Spotlight on Everything Wine Vintages Room Expert, Si Man Lee
- Jun 15, 2018
If you have ever stepped into an Everything Wine store, you may have noticed our beautiful Vintages Room. This area is home to hundreds of amazing bottles worthy of any wine cellar, special gift, or personal treat for any evening. There are a few things in our beautiful wine dens that you won’t find anywhere else, including hundreds of prized and unique bottles, and our equally as unique Vintages Room Experts. Their passion for wine is unmatched, and each has years of training, experience, and dedication to the craft of wine tasting under their belts.
Get to know these helpful and knowledgeable experts in store, and through our blog, with the first in our series of spotlights. Our first Vintage Room Expert Spotlight begins with the very talented Si Man Lee:
Name: Si Man Lee
Place of Birth: Burnaby, BC
Tell us a bit about yourself:
I was born and raised in the Lower Mainland, parking cars in the backyard during the PNE (a good East Van kid of the ‘80s). I’m off mixed Chinese and Caucasian descent and my name is pronounced 'Simon' not 'See Man' or 'See.' I’ve got 2 young kids who think all wine smells like stinky grapes and a wife that’s beginning to get into it. I’m trained as a journalist and lived for a brief time working for a music magazine in New Orleans.
How and why did you get into wine?
I was in my mid 20’s and had heaps of student loans and had got a job in a fine dining restaurant. Seeing how much the waiters made, I figured it looked like a pretty good way to make a pretty awesome income early on, and ended up in the restaurant business for almost 20 years. Wine knowledge seemed to be the ticket to getting better jobs in better restaurants and so I did several years of education and the rest, as they say, is history.
What's your favourite wine region or country?
I’m a huge sucker for Spanish wines, particularly bolder expressions from places like Jumilla, Torro, or Priorat. There’s such great value there and the wines a lot of the time can age as well as some premium Italian or French counterparts.
What wine region or country would you like to visit next?
Spain again! I’d love nothing more than to fly into Barcelona, rent a car and make my way through the arid Spanish landscape, weaving from Priorat to Rioja to Valencia and end up in Jerez.
What's the one bottle that blew your mind?
2006 Ovid. For those who don’t know, it’s a bit of a California cult wine and doesn’t make it to BC in very large quantities. I was fortunate enough to attend a Napa Valley Master Class hosted by some very important wine people a couple of years ago and they had brought it up from the winery’s library. Never has a wine to me tasted so powerful, elegant and focused all in the same breath. The best part was that most of the people in attendance had to leave for work but as it was my day off and there were heaps left over, I got to have a full glass afterwards.
Name a wine you wish more people drank?
Sherry. It’s such a diverse wine and pairs so well with so many types of food. It’s also got flavours that are unique to it which makes it stand out even further amongst other wines. Sadly, I think many people associate sherry with Grandma’s drink of choice when she’s not drinking earl grey or something cheap to cook with.
Name your expertise:
Because I sell so much of it, I’d have to say Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon but pretty much the United States as a whole. As a former sommelier, I’m also quite astute when it comes to food and wine pairings and love when people can explain a dish in full detail which then allows me to come up with a perfect wine pairing.
Tell us about a wine misconception you’d like to clear up:
I feel like a lot of people seem to think that when it comes to premium wines, that it’s all a big sham and it’s paying for labels and marketing. Although in some rare cases that can be true, a lot of times when it comes to more expensive bottles, there are so many factors that go into it. For example, if the grapes were harvested by hand or machine, was the wine aged in oak barrels, how low the yields are in the vineyards, are all factors that affect the final price. Then, of course, there’s shipping costs, import taxes, duty etc., which as a retailer, I can not control.
Get to know these helpful and knowledgeable experts in store, and through our blog, with the first in our series of spotlights. Our first Vintage Room Expert Spotlight begins with the very talented Si Man Lee:
Name: Si Man Lee
Place of Birth: Burnaby, BC
Tell us a bit about yourself:
I was born and raised in the Lower Mainland, parking cars in the backyard during the PNE (a good East Van kid of the ‘80s). I’m off mixed Chinese and Caucasian descent and my name is pronounced 'Simon' not 'See Man' or 'See.' I’ve got 2 young kids who think all wine smells like stinky grapes and a wife that’s beginning to get into it. I’m trained as a journalist and lived for a brief time working for a music magazine in New Orleans.
How and why did you get into wine?
I was in my mid 20’s and had heaps of student loans and had got a job in a fine dining restaurant. Seeing how much the waiters made, I figured it looked like a pretty good way to make a pretty awesome income early on, and ended up in the restaurant business for almost 20 years. Wine knowledge seemed to be the ticket to getting better jobs in better restaurants and so I did several years of education and the rest, as they say, is history.
What's your favourite wine region or country?
I’m a huge sucker for Spanish wines, particularly bolder expressions from places like Jumilla, Torro, or Priorat. There’s such great value there and the wines a lot of the time can age as well as some premium Italian or French counterparts.
What wine region or country would you like to visit next?
Spain again! I’d love nothing more than to fly into Barcelona, rent a car and make my way through the arid Spanish landscape, weaving from Priorat to Rioja to Valencia and end up in Jerez.
What's the one bottle that blew your mind?
2006 Ovid. For those who don’t know, it’s a bit of a California cult wine and doesn’t make it to BC in very large quantities. I was fortunate enough to attend a Napa Valley Master Class hosted by some very important wine people a couple of years ago and they had brought it up from the winery’s library. Never has a wine to me tasted so powerful, elegant and focused all in the same breath. The best part was that most of the people in attendance had to leave for work but as it was my day off and there were heaps left over, I got to have a full glass afterwards.
Name a wine you wish more people drank?
Sherry. It’s such a diverse wine and pairs so well with so many types of food. It’s also got flavours that are unique to it which makes it stand out even further amongst other wines. Sadly, I think many people associate sherry with Grandma’s drink of choice when she’s not drinking earl grey or something cheap to cook with.
Name your expertise:
Because I sell so much of it, I’d have to say Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon but pretty much the United States as a whole. As a former sommelier, I’m also quite astute when it comes to food and wine pairings and love when people can explain a dish in full detail which then allows me to come up with a perfect wine pairing.
Tell us about a wine misconception you’d like to clear up:
I feel like a lot of people seem to think that when it comes to premium wines, that it’s all a big sham and it’s paying for labels and marketing. Although in some rare cases that can be true, a lot of times when it comes to more expensive bottles, there are so many factors that go into it. For example, if the grapes were harvested by hand or machine, was the wine aged in oak barrels, how low the yields are in the vineyards, are all factors that affect the final price. Then, of course, there’s shipping costs, import taxes, duty etc., which as a retailer, I can not control.