame at the Culinary Institute of America, Greystone.

Bruce Neyers (Proprietor, Neyers Vineyards):
Those who meet Randy Caparoso quickly grow to admire his candid and intellectual approach to the wine business. As a former partner of the Roy's restaurant group in Hawai`i, he's thought to be almost solely responsible for bringing a brilliant, fine wine program to the Islands, and playing an important role in the movement of fusion cuisine that has spread throughout the world. He went on to help establish Roy's as a prominent national restaurant chain before embarking on a career as a writer and consultant on the move, and can take credit for a number of creative wine programs around the country.

Morton Hochstein (Wine Journalist, Saveur, Decanter & Wine Spectator):
For me, visiting Randy Caparoso's page is a terrible thing because once I start reading his stuff I am lost for half a day. I am jealous of his knowledge, curiosity, his fluency with the English language, and his total unending love affair with wine. In these days of quick column writing, nobody, nobody takes as much time to ponder subjects the way he does.

Ronn Wiegand, MW, MS (Publisher, Restaurant Wine):
Randy Caparoso was one of the country's most innovative and articulate wine directors. He consistently pushed the envelope at Roy's and established new standards for wine program excellence in a multi-unit company.

Doug Frost, MW, MS (President/Industry Consultant, Strong Water):
Randy is the consummate wine professional - brilliant, passionate, totally dedicated and a great contributor to our industry.

Larry Stone, MS (General Manager, Rubicon Estate):
In my estimation Randy Caparoso is one of the most dedicated and imaginative professionals working in the world today. His achievements at Roy's were synonymous with the rise of chef Roy Yamaguchi himself.

Evan Goldstein, MS (President, Full Circle Wine Solutions Inc.):
Randy has had one of the most creative on-premise styles that I have worked with over the years. His palate is solid and he always seems to have his finger on the pulse of what's happening and what makes his customers happy.

Rob Constantino (Managing Editor, Santé):
Randy Caparoso is the wine professional's professional. He was our first Santé Wine & Spirits Professional of the Year because his exciting, innovative, ever-changing wine program was an industry model that influenced top sommeliers and restaurateurs around the world. By combining his thorough understanding of food-and-wine with an unflagging enthusiasm for searching out the new, he has enhanced the dining as experience of countless consumers.

Catherine Fallis, MS (Founder/President, Planet Grape; Educator, Culinary Institute of America, Napa Valley):
Randy is like a genius in motion.

Rebecca Chapa, DWS, CWE (Educator, Tannin Management; Wine by the Class; Culinary Institute of America, Napa Valley):
Randy Caparoso is probably the most innovative wine buyer I know. His knack for wine and food pairing is unprecedented, and he has the ability to manage a large wine program without being overly rigid. He is also as dedicated and loyal as anyone I know; and above all, he truly relishes the business of wine.

Wilfred Wong (ECommerce Cellarmaster, Beverages & More!):
Randy is one of the top guys in the wine industry with a background that encompasses the globe. His understanding of the synergy of food and wine is unsurpassed, and on top of that he has a great eye for quality.

Chuck Furuya, MS (Partner, Sansei Restaurant Group, Hawai`i):
Randy Caparoso is one of the industry's most talented professionals. He has an innate ability to pair wines with dynamic, eclectic, contemporary style foods, which he does with incredible imagination, and an acute sense of tastes and textures.