Wine, not whining

What comes to mind first when you hear the name Tom Leykis? Combative radio talk show host? Misogynist? Oenophile?

Leykis, who has been on the air in Los Angeles since 1988, may lure listeners who would seem to prefer Bud to Bordeaux, Corona to Cornas. But not Leykis: While he may be best known for exhorting female fans to show off their attributes on “Flash Fridays,” turns out he’s more likely to spend quiet time at home with friends enjoying “Syrah Saturdays.” He not only knows wine, he has a sizable collection.

And he enjoys the discrepancy between reality and perception. “The idea of me sitting and listening to Dexter Gordon and drinking a Syrah,” says Leykis with a laugh, “is the antithesis of my image. People probably think I’m out at 99-cent beer night with a bunch of macho guys.” Most nights, though, Leykis can be found standing behind the wine bar in his Hollywood Hills home, pouring for his pals. California cabernet is the house favorite, anything from an inexpensive Sebastiani to a well-aged Beringer Private Reserve.

And Leykis now has a new outlet for this passion: “The Tasting Room With Tom Leykis,” airing 3 to 5 p.m. Saturdays on KLSX-FM (97.1), the same Los Angeles radio station that runs his nationally syndicated talk show every weekday afternoon.

Leykis long had the idea of a stand-alone show devoted to wine, but he only recently felt the climate was right for it. “It took time for everybody to understand what I was driving at,” he says, and other things changed as well. Part of that, of course, is the runaway success of the Oscar-nominated film “Sideways” and its high saturation of wine talk.

Wine is undeniably a big part of Leykis’ life. “This is my epicenter,” he says, standing in front of the custom refrigerator that holds the bulk of his collection. Though he now loves cabernet sauvignon above all other grapes, he started out with something very different. “I drank Freixenet,” he says, referring to the inexpensive Spanish cava, or bubbly. “My drug of entry, if you will, was sparkling wine. Hopes, dreams and aspirations have a lot to do with the kinds of wines people like. And I started with sparkling wine because I believed champagne was almost an entry way to affluence.”

Leykis was born in New York City, and grew up in an apartment in the South Bronx, sharing a bedroom with three siblings while his parents slept on a convertible sofa in the other room. Wine was not a part of life then, nor does he imagine his family would share his enthusiasm for it today. “Growing up the way I did, [wine] was thought of as an extravagance.”

A contest for an hour-long stint on a station in New York was Leykis’ beginning in the field, and that career is still going strong 3 1/2 decades later. From his start spinning discs, Leykis, 48, later evolved his chauvinist persona, the one that defines his career today, from the men who revere him and the women who loathe him. In addition to his slot from 3 to 8 p.m. here in Los Angeles, Leykis airs in 50 markets around the country, attracting an estimated 3.5 million listeners each week.

Will many of those listeners -- accustomed to hearing Leykis dispense “relationship advice” generally along the lines of “kick [her] to the curb” -- tune in to “The Tasting Room?” One would not expect the average caller, a blue collar Joe Sixpack, to make the leap.

But the people who call in to the daily show do not, Leykis insists, represent the true audience. “I love to hear people call up with their ridiculous stories,” says Leykis, who has been divorced four times. “But, the average listener is not the caller.” Leykis says that the people who regularly tune in his daily talk show have, compared with the listeners for other drive-time programs, the highest level of education, the highest percentage of incomes over $75,000 and are 200% more likely to read the Wall Street Journal.

“The fact is,” Leykis insists, “lots of people with great careers and with great educations and high incomes listen to the [daily] show. They just don’t have the time to wait on hold for 45 minutes, so they’re not the ones you typically hear on the air.” And Leykis likes to think they enjoy wine along with the other finer things in life.

Leykis certainly enjoys them, and not just in his wine bar at home. Since the early ‘90s, he has been a frequent visitor to Napa and Sonoma, and also spends time in Santa Barbara and Paso Robles. And he plans to incorporate those travels in the new program. Tuscany and the wine regions of France and Australia are on his hit list too, and not just for pleasure. “I hope to do the show from the road,” he explains.

“The Tasting Room” is still a work in progress, with plans to gradually syndicate it around the country, and Leykis looks far and wide for topics. “Every week,” he says, “there is stuff going on -- in the wine industry or of concern to people who drink wine.” Topics could include a discussion of the Napa Valley Reserve -- a sort of fractional ownership vineyard with an initial fee in the six figures -- or the debate over corks versus screw tops.

And “The Tasting Room” doesn’t focus exclusively on wine. Leykis is open to covering beer and spirits as well, and each week will bring in guests to discuss the topics, from bartenders and sommeliers to distillers and winemakers.

Leykis aspires to branch out with guests who have previously declined to share the airwaves with him.

“It would be fun to get celebrities who are into wine, people who won’t normally do our show,” he muses. “Like Jim Carrey -- we’ve never had him on, but he has a wine cellar.” Now that’s something to look forward to: Ace Ventura and the creator of “Flash Fridays” talking tannins.