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Channeling Giamatti

Steamboat Springs — Before last week's Steamboat Wine Festival, everything I knew about wine I learned from the movie "Sideways" - and from a two-week holiday season stint working at Frontier Liquors in Evansville, Ind.

As the only person in the store who knew more about our wines than simply their location, I was pulled from my duties hunting shoplifters anytime a customer had a question about wine. Because anyone who knows anything about wine doesn't expect the staff at Frontier Liquors to know much more, the people with questions usually were clueless, looking to make an impression for some sort of special occasion.

I'll never forget the customer for whom I recommended a bottle of Toasted Head chardonnay. Toasted Head is an affordable, yet quite decent, chardonnay. Its distinctive label bears the image of a bear breathing fire.

"I don't know, man," the customer said as he lifted his NASCAR hat and rubbed his head in trepidation. "You got a picture of a bear barfing up some leaves on there."

After a series of questions and comments ranging from "How much?" to "I'm more of a beer guy," he was eventually sent on his way with a plain-labeled bottle of Cook's.

The tables were turned, however, when I covered Steamboat Springs' fourth annual wine festival. True connoisseurs were all about the festival's kickoff celebration on Thunderhead as I tried to blend in as much as a guy taking notes and snapping pictures can.

While chatting with vintners and sampling their wines, I tried to channel Paul Giamatti's character, Miles, so as not to seem an ignoramus, and I struggled to remember the exact sequence of swirling, sniffing, eyeing and tasting, while remembering to cut out the part when he loses it and chugs the spit bucket.

But as I relaxed, I realized there were plenty of amateurs about. Many of their efforts to be prim and proper decayed as the night wore on. By the end, common sounds included the fumbling of wine glasses and phrases such as "Pour me a fat one."

In its four years, the festival has broadened its focus. Whether it was a husband being dragged to the event by his wife and happily finding beer and Scotch whisky, or an uninitiated reporter seeing that anyone can fit in, I believe the festival's something-for-everyone qualities will be key to its continued growth and success.

- Brandon Gee