CHEERS FOR MOTHER’S DAY
Mother and daughter make careers out of a shared love of wine — and recommend a couple to share on Mom’s special day.
From the get-go, wine worked for Sandra Crittenden. Restaurant gigs during her college years afforded opportunities to taste when reps paid visits. And it was, she concedes, love at first sip. Raising two children and obtaining yoga-instructor certification caused temporary detours in her great grape adventure, but a corkscrew was never far from her grasp.
About the time daughter Morgan Merovitch left for college, two events happened almost concurrently that ensured wine would remain front and center in her life (Morgan’s as well, but we’ll get to that in a moment). A bad, briefly debilitating automobile accident derailed Crittenden’s nascent yoga career just as a close friend from childhood had decided to open a wine bar. Her buddy reached out, needing — and offering — moral support.
“She was concerned that she didn’t know enough about wine, so she asked me if I would take a class with her,” Crittenden said. “I did, and I enjoyed it. I really like studying.”
The next thing she knew, she was launching a blog called Wine-Thoughts.com — which marks its 10th anniversary this year — and, before long, she’d have Morgan try a sip of this or that when she returned home to Sugar Land on school breaks, asking her, “What does this smell like? What do the flavors remind you of ?” Morgan enjoyed “playing the game” but admitted she didn’t readily embrace wine despite having also been a hostess/server. However, “after about a year of not being particularly fond of wine,” she said, “I finally embraced it.”
A memorable Sancerre — several of them, actually — sipped poolside in the backyard did the trick. Suddenly, Morgan conceded, box wines smuggled into the dorm held little appeal.
She and her mom would bond fast over wine and, five years ago, they headed to Europe, trekking from Paris to Champagne to Tuscany to Rome. Wonderful memories linger from each stop, but those from a layover in France’s famed sparkling-wine country stand out. In fact, this week Crittenden was supposed to be reprising that visit to Champagne with her home-builder husband, Scott, to toast their 30th wedding anniversary. The blessing in disguise, of course, is that she gets to celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday with the whole family, Morgan and son Zack included.
Sandra and Morgan are the only mother-daughter team on the Houston Chronicle’s winetasting panel. They hold WSET III and II certification, respectively, while Sandra is also certified as a French Wine Scholar and has completed the Ruinart Challenge, meaning she’s well versed in the technical side of bubbles.
It seemed only fitting that mère et fille be given center stage today and that they chose to tout sparkling wines to toast what has evolved into a special friendship. Sandra went with a champagne, and Morgan veered off in an edgier direction, choosing to sing the praises of the rosé pétillant-naturel from William Chris Vineyards, one of many cellars in the Fredericksburg area they were scheduled to visit together last month until the COVID-19 lockdown nixed that trip, too.
“That made me really sad because my mom and I always have so much fun together,” Morgan said. “And I was especially excited that we were going to William Chris because we order it whenever we see it on a menu. We were both born and raised in Texas, we are both yogis, and we both love buying local. So I was excited when we saw this on the shelf at our Whole Foods! It’s only $25, and that keeps it in my price range for celebrations, being a 27-yearold just getting started with my career.”
Armed with two master’s degrees, an MBA plus another in psychology, from Claremont Graduate University near Los Angeles, she’s selling new homes in Houston’s emergent East End.
Regarding her “pet-nat” pick, it’s made in the méthode ancestrale style, meaning that bottling occurs before primary fermentation is finished without the addition of secondary yeasts or sugars, as are used in champagnes. Morgan described the William Chris as being “super aromatic with happy strawberry and grapefruit flavors and a sour beer note that I love. It’s a fun wine for casual events, tasty and easy to pop open and serve quickly.”
Crittenden, for her part, admits she “has been a lover of champagnes for so long I can’t even remember my ‘aha moment.’ It was so great to take Morgan to share the magic of the region on her first food-andwine trip. On our first day, we toured and tasted at both Ruinart and Pommery in Reims. The contrast of the two houses is ideal for a first visit. Ruinart has a more serious mood — sharing the history that made the region great — while Pommery is more avant-garde with a more circuslike atmosphere that reminds visitors that Champagne is meant for celebrating.”
But this year, she wanted to expand her horizons. “I was looking forward to touring and tasting with some smaller producers, particularly at Champagne Mailly, founded by a small group of growers in the Grand Cru village of Mailly in 1929 after they decided to produce their own wines rather than sell their grapes to the big houses. Today there are about 80 growers who are descended from the original group. The wines are primarily pinot noir, for which the Montagne de Reims area is known.
“I love their Brut Rosé. It’s a favorite for celebrations like Mother’s Day, elegant with floral and fresh raspberry notes and a lingering hint of blood orange citrus in the finish. It’s crisp but with a softness that makes it decidedly drinkable.” Morgan also weighed in with both thumbs up for the Mailly, which sells for about $50 at Total Wine, observing that it “reminds her of enjoying strawberry-orange sherbet in the summertime.”
Can’t you just picture them clinking glasses right now? Sometimes, no matter the circumstances, being stuck at home is perfectly OK.