A Toast to Madeline Triffon, “Detroit’s First Lady of Wine”
We know Marvin Shaouni as a photographer and filmmaker, and also as a humble wine aficionado. So when he suggested we write about Master Sommelier Madeline Triffon, “Detroit’s First Lady of Wine,” in part because of how much she’s influenced him, we jumped at the chance. When he offered to present Triffon through his own eyes—and lens—we couldn’t resist the opportunity to share his personal experience.
AS A CREATIVE PROFESSIONAL, I am always on the lookout for inspiration. I’ve found that sometimes I find it where I least expect it. Before I decided to make photography my career, I worked as a server in several restaurants, and at one in particular I found one of my most unlikely—and most appreciated—inspirations.
It was around 1997 when I somehow convinced the floor manager of Morels, A Michigan Bistro that I was worthy of a server position, even though the Bingham Farms restaurant was one of the area’s premier establishments and I had no fine-dining experience. I didn’t know how to open a bottle of champagne. I knew nothing about food and wine pairing. I didn’t know that dishes should be served from the left of the guest and retrieved from their right. I was so out of my element that I was certain I wouldn’t last very long.
Within that first week, I had to serve my first bottle of champagne. I came bounding to the guest’s table, bottle in one hand and ice-filled bucket in the other. I presented the bottle to the guest and proceeded to unpeel the foil wrapped around the cork. As I twisted off the wire cage, the pressure that had built up from how I practically bounced to the table caused the cork to pop out and spill half of the bottle’s contents into the bucket. I was mortified and thought with no doubt that our manager was going to let me go. Fortunately, I was given another chance to prove myself worthy.
My lack of wine knowledge made me feel inferior. I had heard that I would be working with a master sommelier by the name of Madeline Triffon. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know who she was or even what a master sommelier was. I felt completely out of place standing alongside highly experienced servers and chefs awaiting my first pre-shift meeting to discuss the day’s specials and wine pairings. Then came my introduction to Triffon, as she wafted into the kitchen cradling half a dozen bottles of varying varieties. Standing barely taller than five feet, she is as forceful a presence as a Navy SEAL yet navigates a busy dining room with the grace of a ballerina. Her warm, welcoming smile greets guests as she listens with intention, eager to advise about wine, food or service. Her authenticity is palpable as she explains why certain wines work with certain dishes, using adjectives like barnyard, wet concrete, leather and tobacco to describe the wines’ aromatics and taste.
At that time, I was lost, but intrigued. I slowly began to learn and gain confidence, solely due to Triffon’s approach to teaching. To her, as long as you are putting in the work to educate yourself, she is more than willing to share her knowledge—not only about wine, but also hospitality. She uses that same approach today. She is all about being of service to everyone.
Triffon’s knowledge of wine and hospitality is vast. In the business since the late 1970s, when she was a theater major at the University of Michigan, Triffon went on to be sommelier for Westin Hotels & Resorts’ La Fontaine, a French restaurant at the Renaissance Center in Detroit. She became wine buyer for Westin, which in 1985 sent her to participate in her first national sommelier competition. She soon became sommelier at Detroit’s London Chop House and in 1987 passed the Court of Master Sommeliers exam on her first try. At that time, she was one of only nine Americans, and the first American woman—the second woman in the world—to pass, earning her the nickname “Detroit’s First Lady of Wine.”
The wine list she developed for the London Chop House was awarded the Wine Spectator Grand Award. In 1988, she became the wine director of chef Jimmy Schmidt’s restaurants, including the Rattlesnake Club in Detroit. In 1995, Triffon became director of wine and beverages for Matt Prentice’s Unique Restaurant Corporation (URC), where she maintained the wine and cocktail lists for the company’s restaurants— three of which received 1999 awards of excellence from Wine Spectator—and planned special events revolving around wine. In 2011, she jumped into her first retail position, as Plum Market’s director of wine events, where she regularly guides shoppers through the tastes and delights of wines from around the world, and especially Michigan.
As for me, I became a photographer shortly after my stint as a server at Morels, and I’ve applied Triffon’s hospitality and wine know-how to my freelance business. For instance, I approach working with my clients at the same level of service that I learned from working alongside Triffon. And although I still consider myself a novice when it comes to wine knowledge, my interest in learning about it has continued to grow and eventually led me to the former Republic of Georgia to document their 8,000-year-old winemaking tradition.
Triffon also introduced me to Michigan-made wines, which she has championed for decades. At the time, I didn’t know Michigan was a winemaking state and my first taste was a Chateau Grand Traverse Riesling, which I absolutely loved. Years later, this led me to my second film project documenting winemakers, this time Michigan’s.
It is amazing to me that metro Detroit has such a wonderful resource as Madeline Triffon, who puts so much effort into making sure her customers have a good price-value relationship and, maybe even more so, the thought she puts into the language she uses to help distill the essence of each wine she suggests, making wine more approachable to the novice.
To learn more about wine and events with Madeline Triffon, go to plummarket.com and click the “Wine Events” tab.
