Commentary: Personal connection overrides expertise

Chuck Furuya tells the story of his experience moderating a wine panel, when one of the national experts made the comment that he didn’t care what his customers wanted. They drank what he served or he showed them the door.

“How dare you?” Furuya recalls saying to the man, plus some other choice words. He doesn’t think he’ll be invited back.

But that’s OK. At Vino Italian Tapas & Wine Bar, he has a place for his passion.

His bottom line: All the expertise in the world means nothing if you can’t translate for the least savvy wine drinker in your restaurant. “If you can’t connect to the customer, what difference does it make? It’s not relatable.”

A week from today, finalists will be announced in the James Beard Foundation Awards for the nation’s top chefs and restaurants. The winners will be named May 3.

Vino is on the shortlist, among 20 semifinalists announced last month for best wine program. The only other Hawaii restaurant to make it this far is Senia, a semifinalist in the category of best new restaurant.

For his part, Furuya, the master sommelier behind Vino’s wine program, doesn’t expect to make the next cut, when the list is winnowed to five. The competition is at such a high level and the pool of judges so far away, he said in an interview last week, that the chances for a neighborhood restaurant in Hawaii are slim.

But the recognition has proved Furuya is not — as he sometimes jokes — a has-been.

Not that Vino is all about him, even if he is an unmistakable presence on the floor, renowned for his bad jokes as much as his good wine advice, shared in equal parts with Vino diners. He credits general manager Ann Taketa, chef Keith Endo and his full staff for making Vino worthy.

That said, Furuya has plenty to say about what makes a wine program worthy.

But first, why his opinion matters. Furuya became Hawaii’s first master sommelier in 1988, at age 33, and was only the 10th in the nation to reach that level. It says something that in nearly three decades just two others in the state — Roberto Viernes and Patrick Okubo — have run the gauntlet of the Court of Master Sommeliers to gain the same certification.

He poured the wine at some of the pre-eminent white-tablecloth institutions of Honolulu history: Bagwells 2424, the Maile restaurant at the old Kahala Hilton, La Mer. He was education chairman for the Court of Master Sommeliers, is now a partner in the DK Restaurants chain, supervises the wine program for all those eight restaurants, consults for Hawaiian Airlines and is the wine columnist for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

If you point Furuya at a wine, any wine, he can likely tell you with a sniff what it is, where it came from and what kind of soil the grapes grew in, maybe even how much it rained the year they were harvested. But far more important, he says: “Is it good? Why is it good? How much is it worth? What kind of food does it go with?”

That’s what the customer cares about.

For Vino he selects wines to match the food, that are low in oak and bitterness levels, don’t come across as highly alcoholic and that meet his standard of “gulpability,” a level of easy-drinking deliciousness. They tend to come from interesting, small producers whose vineyards Furuya has walked himself.

His job is not to chase the fashionable, he says. “You’re rooted in your craft; you’re connected to what’s happening but not just getting caught up in the hipster trends.”

Wines by the glass are served from a wine Cruvinet, a high-end storage and service system that keeps wine fresh and at the proper temperature. Glasses go through two dishwashers — one with soap, the other with just hot water, to rinse away any residue that can affect a wine’s taste. Then they are all hand-polished.

Wine service is “not about wearing tuxedos and serving verticals of Opus One. It’s good wine, served at the right temperature, in clean glassware,” he says.

“I’m not saying it has to be fine dining — it can be casual and true to Hawaii — it just has to be ingenious.”

Vino is at Waterfront Plaza, 500 Ala Moana Blvd. Call 524-8466.