Johnny

John is the concierge at Tolosa Winery, or as he likes to say, Edna Valley's oldest living bottle-boy. He consistently sports pastel-colored pants with a matching belt and bright plaid Ralph Lauren Polo: "Ralph Lauren is my spiritual guide" he mentioned to a customer who commented on his outfit. He settles for nothing short of the best and drives a pristine old white Targa Porsche. Those who know him call him "Johnny" and will have heard him pontificating about tannins and Burgundy vs. Bordeaux wines to many a customer. He is a wine and cheese expert with eleven years of experience at Tolosa; he was there when it opened. My favorite thing about Johnny is his dry humor and sophisticated etiquette. He will turn up his nose at people who clink glasses and talk loudly in the tasting room, but his arrogance is tempered by his self-deprecation. "Old, slow, and kind of out of it" is his favorite Yelp review, of the dozens that include his name as the best part of their Tolosa tasting experience. Johnny constantly uses the word "facetious" to refer to himself, and he certainly is - he makes blunt comments about the trashy wine tasters attending the Pismo Car Show or about the "vacant LA beauties," but will go out of his way for the customers he respects.

Johnny in the early years of Tolosa. 

Luckily I fall into the latter category. He calls me Kiki and enjoys showing me YouTube videos of Kiki Dee and Elton John singing "Don't Go Breaking My Heart." I have become his protege in wine and cheese and he has given me his own magazines, books, and hand-outs on the subject. However, we don't limit our friendship to shoptalk, rather we talk about anything from Nina Simone, current movies at the little independent theater downtown, to the poem on this morning's NPR broadcast The Writer's Almanac. Johnny has realized my interest in food and taught me everything I know about cheese. On Saturday and Sunday Johnny does a reserve wine and cheese pairing in a spacious room overlooking the vineyards on the opposite side of the winery. When it gets busy he lets me help him prep the plates and tells me all about each cheese: its history, what it pairs well with, how it ages, where it comes from... you'd be surprised how much there is to know! Vlaskaas, Humboldt Fog, Gran Queso - he slips me slivers of cheese as we work and has begun training me to present the pairing to customers. Already a so-called "foodie," Johnny has pushed me to follow my curiosity into the depths of the culinary world. Be prepared to start reading about food!