Is Bobby Stuckey, co-owner of Frasca Food and Wine, Wine Enthusiast's Sommelier of the year?
He just might be. But even if he isn't, one thing is for certain: Bobby Stuckey is a rock star.
Not just because he's one of only 129 North American wine service professionals who hold the Master Sommelier title, which is one of the most arduous, nerve-racking and expensive endeavors one might ever undertake (the heretofore mysterious details of which will shared with the world in the forthcoming documentary SOMM), but because between spending his nights on the floor of Frasca Food and Wine and making his private label wine, Scarpetta, somehow he manages to find the time to train for and compete in marathons.
"Yeah, I ran the Heart & Sole Half-marathon yesterday, plus the three miles from my car and back," says Stuckey, sounding as fresh and energetic as someone whose Sunday was far less taxing. "I'm training for the Montreal marathon in couple weeks - I've done New York, Chicago, Boston, but Danette, my wife, has never been to Montreal, so I thought I'd run a marathon there and we could make a vacation out of it."
We can't be certain, but all of that just might explain how Stuckey just scored Wine Enthusiast's "Wine Star" nomination for Sommelier of the Year. The geek wine zine, which honors "outstanding achievement in the wine and spirits world," just released its list of nominees today, and Stuckey, not surprisingly, is among the elite.
Here's what the publication writes about the Stuckey: "A master sommelier, Bobby Stuckey has inspired the Boulder, Colorado, beverage scene with his thoughtful Italian-centric wine list and unpretentious, polished service."
"I'm just honored to be nominated," Stuckey says. "We get nominated a lot, but we also lose a lot. I look at myself, like twenty years ago when I was a waiter, and to me, it was a craft to do this front-of-house thing. And that, he continues, "is how I really think of my career - I don't have to be on the floor every night, but that's what I want to do...that's what I'm into. I'm like bricklayer; it's a trade, and it's the one I chose."
Stuckey has been a somm since 1994, an MS since 2004, but there's still something to do every night, he says. "That's what's interesting to me. Sometimes we forget in the U.S. - maybe because it's not sexy -- how much method and consistency matters. There are not many people still on the floor who I was working with fifteen, twenty years ago," he notes.
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