Dr Vino's wine blog

You’ve probably read about it. Or seen it. If not been there. Crush Wine Co: New York’s hottest new address for wine.

The most stunning feature is no doubt the display, an undulating 73-foot wall of backlit wines, all lying on their side. The Rieslings catch your eye as you walk in the door and it’s hard not to shuffle down the wall, head cocked to the left, taking in all the great wines, organized by varietal, as they often are on restaurant menus.

But the shop has two other eye-catching features: a sleek tasting room shaped like a large barrel on one side and a temperature controlled storage area with glass walls called “the cube.”

In the tasting room, tasting happens. While many wine shops have free tastings on Saturdays or pop open a bottle or two after 5 PM, the staff at Crush stand ready to pour at any hour (I recently stopped by at noon on a random Wednesday and was offered a taste). The tasting glasses are stylish Ravenscroft crystal vessels that you can squeeze two fingers into and not warm up the wine. On special events, such as a recent book signing or the debut of a new Mumm champagne, the stylish furniture and tables are removed from the tasting room and Riedel glasses brought in.

In the cube, a selection of hard-to-find wines runs deep, in the case of Opus One when I was there the other day, about five feet deep of six-bottle cases. With their big points and high prices, it’s nice to know this room exists but the value vino runs along the serpentine main wall.

I thought that all this cool and chic would come at a price, but there is a solid selection of wines under $15 (they claim 150) and an excellent selection between $15 and $25 (bargains for NYC). I searched the web and found their prices to be very competitive for wine shops in New York City.

Thanks to the store’s relationship with the Myriad Restaurant Group, the shop is able to score some hard to find wines. A staff member told me that Luddite Vineyards of Sonoma sold half its microproduction Pinot Noir rose to the shop and the other half to the French Laundry. Now that’s good company–but what do you expect when Drew Nieporent is a co-owner and he owns Montrachet, Tribeca Grill, and Nobu among other restaurants.

Wunderkind Lyle Fass is the wine director and rumor has it that he could be assuming more of the restaurant duties since Daniel Johnnes went to Daniel after twenty years at Montrachet as sommelier.

The shop is not an on-premises facility although if you live in the area, you might be tempted to treat it the same as a restaurant. The shop has a clever “delivery menu” with wines arranged by different types of take-out food. One call for the food, the other for the wines. Let your fingers do the walking.

www.crushwineco.com 153 E. 57th (bet 3rd and Lex) 212-980-WINE

UPDATE: See my map of New York wine shops.

Technorati tags: food & drink | wine shops | New York City