Ryan Hess - the best wine guy in LA!!
Vinoteque: Small Plates. A dinner made of tastes - two or three perfect bites of something exquisite, then onto the next. This is Vinoteque's approach. Which in itself would make me applaud them. What makes it worth all the traffic to get into West Hollywood is their wines, and the best wine man working at a restaurant in LA, Ryan Hess.
There have only been one or two sommeliers ever that Rich has trusted to choose the wines more than once, Ryan is the best. I once challenged him to match my dress to a wine (it was a new that night red and black dress with a Chinese red and black shawl....). He looked at me studiously for a moment and then replied (in the most insouciant Irish lilt), "Spicy..." a pause, "...and fierce!" He brought back a truly spicy and fierce Zinfandel that erased all my preconceived notions about its depth. The Cristom Pinot was his choice to celebrate the first Saturday of Summer heat and the Lakers win over the Suns...a perfect celebratory and romantic wine.