I was sitting in my office waiting for the telephone to ring with someone needing a wine consultant so I could avoid eating another peanut butter and jelly sandwich and actually buy some real food. I was staring at the black hands of the clock and humming a Beatles tune, watching morning turn into afternoon. As I was heading to the fridge, Mr. Vino burst into the room dressed in a brand new, rather expensive royal blue suit and carrying a box full of wine.

“My friend, I got you a job,” he said with his typical enthusiasm and dropped three C-notes on my wine-crate desk. “There is a new Thai restaurant opening up downtown and I convinced them to hire you as a wine consultant. This is just part of your fee; I negotiated for a lot more money.”

I felt like I had just won the lottery. I gave Mr. Vino a hug and lifted the handsome little man off his feet.

He just smiled and nodded. “Why don’t we go to Chez Suave and have lunch,” he said.

I have always been frivolous with money, so we jumped into my orange truck and headed toward Chez.

We waited at a stoplight for what seemed like an eternity, when finally Mr. Vino spoke to kill the boredom. “The Germans have always been the best wines with spicy food, like Thai food,” he said, “whether it is riesling or gewürztraminer.”

I couldn’t agree more. “I have always liked the wines, although I prefer sauvignon blanc or pinot gris as far as white wines are concerned,” I said. “There are certain food matches that just go together with the German varietals, like Thai food or the Thanksgiving turkey. The sugar and acids cut through spicy and heavy foods.”

We finally got the green light, and as I hit the pedal, Mr. Vino continued: “Most people are confused about the German varietals. There are similarities and differences between these wines. While most white wines fall apart after a few years, riesling has the potential for aging. Gewürztraminer is racy and spicy.”

“Doesn’t the word gewürztraminer mean spicy grape?” I asked.

Mr. Vino shook his head. “That is a common misunderstanding in this context,” he replied. “It means perfumed, and it is certainly that on the nose. But the flavor profile is definitely spicy.”

I saw Chez Suave up the street and began the annoying job of looking for parking. We went around the block twice and finally found a spot that was being vacated by a blonde goddess in a vintage white BMW.

As I backed the truck into the spot, our conversation continued. “My friend, I have always thought that gewürztraminer had a Christmas/eggnog flavor to it – a lot of cinnamon and nutmeg, it is very cheery,” Mr. Vino said.

I had never thought of it like that before, but he was right.

As we entered the restaurant, we saw the beautiful manager of Chez Suave, Lacy Bottoms, who sat us at the best table on the plant-filled patio and got us a bottle of Pommery champagne on the house.

“Although, we call gewürztraminer a German varietal, it is actually Italian in origin – from the Trentino region in Alto Adige,” Mr. Vino said.

Lacy poured us each a glass of brut and said, “Gentlemen, I have always thought that the best gewürztraminer comes from Alsace.”

I took a sip of champagne and asked, “Besides Germany and Alsace, where in the new world does the best gewürztraminer come from?”

“The colder weather appellations in California grow both riesling and gewürztraminer the best – Monterey County, Mendocino and the Russian River Valley,” Mr. Vino replied.

Lacy left for a moment as we both enjoyed our champagne and came back with a gewürz from Alsace, an ’04 Domaine Marc Kreydenweiss.

Mr. Vino’s eyes lit up. “A beautiful wine,” he said.

We took a pause from our Pommery brut and tasted the gewürztraminer. The wine was creamy and rich, and it was a little sweet – a perfect match with Thai food, made even sweeter because it was on the house. I made a mental note to consider it for the wine list for that new Thai restaurant.