Dr Vino's wine blog

If you plan on mingling with the masses at Times Square on New Year’s Eve then you know where you’ll be (and what you’re getting in for).

Otherwise you could head to a wine bar to find somewhere less crowded (maybe) and with better drink options available (definitely).

Check out my map of NYC wine bars to check out some good venues. If you know of anything that sounds worthwhile, feel free to post it in the comments.

tags: wine | new year’s eve | new york city

Frank Bruni one-stars the new and apparently-not-improved Russian Tea Room in today’s NYT. The restaurant owners must be rethinking their wine service right about now. Gotta love the anonymous critic. Snip:

Outdated menus with erroneous information were put on the table. Drinks and food were ludicrously slow to arrive. Servers responded dismissively to complaints, one of them telling us that we shouldn’t bother him with questions about a fugitive bottle of wine. It was, he shrugged, the sommelier’s problem.

And what a problem. Although we had ordered a 1998 French Burgundy for $84, we got a 2001. We flagged the discrepancy, and for the next 15 minutes, as we ate our appetizers and thirsted for pinot noir, both the wine and sommelier were on the lam. When he showed up, he presented us with a similar 1998 — the listed one was unavailable — for $20 more. He paused, seemingly waiting for us to agree to spend that.

Then, in the manner of a car salesman, he said: “I’ll make you a deal. We’ll call it an even $90.”

Could he throw in cruise control? A leather interior?

He later dropped the price to $84, the right end to a wrong situation that typified the restaurant’s clumsiness.

[NYT]

tags: wine | wine service

The best way to get to know wine is to taste. Here are two very good events where you can taste on someone else’s tab! And some others…

Free tasting of Domaine Daniel Rion at Moore Brothers. map it
Friday, 5 – 8 PM
Pascale and Christophe Rion will be on hand to pour the great Burgundies from their family estate. Taste the wines in this range from the $18.50 white to the $95 Echezaux 2001. NOTE: they’re doing a similar tasting at another store for $20, so the one to hit is the free tasting at Moore Bros.

Saturday December 9th
10 AM Acker-Merral auction at Cru restaurant, 24 5th Ave. No charge to drop by and pick up a catalogue and a paddle.

3-5PM, Astor Wines. map it
Meet the charming Mary Ewing-Mulligan and Ed McCarthy as they sign copies of their new edition of Wine for Dummies. No word if a tasting will accompany the signing.

Monday December 11th Wine Science at NYAS (7 WTC)
Dr. James Kennedy talks tannin and more in this one evening session that includes a tasting. Not free but sounds interesting. $25, 6 PM. Details

Tuesday December 13th at Crush. map it
Champagne tasting they call deluxe; at this store, I’m sure they mean it. Free but you must RSVP, 212.980.9463

And finally, a new wine-firendly restaurant has opened according to a short piece in New York magazine. Varietal is run by Greggory Hockenberry who had took one of my NYU classes last spring. I look forward to checking out the space and the wine list since I can attest that he knows his Sancerre from his Savennieres–or, given the name of the restaurant, his roussanne from his riesling.
138 W. 25th St., nr. Seventh Ave. 212-633-1800

tags: wine events | new york city

In the past week, I’ve gotten solicitations from practically every wine shop in NYC. This is the home stretch of the sacred fourth quarter and they are all vying for our business! But there is something missing in their gift baskets.

I got an email from BottleRocket with wines and books in their gift baskets.

I got printed materials from Zachy’s showing wine and stemware selections in theirs.

I got print and emails from Crush suggesting their gifts of miscellaneous essentials for wine lovers including a Laguiole corkscrew with a black horn handle.

What do all of these things have in common? They are all missing gourmet cheeses or other foods. Why? The kibosh on the food-wine pairing is courtesy of the ancient laws that govern wine retailing in New York State that prohibit wine retailers from selling food (or cigars). You never know what might happen if you could buy Camembert with your Sancerre…New Yorkers can say it with wine this holiday–just get the cheese from somewhere else.

Related: Interactive map of NY wine shops

tags: wine | wine gifts | new york

The best way to get a wine edu-ma-cation is to taste. The more you taste, the more you learn what you like and don’t like. And oh yeah, then you can one-up your friends with all those crazy wine descriptors, such as “the inside of a walnut shell.”

Appellation Wines has upgraded their free tastings and now will have regular free tastings 5-8 on Tuesdays. They encourage you to make it your new happy hour.

Many other NYC shops have regular free tastings including my faves, Astor, Crush, Moore Brothers and more. Check my NYC wine shop map for details.

And as if drinking free wine wasn’t enough, you can now have wine books read to you–by the authors themselves!

Bottlerocket Wines continues their excellent “eclectic salon” series of meet the author events. Some upcoming dates of note for these free events:

Jancis Robinson, Oxford Companion to Wine, 3rd edition, Monday, October 23, 6 – 8 pm
Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, What to Drink with What You Eat, Wed., October 25, 6 – 8 pm
Jay McInerney, Hedonist in the Cellar, Monday, Nov. 6, 6 – 8 pm

Well, there may not be much reading–but there will no doubt be much schmoozing (and boozing?).

Shop info can be found here

tags: wine |

The National Highway Safety Administration launches a new marketing campaign against drunken driving. Will it crimp wine sales the way a similar campaign has in France? [NYT]

Speaking of Washington (were we?), blogger Winesmith has contacted all the candidates for DC mayor and posts their wine preferences. The leading candidate likes Australian (!) Shiraz (!!) under $10 (!!!). He also gets the faves for DC’s non-voting Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton and her recent interviewer, Stephen Colbert. [winesmith]

In New York City, Eater blogs about the closing-before-opening of Liquor Store Bar in Tribeca as a latest chapter in what they call “the drying of NYC.” [Eater]

You can’t say Mosel-Saar-Ruwer? Don’t worry, it’s being shortened to Mosel. [Decanter]

Steve De Long has thrown up an interactive map of Lonon wine shops–check it out before your next trip and find some wines to drink there since you can’t bring them back (in your carry-on). [De Long]

The Guardian says that wine producers play a mark em up just to mark it down game in the UK. [Guardian]

And finally, next summer will see the release of Ratatouille, a Pixar movie about an epicurean rat who lives in the sewers of Paris. [movie trailer]

tags: wine | wine news | google maps

Which wine under $20 would you pair with this: “rigatoni country style, which includes pasta, white beans, sausage, broccoli and a lot of garlic.”

If this sounds familiar, you must work in one of 12 NYC wine shops that got asked this question recently. Or you read the WSJ. Wine columnists Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher dispatched their assistant to query (anonymously) wine merchants about their food wine pairings. Then they ordered the rigatoni dish from their favorite take-out and tasted through the wines.

I’ll just reproduce their comments from the top two recommendations from their July 14 column. Unfortunately, the column is only available behind the WSJ subscription barrier. However, I’m pleased to say you can find all the shops plotted on my map of NYC wine shops–totally free!

VINEYARD/VINTAGE: Ca’Montini ‘L’Aristocratico’ Pinot Grigio (Trentino) 2004
PRICE: $16.99 (find this wine)
PLACE PURCHASED: Mister Wright, Manhattan
TASTERS’ COMMENTS: Best of tasting (tie). The bright acidity of the wine cuts right through the heaviness of the dish, like a splash of lemon. The food gives the wine weight while the wine lifts the food. Like a great marriage, they make each other better.

VINEYARD/VINTAGE: Santi ‘Solane’ Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso 2003
PRICE: $17.99 (find this wine)
PLACE PURCHASED: Eli’s W.I.N.E., Manhattan
TASTERS’ COMMENTS: Best of tasting (tie). Lusty wine for lusty food. The wine seems proudly rustic, dancing on the tongue, which makes the food get up and dance, too. Put them together and we just wanted to say, “Get a room.”

It’s odd that two such contrasting wine styles worked for them with the dish. What do you think would work?

The other shops queried in the story are ranked here by effectiveness of pairing (I’d suggest more than one pick from each shop before writing any list of shops in stone):
Pasanella and Son Vintners
Bottlerocket Wine & Spirit
Best Cellars
Smith & Vine, Brooklyn
Gotham Wine & Liquors
Discovery Wines
Crush Wine & Spirits
Moore Brothers
Big Nose Full Body, Brooklyn
The Greene Grape

Image: maomau

tags: wine | wine + food pairings | NYC wine stores

When I walked into Moore Brothers on a warm and sunny afternoon this week, I was instantly happy. That’s because the entire store is cooled to 56 degrees (or so they say; it actually felt like 65 to me but it was still a relief).

Is cooling the whole store a gimmick? Maybe. But it works.

“Wine is a perishable agricultural product,” writes Greg Moore in the engaging newsletter.

While the Gramercy shop sells only 300 wines from France, Italy, and Germany, I could easily have spent an hour in the shop and my entire monthly wine budget. I followed the polished concrete floors and exposed brick walls to the rear of the spacious store where a staff member was pouring four wines, all under $20, in glasses. Classy.

Because they work with only two distributors, consumers might not immediately recognize many of the wines. But Greg and David Moore know them all because they have visited the regions and worked with the producers for years if not decades.

Can the store deliver quality at a reasonable price? Or does all this Freon make it prohibitively expensive? It’s hard to say if they are price competitive because many of the wines are only available in other restaurants if at all in NYC. But Greg Moore suggests in the newsletter that “it’s self-evident that a bottle of Gianni Piccoli’s Biano di Custoza is much more intrinsically worthwhile than a bottle of Santa Margharita Pinot Grigio, which is much more expensive.” Unknown is distinctive and in this case good. Often very good.

In case you can’t keep up with their 300 wines, each customer has an optional file of purchases on their computer. Loved something and can’t remember the name? Call them and they’ll tell you. Or you can access your account online and track and rate your own purchases. But my bet is they’ll actually remember you in the store.

I’m thrilled that Moore Brothers has finally opened in Manhattan since one of my friends who shops at their Delaware store has been telling me about it for years. This specialty store has leapt to my short list of favorites in New York City and I look forward to going back often. Perhaps the best thing about my experience there happened when I got home and pulled the cork of the wine I bought. It was still chilled. How refreshing.

Where: 33 E. 20th St (see it on the NYC wine store map) Grab a fleece at the door!
When: M-Sa 10 – 8; Sun 12 – 6.
How: 4, 5 to Union Square, 6 to 23rd St.
Call: 866-986-6673
Who: the whole family–there is a playspace for kids
Shelf-talkers: none. Each wine at the tasting table had staff-written one page (!) of tasting notes, producer story, regional history.
Delivery: free delivery in Manhattan for orders over $150; otherwise $12.75 delivery charge. Shipments to New York state and beyond will be available soon.
On the web: site

tags: wine | wine stores | New York City