CleverRoot

2 2 | t h e c l e v e r r o o t WHILE IT'S LIKELY that many a hospitality industry professional has enjoyed the occasional end-of-shift joint for years, we've seen many of our more mainstream friends "come out of the closet" as cannabis users, advocates, and adventurers since The Clever Root launched two years ago. As these chefs, somms, mixologists, and winemakers open up about their passion for the plant, discourse about its place in food and beverage continues to evolve. From cocktail pairings designed to emulate the "essence" of a cannabinoid high to infused dishes that incorporate THC into haute cuisine, the sky's the limit for playing with cannabis and the culinary arts. One sommelier who's recently jumped into the cannabis conversation is Ryan Arnold, Wine Director at the national restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You, which includes eateries like Mon Ami Gabi, Maggiano's, and Chicago's famed Café Ba-Ba-Reeba! While we're not seeing cannabis creeping into any of the company's menus just yet, Arnold sees an industry-wide trend on the horizon. One of the most interesting aspects of that trend, he says, is the framing of cannabis and wine as agricultural products that considers their common explorations of terroir, cultivation techniques, irrigation, sustainability, and canopy management, among others. Arnold's own interest in exploring cannabis and wine was piqued by visits to California, where he discovered winemaker friends growing Grenache and Granddaddy Purple with equal passion. "More and more, I'm seeing the merging of these two industries," he adds. "There are winemakers out there co- fermenting their wines with cannabis and offsetting the costs of grape-growing by cultivating cannabis. Linking cannabis farming and viticulture has been a very natural progression, especially in the past two years or so." Arnold has recently immersed himself into independently researching the relationship between the two plant products, but admits there is still much to learn. "To be honest, I've found more dissimilarities than similarities, but they both like the sun," Arnold says with a laugh. "When grapes get too much sun, they form thicker skins and have different tannin structures and pigments. In cannabis, too much sun and too much heat actually develops more resin as a defense mechanism for the plant." He cites drainage, soil composition, diurnal shifts, appellations, and UV exposure as additional exploration- worthy elements in his research, but things start to get really interesting once attention shifts to terpenes. That term refers to the aromatic molecules that give cannabis (as well as plant products like lemon, rosemary, pine, lavender, peppercorns, mango, and, of course, wine) its signature scent. "When you sit down to taste a wine in the glass, you'll volatize the aromas in the esters and terpenes jump out of the glass," Arnold explains. "For example, Chenin Blanc is known for what they call chamomile tea aromatics, which include notes of rosemary. That, to me, is the link to terpenes." Drawing connections between the language of wine and the language of cannabis in this manner is key to further enriching the public's perception of the plant, says Arnold. "Wine has grown leaps and bounds in terms of consumer understanding, and it's time that cannabis develops a similar vocabulary the consumer can understand and appreciate," he adds. "Connecting that lexicon really helps bridge the gap." Terpenes Tannins THE CLEVER ROOT and SOMMELIER RYAN ARNOLD EXPLORE THE INTERSECTION of WINE and CANNABIS by Rachel Burkons

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