The Somm Journal

{ SOMMjournal.com } 127 JASON PRAH, General Manager/Sommelier, Acadia, Chicago Jason Prah, General Manager and Sommelier at Chicago's Acadia restaurant, has worked in wine since 1999, though he began working in restaurants as a dishwasher at 13 years old. His career launched from the Wine Spectator Grand Award–winning Italian Village wine program, and he went from server to Assistant Wine Director before going on to run other reputable programs in Chicago. Today he's at the helm of Acadia, a two-ichelin-star fine dinin restaurant in the Windy City. "We consider ourselves a contemporary American restaurant, but there's certainly a fusion aspect to it," says rah. "Its definitely ld orlddrien, but I have wine represented from everywhere. For me, the wine list always has to come out of the itchen first, so a lot of the wines are eared towards the aors that are coming out of the kitchen. The chef 's food is really delicate and bright, and so a lot of the wines on the list are reectie of that same kind of idea." "When I do a reserve pairing, I'll blind taste the tables on a red and a white, which has become a huge hit for us," Prah explains. "I'll do something like the Bouchard Père et Fils [Meursault] Les Clous to sere as a classic epression, usin the Corain, and conersely an reon Pinot. The lines are blurred a little bit because Meursault is a big Chardonnay. Even though it's a rich wine, it still is really classic Burgundy." "White wine to me is like a jazz trio. You have acid, fruit and mineral. If any of that trio is out of tune, it's just going to be blazingly apparent," says Jason Prah, GM/ Sommelier of Acadia in Chicago. Bouchard Père & Fils 2014 Meursault Les Clous. is an unfounded stigma of lesser quality associated with Burgundian wines made by larger négociants. We sipped on our garnet-colored tastes of Bouchard Père & Fils 2014 Beaune du Château during our tasting, and right on cue, as if to unknowingly dismiss this preconceived notion, one of the newbies eclaied, "oh, now this I like!" Since 1731, when Michel Bouchard founded Bouchard Père & Fils 70 years before the Napoleonic Code, the Bouchard family assembled an impressive array of vineyards including two mono - poles (Clos de la Mousse Premier Cru and Clos Saint-Landry Premier Cru) and four exclusivities (Beaune du Château Premier Cru Blanc and Rouge, Beaune Grèves Vigne de l'Enfant Jésus Premier Cru and Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte Grand Cru), which were then taken over by the Henriot family in 1995. This makes Bouchard Père & Fils the largest wine - rower in the Cte drtotaled at 2 acres and the largest Grand and Premier Cru landholder at 212 acres. With this kind of acreage, it's even more impressive that the vineyards of Bouchard Père & Fils have been grown organically and sustainably since 2000. Bouchard has also invested in a state-of- the-art underground winery relying on the use of gravity to limit pumping. "Year after year, we are committed to achieving the truest and finest epression of each terroir, with respect to traditions, and the specificities of each intae. I wor with the same team and use the same equip - ment at the winery, whether crafting a Rully, Côte de Beaune-Villages or a Clos Vougeot or Montrachet," says Frédéric Weber, Cellar Master at Bouchard Père & Fils (he is also the Cellar Master at Château de Poncié, Bouchard's sister property in Fleurie, Beaujolais, acquired in 2008 by the Henriot family). The SOMM Journal set out to meet a few Burgundian-savvy sommeliers who have come to know and love Bouchard Père & Fils during their years of work in the industry. PHOTO COURTESY OF BOUCHARD PÈRE & FILS PHOTO: REBECCA PEPLINSKI PHOTO: REBECCA PEPLINSKI

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