Cheers o c t o b e r 2 0 1 8 6 9 staff graphic Wire to From Wine Life’s lessons in perseverance I learned from James M. Knott Sr., who invented Aquamesh and revolutionized the lobster industry. He passed away at age 88 on August 16. By Ralph Hersom B efore Mr. Knott developed the idea of a wire lobster trap in 1957, lobstermen were using wooden traps—ones they often spent time re- pairing. In a 2014 interview with the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Knott says he invented a model “made out of welded wire mesh which is galvanized to protect it from the coating getting scraped off, and it’s plastic- coated to prevent the Atlantic Ocean from attacking the steel.” But not ev- eryone believed in this Harvard-educated economist’s vision. “A lot of peo- ple laughed. They said, ‘You’re never going to catch a lobster in a wire trap,’ because they’d been using wood for hundreds of years.” I had the distinct pleasure of working for Mr. Knott at Riverdale Mills Corporation from 1989 through 1993, after which I decided to quit college (I’d been studying electrical engineering). I bought a one-way ticket to San Francisco. With $725 in my pocket and a dream to become a sommelier, I headed west. I’m often asked how I managed to become the second-youngest Cellar- master (Kevin Zraly was the youngest) in Windows on the World history at age 25. Or the Wine Director of Le Cirque, one of the world’s most famous restaurants, at age 26. I wasn’t raised in a winemaking family, didn’t have a rich uncle with a château in Bordeaux nor an aunt with a three-star Mi- chelin restaurant in Alsace. What I did have was an early appreciation of wine (I started reading the Wine Spectator in my late teens), a bit of luck, a ‘can-do’ attitude, and a lot of perseverance.