John Giebler: Tour leader, Sommelier, Breadmaker and Chef

There is an Italian saying: Una cena senza vino è come un giorno senza sole. In English. “A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine.” Fortunately, with ExperiencePlus! tour leader and wine connoisseur John Giebler in the room, there is no such thing as a meal without wine.

At the moment, he is cooking a two-course meal of cheesy, saffron risotto and savory beef and green bean stew, accompanied by a beautiful loaf of rustic-looking bread. The wine is flowing generously – as always when John is present – and people are talking happily, bursts of Tornese-induced laughter blurring a sentence here and there.

John has been living in Italy for almost four years. He splits his time between leading wine tours with Insider Wine Tours and leading bicycle tours with ExperiencePlus!. Since the roots of ExperiencePlus! grow in two soils – windblown Front Range Colorado soil and moist, rural Italian soil – it is not a surprise to learn that the leafy tendrils of the company beckoned to John while he was living in Greeley, Colorado.  

“One of my jobs in high school and college was at a museum in Greeley and the HR person, Eugena, from ExperiencePlus! worked there,” said John, quickly grabbing the remainder of the Tornese for his risotto. He pulls another bottle of white from the fridge, uncorking it and immediately dispensing the wine into empty glasses. “So my mom knew Eugena pretty well from my job there. Eugena mentioned ExperiencePlus! was looking for people in France. That first time, I told her ‘No thanks, I have a job working with goats.’”

Prior to that moment,  John had been living in Boston and working as the head of the produce department for Whole Foods – a solid fit initially as good grub and sustainability in food production always have been two of John’s passions.

“I had a constant interest of wine and food and wanting to know where it came from,” said John. “At Whole Foods, I could see the whole system, but I wanted to go back one step and see how it all is grown.”

He pauses now to measure out 500 grams of rice; when he pours it in a large pot waiting on the stove, the rice whistles like wind through the poplars, tinging happily onto the bottom of the pot.

“I always had the intention of ending up in France,” said John as he leaps from the sink to the oven and pulls out a fresh loaf of bread, also from scratch. “Shoot, I think this one got a little dark on the bottom.”

After he dispatches Jonathan Hancock – France coordinator, tour leader and blackened bread scraping minion – to take care of scraping the bottom of the bread, John continues, “I took the long way to Europe, spending six months in South America, a trip to Guatemala, then Indonesia, Thailand…”

Arriving in France, John had hoped to find work on an organic farm (here, of course is where the goats came in) but at first found the prospect more daunting than he imagined, especially faced with the language barrier.

Finally, he was hired by a French family near Lyon. For the next seven years, he worked spring to fall on that farm and another farm nearby (with a little stint at a farm in Spain). Everything was produced on site at these “biodynamic” farms: the system mostly was based on the cows, who produced milk and cheese and whose manure nourished the fields which burst forth with fruit, vegetables and the cows’ own feed. Although he had expected to work about six hours, six days a week in exchange for room and board, he ended up working sun-up to sun-down six days a week and half a day on Sunday – mostly out of necessity, as the entire family (including the kids, when they weren’t at school) toiled with him.

“I was basically being treated as a family member,” said John, peeking into the pot of bubbling stew, adding a dash of salt and with the other hand, adding a ladle of broth to the risotto. Stirring gently, he continues, “It was the perfect way to get to know a traditional French family, language, culture and the nature of a biodynamic farm.”

Often in the fall, he left the farm for the vineyard, working with other locals and students from nearby universities hired to help during the harvest.

Now John adds a a glob of butter and a dollop of cheese to the steaming risotto and resumes stirring. The pot is stained a merry orange from saffron powder.

In 2008, John became a certified sommelier – in his words, a “tour guide for beverages.” John completed the three-tiered sommelier course over three years, during which he was taught about and tested on the production of wine and other alcoholic beverages, the geography of wine and the art of pairing it with food – and of course, plenty of hands on training in the form of extensive wine tasting and serving.

At the end of the course, potential sommeliers have a couple more difficult doors to unlock: a challenging written test that must be finished in one hour; an oral test where the students are asked a plethora of questions from vineyard practices to what kind of grapes comprise a certain wine from an obscure region in the world; and last, students must taste a wine, describe it accurately and demonstrate how to serve a bottle properly.

After the slightly blackened bread is scraped, John drizzles a bit of olive oil around the edges. He takes a cursory look to determine the status of everyone’s wine glasses, then takes a sip of his own.

“I learned a lot taking the course – it just gives you the tools you need and then you need to build your repertoire with years of experience,” said John, “but probably more than anything I learned Italian!”

Even though he didn’t initially know Italian, John completed the course in Italy through Associazione Italiana Sommeliers. Last fall, he added to his cache of knowledge and experience by taking a ‘Master di Servizio’ course in Perugia.

As John lifts the pot of stew – brimming with carrots, tomatoes, beef and green beans –  off the burner, I ask if he has a favorite wine.

“It depends so much on the moment, on who you’re with, what the season is, what you’re eating,” John says, adding another lump of butter. His stirring has slowed into a thoughtfulness full of names and tastes and places. “So my favorites are what we are drinking tonight .”

With the saffron and cheese risotto, he has masterfully chosen a Tornese, which is a mix of whites, mostly chardonnay. And for the aromatic stew, a couple of reds: a rich, dark French Burgundy called Mercurey and a delicious Chianti Classico.

Even while leading a pack of cyclists on a jaunt through France, John is able to combine his two loves (wine and food), finding new wines with each turn of the wheel.

One of his favorite vineyards is a cooperative near Uzes, France. John stumbled by on a loop ride during a tour through Provence and if possible, he swings by for a sip.

“None of their wines are very expensive,” John said, waking the loaf of bread from its towel-wrapped slumber and slicing it thickly. “But whoever makes them must know what they’re doing because they’re great quality and good value.”

Additionally, John can’t cruise through Burgundy country without stopping at a modest little winery in Givry. Once on a free night, John and a couple other tour leaders had the pleasure of stumbling across an exquisite first growth wine. Two or three days later, they were ecstatic to find they would be cycling past the winery – and since then have stopped regularly with customers, to sample the treasure they found.
“I almost brought one of their wines tonight,” said John, giving the risotto a final stir before lidding it and setting it on the flowery tablecloth.

The two bottles of red emerge from their room temperature hiding places. John can’t help but top off every wine glass before seating himself. Now, there is nothing left but to bask in the sunshine of delicious food and spectacular wine.

If you would like add a rustic touch to your meals, try baking a loaf of homemade bread– what John calls “wood fired bread without wood or fire.” Learn how to create this tasty sidekick here.

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Sylva Florence

Sylva Florence joined the ExperiencePlus! ranks in late March. When she's not putting miles on her pink road bike, she enjoys traveling, writing and taking photos (because she studied print journalism in college and this makes her feel like she's using her degree). Back home in Colorado this winter, she'll resume her position with the Forest Service as a volunteer back country snow ranger and barista at Starbucks. When the snow melts, Sylva will resume her summertime gig as a wilderness ranger and wild land firefighter with the Forest Service. In the future, she hopes to speak at least three languages, finally learn guitar and travel the world by bike and motorcycle with her fiancé Tyler