Dining with Haley at Bacar

Haley Guild has done what many say they will but few ever do; she has traveled the world, a woman alone. Backpacking around Europe, with only herself to depend on, she nurtured a growing love of the unknown and constantly pushed herself. Being a sommelier at Bacar challenges her too. Haley says she welcomes working with the extensive wine list.

“ I love the list. We inherited a legacy from Debbie Zacharias and have big shoes to fill,” but it is her casual presence on the floor that engages her clientele. When it comes down to it Haley is as humble as they come. For her, selling wine is not about her ego, “it’s about giving people what they want.” However, there is a dichotomy to what she says, for Haley is passionate about esoteric wines. Using her background in the obscure and unknown she tantalizes her patrons’ palates, but first she must convince them to let her.

“I always try to be myself and give people recommendations based on what I would want to drink,” she says.

Haley’s career path is not one of happenstance. A Bay Area native, she left Northern California to study hospitality and tourism management at San Diego State. After graduation she flew to England for another six months of education at culinary school before donning a backpack and living the low budget venture of a traveler. Upon returning to the United States Haley came back to her roots and took up at A Côté, in Oakland, where wines from outlying regions and arcane varietals take center stage. As a manager she developed her palate and a deep appreciation for the lesser-known wine regions of Europe. Ask her what her favorite region is and her response is Jura, a cool climate area sandwiched between northern Burgundy and Switzerland, and though the answer may be recondite her reasoning is not.

Haley has only ever wanted to work in the hospitality industry, and as such she gravitates toward food friendly wines. The nutty whites of Jura, with their searing acidity, are an exciting compliment to myriad dishes.

It’s easy to see that Haley is passionate about wine. She works the floor at Bacar so that her clientele will grow to appreciate the exotic as she does. For her wine is an experience, an adventure, and one she strives to introduce to every palate.

New Zealand Oenology

New Zealand’s wine industry is but a fledgling Albatross about to take flight. In their Neolithic period oenologists up an down the isolated country populated with the descendants of warring Maori factions and Dutch and British colonialist are looking toward their distance European relations and seeing a resemblance thus partitioning them further from the rest of the New World. Avant-garde gambles are paying off and a style is emerging of that of a Brave New World.

A Master Sommelier once told me that wherever a varietal grows well it grows best in the coldest climate possible; enter New Zealand. There is less sun, more rain and days on end of cloud cover. Up in the hills cooling sea breezes collide with volcanic soils and down in the valleys stone and gravel abound in what would make some Bordeaux and Loire growers jealous. On the east coast of the North Island merlot and cabernet thrive in Gimblett Gravels, an area named in the same fashion as its French counterpart. In the rocky vineyards of Brightwater riesling and sauvignon blanc produce wines of body and minerality that are true expressions of terroir, Alsatians couldn’t be more proud.

Theirs is a blending of the lines between two well-established styles of wine making. By going the way of Spain and smudging the distinctive style constraints of geography much of the wine coming out of New Zealand is singing with acid and merely powdering its nose with oak. Which is a long way from the wines of Australia and California. In an era of drink me now mentality Kiwis are taking the long road preferring a more hands off approach and a chance to let world palettes adjust to their mindset, not the other way around.