Uncorking the tastes of the Penguins' wine connoisseurs

When Jason Zucker first joined the Penguins, he and Brian Dumoulin had a shared interest that they immediately bonded over.

"One of the first things that we talked about was our love for wine," Dumoulin said.

For Zucker, it all began last summer when he and his wife Carly took a trip to Napa Valley to celebrate their anniversary.

He's been trying to learn more and more ever since, even setting up a wine tasting for the pair at the start of the NHL pause. Zucker went to a store down the street from their home in Minnesota, with the goal of getting one bottle from every region of the world. They then did a blind tasting and tried to guess where each one was from.

"We were so far off on what all our guesses were. I'll start by saying that," Zucker said with a laugh. "The whole point of it is to just be able to learn more about the wines to where you can pick out one or two things. I took that as a success."

Luckily, if Zucker wants to learn even more, he always has the option of going to Dumoulin - who is the unquestioned wine connoisseur on the team.

"As far as knowledge of wine, he puts me to shame," Zucker said.

If he wasn't a hockey player, Dumoulin said that he would be a winemaker. He loves learning everything behind every bottle of wine he tries, including the farming, types of soils, techniques used and about the makers themselves.

"I think it's a good, delicious drink that has some benefit for you, but also has some really cool information behind it," Dumoulin said. "It takes some skill to grow."

When it came to building his knowledge, Dumoulin said he started out small - simply by trying Cabernet Sauvignon, one of the world's most widely-recognized red wine grape varieties.

"I feel like I started like everyone else, drinking Cabernet," Dumoulin said. "Napa Cabs are pretty much everyone's comfort zone, but it's also what you can find most readily available at the wine stores here in Pennsylvania. So that's what I started with."

From there, Dumoulin discovered a shop called Monarch Wine Merchants in Charleston, South Carolina when he and his wife Kayla were in town during an All-Star break. He built up a rapport with the owner, Justin Coleman, who now sends Dumoulin different bottles to try.

"All the wines I get are usually made right, and I think that's the biggest thing for me," Dumoulin said. "Making sure that they're grown correctly and using the right farming and the right techniques and they're true to their culture. For example, I don't want to be drinking a Cabernet from Italy. That doesn't really go hand-in-hand. (If I'm drinking Italian wine), I'd rather drink a Nebbiolo or a Sangiovese."

In addition to sampling the bottles that Coleman sends him, Dumoulin will keep an eye out for other wine merchants during his travels, especially when he's on the road with the team.

"I love going into wine stores and just looking at different bottles," he said. "I'll spend an hour or two just wandering through the wine store if I find a good one, or look up different ones on the road."

Right now, Dumoulin's go-to type of wine is Burgundy - from the region of the same name in France - and he also loves Pinot Noirs.

Instagram from @du24theboyz: Virtual wine tasting of the 2018 @viceversawines barrel samples of Beckstoffer GIII, Beckstoffer Las Piedras, and Steltzner Old Vine. Thank you to our good friend from Napa, @brian\_baker\_ it was great seeing you again!

"Burgundys are definitely my favorite," he said. "They've just got such a tradition there. They're such an easy-drinking grape. That's something I really learned and really like about steering away from so many Cabs, is a Pinot Noir is a lot easier to drink than a Napa Cab. I don't feel it as much in the morning and it's usually lower in alcohol, so they're more refreshing."

Other grapes, wines and regions that Dumoulin particularly enjoys are as follows…

*"I really like trying unique grapes. Like right now some of my favorites are from Jura, France. It's right outside Burgundy. It's an up-and-coming region that has a lot of cool producers that have similar soils to Burgundy and they make really, really good white wine - like Chardonnays - and they make delicious Pinot Noirs, so that's one of my favorites."

*"One of my favorites is Nebbiolo from Italy. Anything in Barolo, Italy. Actually, I'm not currently planning a trip but that's definitely one of my next trips. I want to go back to Barolo, Italy and just experience that."

*"Sangiovese, too. That's also Italian and that's one of my favorite grapes. That's usually a little higher alcohol, so I won't have that as often as I have other ones. But that's really good."

*"I also love middle California. In Monterey Bay and Santo Reva Hills, I think they create some really, really cool wines in the United States."

*"Also, Oregon. I was able to go out to Willemite Valley a couple summers ago and it was really cool to experience the wine culture out there."

Dumoulin is also a big foodie, but says he doesn't put a ton of thought into pairing his wines with his meals when he is at home.

"My wife will say that the fork is not a fork, it's a shovel to me," he said with a laugh. "I just shove food in my mouth and I eat. I don't really take the time to drink wine with (food) when I'm at home. I'll just eat my meal and drink my wine separate. But I definitely love having wine around dinnertime."

When Brian and Kayla moved into their home a few years ago, not only was he able to customize the kitchen how he always wanted - they built a wine cellar as well. It's currently full, but Dumoulin said he's working on re-arranging it.

Instagram from @du24theboyz: It's always a pleasure to drink a wine from Montille. This one hits the spot @kayla\_dumoulin

"It's been awesome," Dumoulin said of the process. "And the thing I love about it is that I've kind of picked every bottle. I haven't picked big sellers or anything like that. I like seeing a bottle, hearing about a bottle from guys that have been drinking wine and just trying it and learning everything about it. I'm diving all in when I see a bottle. In my cellar I can pretty much tell you everything about every bottle I got. That's my goal and it helps me learn. I try to tell my wife as much as I can even if she doesn't retain it, it helps saying it out loud (laughs). It's been fun."

He also has teammates like Zucker, Bryan Rust, Chad Ruhwedel and Justin Schultz who are interested.

"Where I'm from in Kelowna, British Columbia, it's kind of like a mini wine country here," Schultz said. "So I've always kind of grown up with it, but Dumo has definitely turned a couple of us onto it. It's just so interesting. Every bottle is different. Trying stuff from different regions is pretty cool. I'm definitely not even close to the level that Dumo is at. He's pretty impressive, and it's cool to be around him when he's tasting a bottle. We try to learn from him. It's just something we like to do. It's pretty fun for us."

In fact, Dumoulin, Rust, Schultz and Ruhwedel even took a trip to Napa Valley together with their significant others during last year's All-Star Break and visited different wineries across the region.

"It was unbelievable," Schultz said. "Dumo set it all up with a bunch of tastings at some pretty cool wineries. Definitely learned a lot there. Such a beautiful place. We'll definitely have to go back at some point."

But for those who aren't necessarily interested in learning about the details behind a bottle of wine, it's still an enjoyable way for all of them to bond.

"A lot of our time that we spend together is revolved around restaurants, so it's definitely one thing that is easy to talk about," Dumoulin said. "It seems like everyone, whether they're into wine or not, likes drinking it."