For more than a year, "Wine Buzz" has been tracking Jeremiah Morehouse, who – at 27 – has become one of Sacramento's best regarded sommeliers.
In May, the certified second-level sommelier was named wine director at Enotria Restaurant and Wine Bar. Now he's saying arrivederci to Sacramento. He recently resigned from Enotria to take a job at SPQR in San Francisco, a Fillmore Street restaurant known for its extensive Italian wine program.
Morehouse will work simply as a server at SPQR and get back to his roots behind a wine bar. It's an opportunity he said he couldn't pass up: He'll get a chance to work alongside noted wine director Shelley Lindgren and dig deeper into his love of Italian wine.
"It's a very cool gig and just a very progressive program they're doing," Morehouse said. "It's all Italian wine with a high volume by-the-glass program. They're all esoteric wines, which is exactly in line with what I like to learn about."
Morehouse's fondness for Italian vino led him to an extended trip to Europe in late 2010, when he tasted his way through family-run wineries and worked as sommelier for a luxury tour wine group in southern Tuscany.
"I love California and French wine, but my roots are very strong in Italian wine," Morehouse said. "The whole purpose of that trip was to rediscover the love for wine that I'd developed."
Along with digging into SPQR's wine program, Morehouse plans on taking more time to study for his Level 3 sommelier exam in 2012. He will commute to San Francisco and couch surf with friends until he makes a full move in the fall.
"This was a big decision for me to step back as director," Morehouse said. "To take a list that has more than 400 selections by the bottle and really manage that was a great opportunity. But at the end of the day, you have to do what makes you happy in life."
A taste of Kushman
Let's get to gettin' for an opportunity to take a wine class from Rick Kushman, a popular former Bee columnist who's also a certified wine educator. His latest "Fun in the Vineyard" class will be held from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Lava Cap Winery (2221 Fruitridge Road, Placerville). $25. Information: (530) 621-0175 or www.lavacap.com.
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