Randy Caparoso's Page

Randy Caparoso: ky977116mx4f; Share

About Me

: Highlands Ranch, CO
United States; Member # 954; 7 Referrals; Joined Jan 17; Seen 22 hours ago

Awards

24,344 Points

Contributions

Discussions (4)
Photos (7)

Randy Caparoso's Friends

View All

Randy Caparoso's Groups

FohBoh Leadership (30 members)
Menu Development (22 members)

Re-New Orleans (13 members)
Colorado Foodies (4 members)

Restaurant Web Sites (8 members)

View All

Randy Caparoso's discussions

I Dreamed I Saw Robert Mondavi

Thanks, Melanie. I checked out your sites, btw, and enjoyed your pieces very much. Would be interested in latching onto The Spirit World one way or another, too, with my Culinary Wine & Food Ad... more

Added a reply Jun 16

I Dreamed I Saw Robert Mondavi
3 Replies

Oh lord, what have we wrought upon ourselves? Many of us know Robert Mondavi was a visionary; a man of action as much as words. But he was also a contrarian. About thirty years ago he began to do ... more

Started this discussion. Last reply by Randy Caparoso Jun 16.

How do you find a job/employees?

Two words: Craig's list. After that, two more words: hope and pray. Not. But I have had the best success through networking with my own people. Go to employees you really like, and ask them to br... more

Added a post May 9

Employee Romance

Surfer Girl, I know this is an old post, and I thought it was a shame no one really weighed the pros and cons. But first, re your question about wines by the glass in another post: I put up one c... more

Tagged: dating, romance, restaurant

Added a post Mar 9

View All

Latest Activity

Randy Caparoso added 2 new blog posts. View Randy Caparoso's blog posts May 8

Randy Caparoso joined 2 groups. View Groups May 2

Randy Caparoso added the blog post 'Great Plonk & Ideal Syrah/Shiraz Food Matches' May 1

Randy Caparoso joined 2 groups. View Groups Apr 30

Randy Caparoso added the blog post 'Common Wine Accents (and How to Apply Them)' Apr 25

Profile

Title/Position: Wine Professional

Company: Self Employed

Restaurant Occupation: Consultant, Executive (VP and above), Manager, Sommelier

Industry: Restaurant

Department: FOH, Management, Corporate

Restaurant Segment: Fine Dining, Hotel Fine Dining

Restaurant Type: American

Website Address: www.wineloverspage.com/r...

Blog Address: www.culinarywineandfood....

Interests: Discovering new food, Discovering new wines, Consulting, Making Friends, Deals, Career Advancement, Gaining Knowledge

Other Interests: Strong coffee, reading, travel, menudo and NY Times on Sundays, and then more strong coffee, reading, travel and menudo and NY Times on Sundays...

Favorite Restaurants, Liquors, Wine and Beers: Restaurants: Bye Bye Blues (Palermo); Pastrami Queen and Gramercy Tavern (NY); Cozy Corner (Memphis); Zippy's and Liliha Bakery (Honolulu); Cafe du Monde, Bayona and Commander's Palace (New Orleans); Zuni Cafe and Lulu (San Francisco); Chez Panisse (Berkeley); Tina's (Dundee, OR); Hitching Post (Santa Barbara); Bern's (Tampa); Potager, Jax and Snooze (Denver); Number 9 Park (Boston); The Quiet Woman (Corona del Mar, CA)

Wines: Domaine Tempier Bandol (Provence); Ken Wright Pinot Noirs (Oregon); Au Bon Climat Pinot Noirs (Santa Barbara); Tandem Pinot Noirs (Sonoma Coast); Selene "Chesler" (Napa Valley); California Zinfandels (current faves: Tres Sabores, Neyers, Macchia and St. Amant); Rocca Family "Bad Boy Red" (Napa Valley); Zilliken Rieslings (Saar, Germany); almost any Chablis (from Petit to Grand Cru), Sancerre or Picpoul from France; Domaine la Tour Vieille Banyuls (Southwest France); although realistically, whatever's on the table...

Personal Quote: "I fought against the bottle, but I had to do it drunk" (Leonard Cohen)

Seeking: Friends, Business Contacts, Clients, Experts, Career Advancement

Biography: Randy Caparoso has devoted himself to a multi-award winning career managing, judging, speaking, producing and writing about wine since 1978. He currently serves as a restaurant consultant, specializing in wine, Mission construction, FOH management, nuts-to-bolts staff training, and special events planning.

As a restaurant wine professional, Caparoso is perhaps best known as a Founding Partner and the former Corporate Wine Director of the James Beard Award winning Roy’s restaurant group, started in Honolulu in 1988. Before retiring from Roy’s in 2001 to pursue his own winemaking business, Caparoso personally helped transplant twenty six more of these acclaimed restaurants in places as far flung as Maui and New York, Chicago and Bonita Springs, Florida; each location doing close to or over $1 million in yearly wine sales alone.

In recent years Caparoso has expanded on his specialty, serving as opening consultant and GM of a wine-focused restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee called Circa by John Bragg, as well as presiding as Chef Sommelier of the Five Star/Five Diamond Sea Island resort on the coast of Georgia. Venturing into retail merchandising, he has also managed the largest enomatic wine bar/retail store in the world as Vice President of Operations of The Wine Room in Winter Park, Florida.

Between 2001 and 2005 Caparoso was sole proprietor of Caparoso Wines LLC, an alternative label specializing in internationally sourced wines ideally priced for fine restaurant wine by the glass programs, and crafted specifically for contemporary style (especially Asian/fusion) foods. Three vintages of Caparoso wines (2000 case average yearly production) were marketed in twelve states (primarily Hawaii, California, New York, Florida and Georgia).

Among the major awards earned by Caparoso during his career:
· Santé “Wine & Spirits Professional of the Year” (1998 – the magazine’s first ever)
· Restaurant Wine “Marketer of the Year” (1993)
· Restaurant Wine “Wine Marketing Concept of the Year” (1998 – For Roy’s “Upscale Private Label Program”)

In addition, Caparoso has served as wine list judge for Sante's Annual Grand Awards and numerous times for wine judgings such as the L.A. County Fair, New World Wine Competition and Lodi District Grape Growers Association. He has spoken and led panels on many subjects for the Society of Wine Educators, Sante Restaurant Symposium, Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, Aspen Wine & Food Festival, Hospice du Rhone, Lodi ZinFest and Epcot International Food & Wine Festival.

Since 1981 Caparoso has also bylined biweekly newspaper wine columns (The Honolulu Advertiser) and served as a regular contributing editor for numerous industry magazines (including Santé, Sommelier Journal, Practical Winery & Vineyard, and Restaurant Hospitality). Many of his thoughts on food and wine can be gleaned on his home page, culinarywineandfood.blogspot.com, as well as on Robin Garr’s Wine Lover’s Page (wineloverspage.com/randysworld). In 1997 he was commended by the Academy of Wine Communications for Excellence in Wine Writing and Encouragement of Higher Industry Standards.

Years Experience: Over 30

My Pet Profile

Randy Caparoso's Photos

View All

Randy Caparoso's Blog

I Dreamed I Saw Robert Mondavi

By Randy Caparoso on Jun 16, 2008 at 8:39am | No Comments (Add) | 12 Views

Many of us know Robert Mondavi was a visionary; a man of action as much as words. But he was also a contrarian. About thirty years ago he began to do more traveling around the country, telling everyone who would listen that the industry must produce wines that “blend... more

Is Lodi Making California's Best Zinfandels?

By Randy Caparoso on Jun 12, 2008 at 2:11pm | 1 Comment (Add) | 22 Views

I suppose that before I go making bold-faced statements like Lodi is making the best Zinfandels in California today, I should at least qualify it. So if you will, 1. In recent years I simply have not found Zinfandels from anywhere else in the state that have been as... more

UGLY DUCKLINGS AT THE 2008 SANTÉ RESTAURANT SYMPOSIUM

By Randy Caparoso on Jun 9, 2008 at 7:07pm | 6 Comments (Add) | 29 Views

One of Randall Grahm’s longtime favorite descriptions for the under-appreciated wines of the world is ugly ducklings. Another is heterodoxical. In the restaurant business, we’ve simply called them “hard-to-sell” wines. The opposite might be Chardonnay, Merlot and Ca... more

Myths, Chocolates & Other Sweet Mysteries of Life

By Randy Caparoso on May 7, 2008 at 5:53pm | 2 Comments (Add) | 56 Views

Oh, to be blissfully unimpeded by thought or effort when matching wine with food. There’s nothing wrong with the “drink-whatever-you-like” approach when it comes to that. Not much different than when it comes to cooking: whenever you’re hungry, just open up a can of ... more

Great Plonk & Ideal Syrah/Shiraz Food Matches

By Randy Caparoso on May 1, 2008 at 2:06pm | No Comments (Add) | 46 Views

By now, everyone who appreciates good wine has been long aware of the fact: South Australia produces some of the greatest red wines of the world, and its centerpiece is the rich and unruly Shiraz (otherwise known as Syrah in the rest of the world). Without a doubt, ... more

Poems of Wine, the Grand Illusion

By Randy Caparoso on Apr 27, 2008 at 2:10pm | 2 Comments (Add) | 102 Views

Opening a bottle of wine is an act of optimism. We’re confident it will improve the moment, the conversation, the relationships. Each time we pull a cork, it’s as if we’re saying, Here, I think this will help make things a little better. - Joseph Mills, Wine’s Beau... more

Common Wine Accents (and How to Apply Them)

By Randy Caparoso on Apr 24, 2008 at 8:22pm | 8 Comments (Add) | 95 Views

Although as Americans, probably none of us (including myself) are as good as we should be about placement of correct accents in European wine related words, there’s really no excuse. It’s as important as spelling potato as potato, not potatoe (as one of our former vi... more

Everything is Coming Up Rosés

By Randy Caparoso on Apr 21, 2008 at 5:22pm | 4 Comments (Add) | 92 Views

It’s spring, and everything should be coming up rosés. Oh, I know times are toughening up again. You aren’t seeing your regulars quite as often, and the rising cost of oil (and I mean, cooking oil) and everything else is making your P&Ls go haywire. So maybe it’... more

Red Wine with Fish Revisted

By Randy Caparoso on Apr 17, 2008 at 2:38pm | 3 Comments (Add) | 118 Views

The concept, red wine with fish, is now as firmly entrenched in culinary phraseology as red wine with meat and white wine with fish. Exactly how does this work, and why? Almost twenty years ago David Rosengarten and Joshua Wesson wrote a book about it (Red Wine with... more

A Drunken Samurai's Way of Wine

By Randy Caparoso on Apr 15, 2008 at 3:40pm | 1 Comment (Add) | 53 Views

Some curious, yet totally sensible, thoughts concerning why certain foods, and food and wine combinations, always seem to be so "right" for us once occurred to me when I reading about the period of Shojin Ryori in late 19th century Japan. Influenced by the austere ... more

Favorite Food, Wine & Drinking Songs

By Randy Caparoso on Apr 13, 2008 at 5:13pm | 14 Comments (Add) | 106 Views

What are your favorite eating and drinking songs? There must be a million of them; but then again, not. But these days the vast library in the internet sky allows you put your favorites all together in once place, making for one, big musical food, wine, beer, whiskey... more

How Is Your Wine Grape IQ?

By Randy Caparoso on Apr 11, 2008 at 2:08pm | 5 Comments (Add) | 50 Views

How is your contemporary wine grape IQ? Are you up on the latest “alternative” varieties? Should you even care? If a grape makes perfectly delicious wine, I would think yes to the last question. But for me, personally, I think a wine made from an alternative grape b... more

(At Long Last) Deconstructing Umami

By Randy Caparoso on Apr 10, 2008 at 1:05pm | 4 Comments (Add) | 35 Views

What is umami and why is everyone talking about it? I mean, aren't foods and wines complicated enough? When I think of many of the natural food and beverage combinations I've enjoyed in my life – like sushi and beer, ‘ahi tuna and Pinot Noir, green tea and rice cake... more

Dreams of Velvety Reds

By Randy Caparoso on Apr 7, 2008 at 9:53am | 7 Comments (Add) | 32 Views

I have this recurring dream. It's almost mid-day. We wake up late, and haven't yet eaten. So after stopping at a tiny charcuterie for some sausages, marinated olives, a round of local bread – tasting of freshly risen dough, not salt or chemicals, crusted on the outsi... more

Central Otago Pinot Noir - Our Latest, Greatest, Most Cinematic Wine Frontier

By Randy Caparoso on Apr 4, 2008 at 4:03pm | 2 Comments (Add) | 20 Views

Eight years ago, when Andy and Penny Loving left Colorado looking for the fishing lodge of their dreams on New Zealand’s South Island, they found instead a world class Pinot vineyard to invest in; which led to the founding of their U.S. based import company – Statio... more

Wine, Cheese & Culinary Debauchery

By Randy Caparoso on Mar 21, 2008 at 4:15pm | 2 Comments (Add) | 37 Views

They say that cheesemaking goes back as long ago as 9000 BC, when animals were first domesticated for their milk. Milk is turned into cheese by an enzyme known as rennet, originally found in the lining of calves’ stomachs. Seems some ancient dude decided to carry his... more

Restaurant vs. Retail Wine Sales - Who's to "Blame?"

By Randy Caparoso on Mar 19, 2008 at 9:09am | No Comments (Add) | 128 Views

Restaurants vs. retailers. Sommeliers vs., er, wine store salesmen (oh heck, let’s call them “retail wine specialists”). Who has done more for America’s growing interest in wine? Who’s to blame for the majority of Americans’ continuing lack of interest? What do you ... more

One Thousand and One Chickens (and Wines)

By Randy Caparoso on Mar 18, 2008 at 9:26am | No Comments (Add) | 22 Views

Let’s talk chicken and wine matches. But why? The way I look at it: > I learned long ago that ordering chicken in every restaurant gives you a pretty good idea of how good, bad, or detail oriented every restaurant's chef is. I know why, as a result, Daniel in New... more

What's Cutting-Edge in Wine Programs Today?

By Randy Caparoso on Mar 17, 2008 at 8:31am | No Comments (Add) | 48 Views

What’s happening in restaurant wine programs today? This question almost begs a look back twenty five, thirty years ago when I first started in the business, and was literally hand scripting 70, 80 selection wine lists, switching out pages of glass selections and ne... more

Is Pinot Noir the Ultimate "Food Wine?"

By Randy Caparoso on Mar 15, 2008 at 10:16am | 8 Comments (Add) | 51 Views

It’s often said these days that Pinot Noir is the ultimate “food wine.” Not that it goes with “everything” or is the wine that everybody loves. But it does have the highest percentage chance of matching any specific dish than any other wine type. Or does it? Well, l... more

Comment Wall (48 comments)

You need to be a member of FohBoh to add comments!

Join this network

At 12:24am on July 3rd, 2008, Jaunty Tune said…: hmmm, now I've found another backlog of blog to work on :)

At 11:08am on June 14th, 2008, Jonathan Harper said…: hey boss.. nice to meet you

At 9:41pm on June 12th, 2008, Erin Shea said…: Thanks, Randy! I'll be taking you up on that!

At 10:14am on June 10th, 2008, Joe Archuleta said…: Hola Randy! Just checked your photos, you have such a blessing with your family. Just gorgeous, all of you. Have a great day.

At 12:16pm on May 13th, 2008, sonneville said…: hello randy
i am trying to join herve pennequin , but no answer, i am looking for a partner for seding french wine to usa can you help me?
serge

At 6:41pm on May 8th, 2008, Kathleen Milazzo said…: Randy, thank you for leaving your comment You should check out wahm.com. It's a forum for work at home moms, but there are male members and you can make a lot of contacts there.

At 6:44am on May 5th, 2008, Andy Swingley said…: Randy, check out your messages to see if you are interested in helping me on the contest we are starting in the Leadership group.

Thanks and hope you had a great weekend!
Andy

At 8:00pm on May 3rd, 2008, Kim said…: Hi Randy, I see you join the group. Welcome. Feel free to add any discussions about your knowledge of wines and the Denver area. Up north their isn't much to do but when there is I just want to get the message out. Maybe you can give some good wine pairing for great dinners. That would be awesome.
Again Welcome, Kim

At 9:19am on April 30th, 2008, Brady Lowe said…: Hey Randy, it was nice to run into Dan Barash over the weekend and first thing that came up was your name. he saw us connected on fohboh and was like i didnt know you were friends and said if we were not we should be. I just read your bio, have been following some of the discussions and think it would be great to have a conversation and see if there is any synergy in our businesses.

lets set up a time to talk. ~best,brady

At 3:44pm on April 19th, 2008, Kris Abadie said…: Mmmmm.. I love Jaque-Imo's(good job on the spelling :) )My good friend, Kyra, works there too. Keep her in mind on your next visit! I also love Rebirth Brass Band that plays at the Maple Leaf every Tues night. Good taste!