Each week, we post short interviews with interesting people about their thoughts and feelings on women and drinking. There is such a wide array of perspectives about this topic, and we are excited to gain insight into as many as possible and to share them with you.
Born in New York City to an American oenophile and a Brazilian chef, Alexandra Elman was exposed to wine and food at an early age. As an adult, Elman went to work for Perrier-Jouët Champagne in Epernay, France, where she learned about wine production at the Chateaux level.
Upon her return to the U.S., Elman began to work for her stepfather, Basil Winston, trading rare and fine wines from all over the world, including many California cult wines. When working for Sherry Lehman, Elman was exposed to some of the lesser-known wines of the world, and found them to be more compelling and honest—or truly reflective of their sense of place—than many of the larger labels.
In her late 20s, due to complications from diabetes, Elman partially lost her vision and after various eye surgeries, lost her sight completely within a year, at the age of 27. Elman never stopped working in the wine world, and soon discovered that her palate had become even more focused.
In 2002, Elman embarked on a venture to import small production, hand crafted, artisan wines to the U.S. In 2009, Alex decided to create her own label of wines, and formed Alex Elman Wines, which released its inaugural portfolio in October 2010. Today, she travels the world with Hanley, her seeing eye dog, in order to find the best wines that the earth has to offer.
Drinking Diaries: How old were you when you had your first drink and what was it?
Alex Elman: My parents always had me tasting wine and beer from the time I was little. When I was about 4 years old, the drink I liked the best was Cinzano (vermouth) on ice. My mother was a Brazilian chef, and my parents always had big parties. At the end of one party, I was the one drinking the leftover wine in glasses–they found me passed out asleep on the floor.
How did/does your family treat drinking?
Nobody in my family has a problem with alcohol. Everyone in my family drank to enhance the flavor of the food. I was brought up where you drank wine with lunch and dinner, and as a child you were given beer mixed with ginger ale and wine with water–it was always treated as an everyday thing. It was nothing you had to wait to do. You drank when you were with family, friends; it was a regular part of my growing up.
How has being blind affected your drinking?
I don’t get blind drunk anymore (joke)! I’m pickier about what I drink. I have to make sure I’m going to feel okay, because balance is very important when you can’t see. I don’t ever want to feel so bad that I can’t function.
I’m not sure if my sense of taste is more acute because I don’t have my sight or because I have always had a sensitized palate. You think about sense of smell and how it takes you back to a memory faster than any other sense–when I smell Pantene shampoo, it takes me straight back to college.
As a wine taster, I don’t only pay attention to smell and taste–I get completely taken away. I deconstruct the wine, and I’m in the vineyard; it allows me to focus a lot more on the flavor the nose.
How do you approach alcohol in your every day life?
When I’m working, I taste a lot more than anything. When I’m out to dinner I usually have wine or a cocktail. After a rough day, I may have a vodka and soda. I drink when I want to drink, though when I’m working and tasting, I’m spitting.
Have you ever had a phase in your life when you drank more or less?
When I was in college, I binge drank to get wasted–I lived in Boston and you had no choice. When I lived in Champagne and we drank a lot of champagne, it was excruciatingly painful the next day. That was right out of college.
What’s your drink of choice? Why?
It depends on my mood and what the temperature is. I love to have a pilsner beer, but when I’m eating I like to drink wine. I like wines that are more subtle–that will give me some information and enhance what I’m eating.
Can you tell us about the best time you ever had drinking?
The artwork on Alex's wine label.
Lately, cause I know how to drink and know my limits, so I have a great time.
This is a time of my life when it’s the most fun. I like to have a glass of wine, just enough to be in a better mood and then to eat something.
What about the worst time?
In college, drinking Southern Comfort, when it was all about quanitity and not quality–when you wake up and your boots are still on.
Has drinking ever affected—either negatively or positively—a relationship of yours?
Positively sure, because people tend to open up and talk more. Wine allows you to be a little freer. I feel people in general are a little uptight; once they have a sip or a few they don’t care as much.
Has culture or religion influenced your drinking?
My father is Jewish; my mother is Catholic and Protestant. I was brought up in this very continental way, where you drank with meals and there were lots of parties. It was always ok, and not a forbidden fruit.
I was definitely surprised when I got to college. It seemed to me that people drank like they never drank before, and I couldn’t believe that went down. It was massive binge drinking.
What do you like most about drinking?
With wine, I love to taste the flavor. It becomes a mental exercise: can I taste where it comes from? After I deconstruct it, I just enjoy the flavor, and my smile gets broader. I like the way that alcohol allows people to relax, let their guard down and let their pretense go.
If you could be any drink, what would it be? Why?
I’d be Pichon Lalande, a wine from Bordeaux, because–like the wine–there’s a complexity to me that not everybody knows, but I’m still bold and out there.
