DATE: Sunday, November 23, 1997             TAG: 9711200075
SECTION: FLAVOR                  PAGE: F1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JIM RAPER, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   68 lines

RAISING A GLASS TO A WINE GURU FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES TOAST SALESMAN-INSTRUCTOR JOHN KEATING

WHEN JOHN KEATING retired from the Air Force 20 years ago and began casting about for a second career, he wondered if he could turn his hobby - which was wine - into a job.

He thought he might like to be a wine educator.

But he lost his nerve when he picked up the phone to call Old Dominion University. ``I just didn't think I knew enough. I chickened out.''

It was his wife, Joanne, who put the phone back in his hand and told him to ``go for it.''

He did and ODU, as it happened, was eager to hire him.

With that timid step he began a passionate campaign in Southeastern Virginia to spread the word about wine, to ``demystify'' it, as he was saying long before the term became a cliche.

Just how successful that campaign has been was clear last week when 50 people gathered at Bobbywood restaurant in Norfolk to say goodbye to Keating, who is retiring with his wife to Tucson, Ariz., next month.

The surprise party - a roasting and toasting - was put together by Bobbywood's Bobby Huber and two of Keating's closet friends in the wine business, George LeCuyer, a former Hampton wine merchant, and Sally Connolly, a wholesale wine sales representative.

``We couldn't let him get away without something like this,'' said Huber. ``We called some folks, and it was easy. For Mr. Keating, they were ready to do anything. Let's face it, the man is great. My God, I wouldn't have thought of opening this restaurant without faxing him my proposed wine list and menu first and asking his advice.''

Four of the region's most talented chefs volunteered to join Huber in the kitchen for the farewell dinner. The six-course meal they turned out - at a rock-bottom cost of $20 a head - was extraordinary and meshed well with the dozen different wines that were donated by distributors, importers and LeCuyer.

``For 20 years he's been our guru,'' said Todd Jurich of Todd Jurich's Bistro in Norfolk. ``I wouldn't have missed this.''

Keating - fondly referred to as vintage 1934 during the farewell dinner - made his contributions not only as an instructor at ODU and other colleges and universities, but also as a salesman for the wine distributor Broudy-Kantor from 1980-1994. He was known as much more than a salesman, remembered Connolly, who worked with him ``as someone who trained and encouraged everybody he sold to.''

Keating was born into an Irish family in Jersey City, N.J., and grew up a self-proclaimed ``river rat,'' not precisely a kid who seemed destined to become a wine guru. He went on to become an Air Force fighter pilot and, while at consecutive stations in Spain and California in the 1960s, he developed a love of wine.

Friends repeatedly described him during the farewell dinner as an inspired combination of bluster and graciousness. These qualities, together with the fact that he was always prepared - ``he always did his homework'' - made him the successful teacher he was.

He was also ribbed for being tight with his money. The last two lines of one roaster's poem alleged that his real reason for choosing the wine business was to ``Drink fine wine every day without getting stuck with the bill to pay.''

Of all the tributes paid him, Keating said, he was probably more fond of one from The Cork Club of Portsmouth, which he helped to found. ``This is the least pretentious of wine clubs,'' he said. ``They just like to drink wine, and I like that.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot

John Keating...Andrea Simek...

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