Vincent Derquenne has been at the center of Charlottesville’s fine-dining universe for nearly 30 years. And certainly wine service has been somewhere in his orbit over the decades. Now, he’s bringing it closer than ever with the launch of Crush Pad Wines, a bar and bottle shop across the Downtown Mall from Bizou, the restaurant Derquenne has run alongside Timothy Burgess for 25 years.
To bring Crush Pad to life, the France native rounded up some of the top minds in the local vine game: Rachel Gendreau, Tom Walters, and Wes McCullen. Derquenne and Gendreau recently talked to Knife & Fork about the venture.
K&F: This seems like a bit of a departure for you, Vincent.
Derquenne: Rachel and I have thought about this for quite a while—four to five years. So, I’m not the only one in this. Tom has been in the wine business for 25 years, and Wes has been in it for around 40. Rachel is working on her master sommelier [certification]. We have a very good team. We want to bring our knowledge and sell the right bottles to the right people.
Gendreau: We also want it to be fun. Wine is fun, and I think sometimes that can be a little lost in the sauce. There is this preconceived notion that, as you enter the higher echelons of great wine and drinking with knowledgeable people, it is very serious. We want it to be light and approachable for everyone, whether you are a serious collector or you just love wine and don’t know that much about it.
Do you have some current favorite wines?
Derquenne: They are like kids—they are all my favorites. Now that the season is changing, something that was my favorite a month ago is not going to be my favorite now. But it is okay, because they are going to come back next year. A wine you can drink outside in a courtyard or your backyard might be incredible, but two months later it doesn’t taste the same. Right now, we are going to the reds—the burgundies, the cabernet sauvignons, the pinot noirs from the West Coast. But there are also always a couple little wines that we misjudge, then they come back to you and say, “Hey, I am here.” And you say, “Yes, you are right. That is what you are here for.” It’s a whole relationship. Wine always surprises us.
What are you seeing consumers gravitate toward?
Gendreau: I have been really pleasantly—not surprised—but it has been lovely to see how many of our guests are mindful in their purchasing. We have had many folks ask for female-owned wineries, female winemakers, and I love that.
What can people expect from the food at Crush Pad?
Derquenne: The food is there to match the wine. It is a wine bar and wine shop, not a sit-down restaurant with a chef that only cooks the food and doesn’t understand what is around him. The focus point is the wine. The food is simple and easygoing for people to enjoy. I don’t want them to feel scared about the food we are doing. You’re going to have a good time. Everything is going to be okay.
Do the two of you have some favorite pairings?
Gendreau: I know we are out of tomato season, but I was loving this off-dry riesling with a tomato sandwich. The sweetness of the wine and acidity of the tomato—it is transformative.
Derquenne: We are doing a raclette, and if you take the raclette with a dry white wine from the mountains, it is beautiful. Matching the wines sometimes surprises you. You can take a red wine and find an ingredient inside the recipe and somehow things match. And I will say something about matching. Champagne matches with everything. It has got to be the bubbles.
Gendreau: Yes. It goes with breakfast, lunch, and dinner.