Wine lovers know the drill: Smell, sip, swirl, spit. For sommelier Abe Zarate, spitting is central to the job.
A sommelier for nearly a decade, Zarate stopped drinking in 2020. (“I needed the boundary,” he says.) As someone who wanted to keep working in the wine industry, he needed to create boundaries but also continue to educate himself daily. “When I was first interviewing for new jobs, I decided to just be public from the beginning and very forthcoming with it. I bring it as a superpower,” Zarate says.
“People were curious, not about how I went about sobriety or the process, but what led me to it,” he continues. “I remember someone asking, ‘You weren’t like, falling asleep on the street or anything, right?’ It wasn’t ever that kind of problem. It felt like they were asking me to justify my non-drinking with something extreme.”
Throughout his sobriety, Zarate has worked the floor at some of the Big Apple’s most exciting places to drink wine, including Yannick Benjamin’s now-closed Contento and Wine Spectator Grand Award winner the Modern.
Zarate’s current role is wine director for Tao Group’s Crane Club, a sleek Best of Award of Excellence–winning restaurant in Manhattan’s West Chelsea neighborhood in the former home of Grand Award winner Del Posto. The menu, helmed by former Del Posto executive chef Melissa Rodriguez, spotlights wood-fired Italian cuisine. Through it all, Zarate has been an active and vocal advocate on social media that sobriety does not mean giving up one’s love of wine; in fact, he argues, being sober can deepen it.
Zarate sat down with Wine Spectator to discuss the changing field of Dry January, his thoughts on pairing nonalcoholic wines with food, his top nonalcoholic wine brands and more.
You’ve been sober for over five years. How have you noticed the conversation surrounding sobriety and Dry January change in that time?
Things like Dry January used to be something that needed to be highlighted. But instead of highlighting it, people ended up almost separating it, which is where we fell into extremes. In reality, alcohol isn’t going to go away—it’s going to continue being a part of everyday life, whether you ingest it or not. Wine is way more than just alcohol. On the other end, Dry January is just someone choosing not to drink—that could be for a plethora of reasons. It’s not necessarily this permanent thing and it doesn’t necessarily stem from misuse of alcohol. I keep coming back to the word integration. How we’re approaching sobriety is becoming more of a reflection of how the world actually operates.
How has sobriety impacted your career as a wine professional and sommelier?
I’ve been lucky with putting myself in welcoming places. I do remember this one opportunity—their representative let me know that it was between me and another person. Ultimately, they went with the other candidate because they were concerned that I wouldn’t be drinking at events or with clients. If anything, that experience made me double down on operating the way that is right for me. I want a career in this industry—it’s the most sustainable route.
What is it that made you want to keep working in wine?
Wine is so much more than alcohol. What excites me is education, discovery, travel and community. It’s all intertwined with wine. In my first wine class, I thought it was so beautiful that two ounces of wine can retain qualities of where it came from, how it grew and how it develops in the glass once you spend time with it. Those are all very human-like qualities—that’s what keeps me in the wine industry.
Over the years, we’ve seen an uptick of restaurants putting nonalcoholic wines on their wine lists. What’s a tip you have for incorporating nonalcoholic wines into a program?
Integration is something I apply to our wine list at Crane Club. For example, in the section of sparkling wines and Champagne, in that same section, I have a de-alcoholized sparkling rosé. You differentiate it in the same way that you would an aging designation or noting that a bottle is a magnum. It doesn’t make that wine any less of a beverage or present it as an afterthought.
This also extends to how you treat these bottles. When someone orders an alcoholic beverage, you’re paying attention to the glassware and the service. It’s our responsibility to know as much about spirits, tea, coffee and nonalcoholic beverages as we do wine.
It’s not even cannibalizing a sale of an alcoholic drink—it’s expanding on it. People are going to say, “We’re gonna go to this place, but let me check out their nonalcoholic offerings.” If they don’t have good options, those people can go somewhere else that will accommodate everyone. So then you’re not just losing out on an alcoholic beverage sale, but you’re losing multiple potential and returning guests.
What is your philosophy on pairing food with nonalcoholic wines?
Nonalcoholic wine is a double-edged sword right now because there are so many options. It is amazing, but too many options can also be detrimental. That’s part of just growing pains and adjusting expectations. Maybe there will be a future where you’ll take a sip of a nonalcoholic and it’ll fool you. Not too many that exist right now, but that’s not what everyone’s looking for. Not everyone is looking for a nonalcoholic beverage that’s like an alcoholic one. My favorite food and beverage pairing is tacos al pastor and agua de jamaica, hibiscus tea. You get so limited when you have to stay in the lens of wine.
What are some of your favorite nonalcoholic bottles right now?
I really like Woody’s and Noughty. Moderato is really cool—they opened a center for de-alcoholization in France. (Historically, a lot of that process has been done in Germany.) It’s great to see more brands and companies keeping these processes in-house for their nonalcoholic wines.
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