Get your glass, Nantucket
Nantucket Wine Festival's Denis Toner doesn't waste words and he's recommending events that are still available
By Marli Guzzetta Independent Arts Editor
Aweek before the Nantucket Wine Festival (now on through Saturday), co-founder and president Denis Toner rested his glass of wine - Inman Family 2004 Pinot Noir - on a small stack of boxes. Some contained snifters and others, 'cutting-edge' oyster shuckers not yet available in the States.

Nantucket Wine Festival President Denis Toner at his home with a glass of Pinot Noir.

"This wine owner, Inman, will be at the festival," he said. "We always have a huge amount of winemakers. So if you like the wine, you can meet the person who makes the wine and talk to them about what makes the wine special, and that's really the key. They're the ones with shit on their shoes. They're out in the vineyards. These people are intimate with the wine, and their language tends to be more direct and simple, as opposed to marketing language, or critic's language - which is even worse. Gobbledygook winespeak."

Drawing vintners from all over the world and an estimated 2,500 attendants, this year's festival will shine a special spotlight on the West Coast, as represented by Michelin-crowned Nick Peyton (of Cyrus restaurant) and a cadre of Santa Barbara vintners.

This year, there's also a new venue for the hallmark Grand Tasting - The Nantucket Yacht Club (located on the edge of town, just off Broad Street on South Beach) is an upgrade in location for the grand promenade created by vintners and gastronomes offering a surfeit of samples.

"We've kind wandered through the desert for the Grand Tasting. We've been at the Casino, the Harbor House, Jetties Beach, you name it," Toner said of previous Grand Tasting venues. "On Nantucket, there's not a huge diversity of choice for venues that will accommodate the numbers and reflect Nantucket. But the Yacht Club is perfect for us. Built in 1906, it bespeaks old Nantucket."

Like the winemakers, Toner also gets right to it in a language that is void of gobbledygook. That's why it seems best to let him present to any potential ticket buyers a few events that are still available:

"Enjoying Wine and Restaurants: An introduction to Biodynamic Wine" (SEM-13); Thursday, May 17, 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.; The Madaket Room at the Harbor House; $65

This is unbelievable. There's a theory called biodynamism, started by the fellow who started the Montessori movement, Rudolph Steiner. It's like going back to the wisdom of other generations in terms of making wine less chemically and technologically. It really goes back to the primitive people. You only plant the roots on certain lunar cycles. You only bottle on other aspects of the lunar cycle. Obviously, you use raptors for the insect control. Some cases, you get natural quartz to give the grapes reflected light. ... Some of it sounds a little goofy, but the proof is in the pudding. Some of these wines are really great. The problem in wine is that it's becoming global red and global white. There are so many tricks you can pull in the winery, technically, to make the wine taste good. But it doesn't taste as though it comes from a certain place. So with this, what you want is wine that tastes like a certain place. (Whereas, if you have technically correct wine, it's wine that comes from a chemist.) And Cat Silirie, the Wine Director at No. 9 Park, is an advocate of that, and on her wine list, she has many producers who practice those techniques. Each of the sommeliers will bring their own selections of biodynamic wine.

"Which Red Wines are the Healthiest and Why?" (SEM-26); Friday, May 18, 3 p.m. - 4 p.m.; Hearth at the Harbor House; $65

That's with "the wine diva," Christine Ansbacher. That's her identity. She gives talks about wine and food and wine and health, in this case, and how certain wines from high altitudes are beneficial to your health. She's very charismatic. That's her identity. She's got quite a following. And again, this is for people who are interested in that aspect of wine. Once you get into the arena, she's really quite good. And funny.

"Three Amigos: Take Five" (SEM-28); Friday, May 18, 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.; White Elephant Main Tent; $120

Well, everybody loves Ming Tsai. It's going to be about shrimp done three ways, and three wines that will come from another producer in Santa Barbara - a brilliant guy, and his wines are really pure. Just read the Web site description on this one, because it's really funny.

"Santa Barbara: Obsessed with Terroir" (SEM- 51); Friday, May 18, 5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.; Hearth at the Harbor House; $65

This is the right time of day, when you're getting out of work. There are five or six winemakers from Santa Barbara - maybe the hottest wine growing region in the country. It's an especially great place to grow grapes. It's much cooler than Napa Valley. … The reasons why, in California, most of the mountains run north to south. In Santa Barbara, they run east to west, and that creates a natural cooling corridor, so the grapes stay cooler and mature more evenly and ripely and have a longer growing season. Plus, you have a lot more complexity in the fruit, because there are hardly any nutrients in the soil . . . and grapes like stress. They're Type A people. ... You have a chance here to get a seminar on Santa Barbara, and again the benefit is you have the winemakers there.These guys are great You read the critical press, they're at the top of the heap.

"WineDown Brunch" (SE-1); Sunday, May 20, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.; White Elephant; $75

The brunch is great, Moet & Chandon. Great champagne And this company, Stirrings, a Nantucket company, makes terrific Bloody Mary mix. They're putting together a really terrific brunch at the White Elephant. You're right there on the water. You know, wind down. And then if you want to go to the Grand Tasting or another session, everything is just a walk from there. It's very convenient.

- Denis Toner