Grape Thinking » New York

Passion on the Vine – a review

Ruarri — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:00:41 +0000

When one looks at a vineyard – you’re not looking at it in the same way as you would look at an orange orchard. Instead one sees a multitude of experiences past and of moments yet to come – moments of intimacy, memorable occasions, conversations and treasured friendships. Since time immemorial, vineyards have not only been the touchstone of certain regions, but have often been the lifeblood of local communities and the cornerstone of entire generations of families. Every vineyard contains a family, a history, a culture and a purpose. This was at least, the sentiment I had before embarking on a mission to New York City, where I would promote and sell wine’s connected to my family in some ways, and more importantly – wine from my country. During that time – having spent much time in preparation for the mission, I left with those stories and sentiments of culture and family fresh in my blood. But with every sales-call and wine event I began to feel further and further from the vineyard. Soon it was about laid in cost, case-discounts and what kind of Point of Sale material was on offer. I travelled the country in a rental car with a case of wine, a corskrew and a power-point presentation along the way having people from Westchester Wine Warehouse cruelly spit wine on my shoe after having left me waiting for an hour, sitting in cold-rooms of cellars in Maryland, helping do stock-takes in Ohio, presenting to Wholefoods buyers in North Carolina and pushing on-premise retail in Atlanta: and with every step I became a bit more confused and lost the focus of what I was doing. Having believed that wine was so important to my country and stepping into the States to tell the story of South African wine, it was very dispiriting to suddenly be faced with the fact that no one really cared so long as they could make a profit.

Step in Sergio Esposito‘s Passion on the Vine: A Memoir of Food, Wine and Family in the Heart of Italy – which from the first page pulls one directly into the rental car of he and his brother Sal at the end of an epic 60 winery tour of Italy. Sergio, an Italian born New York wine retailer has embarked on a wine-buying tour of Italy with his brother who got him into the business in the fist place – and within the first pages of reading you are situated within a remarkable life, which I was utterly compelled by because suddenly the retailer I had been up against was given a face. I completely sympathise with the opening sentiments of having a job that on the surface sounds glamorous but in reality can be very gritty – however one quickly learns that Esposito has been doing this for 3 months every year for nearly 2 decades. From my part I was around the East Coast, Mid West and West Coast pushing wine to restaurants retailers and country-clubs tasting wine from 8:30 in the morning to 1am sometimes 6 days a week – and within two years I have more stories than I care to remember. For Sergio and his brother they’re diligently working through 10 wineries a day tasting through varietals and enduring long-drives in hot weather – often what sounds glamorous, and would seem like the setting for a series of Sideways style misadventures through a foreign country ends up being a lot more like work than anyone else could ever imagine. One has to take their hat off to such dedication even though amidst the work it is interspersed with tales of seductive winemakers daughters, raucous Italian weddings and personalities you’re unlikely to forget.

Passion on the Vine is an insight into a life less ordinary from one of the world’s leading wine consultants who can be found on the pages of the Wall Street Journal to the Times to the Wine Spectator itself. Esposito brings the innate raconteur nature of Italian New Yorkers, combined with a mellifluous writing style into a memoir that goes to the heart of what it means to be an epicurean. He illustrates so perfectly how passion, love and romance can go a long way to carrying someone throughout life. Ultimately this is a romance between one man and an entire region which will make you fall in love with Italy; and paints the picture of a dying breed – wine-men who actually love wine, men who excel in their jobs for more than money and people who add value not only to their families but pay their dues to those who have helped them over the years. Esposito’s is a poignant picture of optimism and love in a marketplace that is primarily having the life squeezed out of it by soulless critters.

Esposito re-introduced me to a feeling I nearly lost, and in his words I remembered a part of myself. When one is up against Little Penguin – it’s difficult to find the actual stories and vines and passion in a fuzzy cartoon character. There is no doubt that much of Western Philosophy was built on the back of wine-fueled sentiments; and from the foundation of Western culture there is no doubt that Italians built New York and have made the culture (together with the Irish) what it is today. Esposito, in a tale filled with adventure, comedy and energy has staked his claim to not only being a philosopher, a wine lover and a great New Yorker – but being an advocate and an inspiration to future wine millenials, showing that there’s no real substitute for loving what you do.

Cheerz.

Special thanks to Dianna Tingg from Italian Wine Merchants who has reached out to so many of us on the wine blogosphere, and has shared this wonderful book with us. It is a priveledge to have been given the opportunity to review such a great book.

Au revoir à Paris with a Cremant d’Alsace

Meghan — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:13:10 +0000

Well my time here in Paris is over and what better may to go than with sparkling wine, a Cremant d’Alsace. Cremant goes through the same process, as Champagne except there is one difference, location. In France and all of Europe for that matter, wine cannot be legally called Champagne unless it is in fact from Champagne. Sparkling wines from outside Champagne in France will usually go by Cremant. Of course there are going to be slight differences in taste due to the terrior. Sparkling wine is popped during times of celebration. This is the end of a great three months and the start of something new as I move to Long Island’s wine country.

I chose this wine because with the unofficial start of summer Alsace is perfect. The white wines here are well known with the Rieslings and Gewurztraminers, and their sparkling wines prosper as well. Another key point is these wines are not expensive at all. Alsace is respected but it doesn’t have the same prestige as Champagne, Burgundy, or Bordeaux. This is great for you. In the US a typical bottle will be between $12 to $20.

This wine is from Rene Muré, a Cremant d’Alsace. On the nose is a wave of fresh pears and peaches. Keeping with the farm stand pattern it’s granny smith apples that take over the palate. This wine is a Brut, so it’s going to be dry, but with a slight sweetness upfront. Overall it is fresh and bright.

Now if anyone was wondering, yes, Cremant does taste delicious with Cassis Liqueur or perhaps orange juice. Did someone say Mimosa? I could swear I heard someone say it. Well either way, this is a fantastic way to liven up Sunday brunch and to Wine Your Diet. It’s light, refreshing, an excellent source of calcium, and one way to stay cool in the hot sun. There is one problem with Mimosas though; they go down way to fast. Pace yourself, there is something called too much calcium.

From Pars I say au revoir, but soon I will be greeting you from New York in hopes of bringing back pride to Long Island wines. For now go grab any bottle of sparkling wine, it doesn’t even have to be from France, pop it, enjoy it, and as always don’t forget to Wine Your Diet.

New Things in New York

Sr. — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:48:33 +0000

A few weeks ago I was in New York staying at the Surrey Hotel on 76^th Street between 5^th Avenue and Madison right near Central Park. Before heading down to the meatpacking district for dinner and some fun with a business associate we stopped into CafÃ© Boulud next to the hotel for a drink. The restaurant is owned by famous French chef Daniel Boulud.
As we were sitting at a 4 top table in the bar area looking out over the simple and elegant dining room, we had a decision to make on this very hot August early evening in the cityâ€¦.what to drink?…a special cocktail?â€¦a glass of white wine? Neither seemed appropriateâ€¦.it must be a glass of Champagne.

The Maitre D’, John Winterman, suggested a glass of Pierre Peters Blanc de Blanc NV Champagne.

Honestly, I had never heard of the producer, however, I certainly was comfortable accepting the recommendation. Boy, it did not disappoint. Actually, it was fabulousâ€¦the setting did not hurt either. Blanc de Blanc is made from 100% Chardonnay grapes. The bubbles in the glass were incredibleâ€¦.1000′s and 1000′s that never stopped. This was perfection in a glassâ€¦smooth, flavorful, clean, refreshing, with just a hint of that wonderful yeastiness that is so unique to Champagneâ€¦so very balanced. It was not cheap at $25 a glass; however, it was worth every penny. You will probably pay around $45 a bottle at retail. Special time, special moment, special wineâ€¦this is what life is aboutâ€¦creating special memories. Go out there and try new thingsâ€¦many times you will be very pleasantly surprised. By the way, the meatpacking district was a blast. A story about that laterâ€¦

A Picnic in the Park

Ruarri — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:34:20 +0000

On Saturday, in the spirit of summer, we went up to Richmond Park and had a picnic in our own local Royal Park. Picnics are perfect for pasta salads and we prepared a pesto, olive oil, Greek feta and tri-colour fussily salad garnished with roast pine-nuts and fresh chopped basil. Picnics should be cheap and simple, and perhaps the most important factor to take into consideration is the wine. White wine would be my preferred choice for such an occasion, and on Saturday we treated ourselves to Boschendal 2006 Sauvignon Blanc ($10), Ogio Pinot Grigio ($6) and Leopard’s Leap Lookout White ($8).

To my mind, Leopard’s Leap won the day, for a couple reasons. First off, this wine is amazingly priced and when one is splitting costs amongst friends it’s always nice to keep things simple. Graphically, they’ve pulled off playing on South Africa’s wildlife heritage without creating a critter, and instead have created an attractive brand. Third, the varietals choice makes use of what South Africa is abundant in and does well – chenin blanc, chardonnay and columbard, promoting the real essence of the Cape. And lastly, the wine is exceptionally pleasant, and is refreshing, clean, uncomplicated and elegant with fresh lime flavours on the entry and subtle hints of honey and melon on the finish. One could easily entertain a host of friends for an afternoon in the sun, and have Leopard’s Leap Lookout White keeping everyone very satisfied throughout the day.

The Wine You Keep

Ruarri — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 17:53:40 +0000

This article is ridiculous – Wall Street Journal (requires a subscription, so I put a clipping at the end) the WSJ has the most interesting articles on wine. Anyhow, check out the bottom article ‘man buys $700,000.00 of wine in one shot’, basically for anyone in today’s society, if they save a little bit of money or live close to China-Town, almost anyone can get their hands on designer labels. In fact you can get lookalikes that are as good aesthetically as the real things, from Rolex to Tag Heuer, Diesel to Armani, designer labels don’t command the respect they used to. My friend who works for a Hedge Fund in New York (he’s the one I drank Zinfandel with in Central Park) says that most of the hedge fund managers (these guys are like 26, they worked for Goldman Sachs or Lehman Group for 4 years after going to Wharton, and then started managing their own funds, they’re all , intelligent, self-made and loaded and 3 years away from being 30) don’t use any brands. Its all about going back to the roots, they purchase antique solid gold watches and get their furniture at Sotheby’s.Capitalism has made luxury brands so accessible, that the only thing left for people to do if they want to stand above is to go backwards. These guys are looking for unique and rareâ€¦ and they’re not a minority. Practically any male or female over 25 with a graduate degree in commerce (usually capped by an MBA) that works in LA, New York, San Francisco, Atlanta or Boston fit into the group. You don’t need any knowledge to purchase a label, you just need to be a sucker for advertising on the front pages of any glossy. Designer brands are passe. Wine is the new bling. Not only wine, but truffle oil from Piedmont, Beluga Caviar, Oysters, Champagne, custom made Italian shirts (Sandy reckons that the market for bespoke tailoring in New York has shot up, and instead of going to Brooks Brothers for a $200.00 shirt, one can get a custom fit shirt made for $220.00, which a lot of people are opting for.)

Whilst I was in New York we had a really good friend who wasa graduate of Sotheby’s School in London. His parents are one of the wealthiest antique dealers owners in Brooklyn and once a week they hold educational sessions, where they talk about antiques (whilst serving expensive canapÃ©s and champagne) and 85% of the people who attend the evenings are under 30.

Hip Hop soon caught onto old-man WASP brands that no one ever thought the market would be attracted to. Now Hennessey, Courvoisier, Aston Martin, Polo and Brooks Brothers are falling onto themselves for this business. However, it takes no sophistication to purchase an expensive brandy; or to own an expensive suit, all it takes is an Amex or a Mastercard higher than silver on the colour scale. Wine on the other hand requires a lot more, it requires scholarship, an epicurean nature, an interest in history and geography, a passion for fine food and an appreciation of art.

No one wants to act like an amateur and the only way to avoid it is to elevate oneself to the position where they can differentiate between blatant branding and false equity from real value based on craftsmanship and tradition. A collection of wine is like a book-case. It tells a story not only about the life someone leads, but it speaks of what he has done at the same time that it alludes what he will still do. A cellar is the unification of a man’s past, his present and future. Just like you can judge a man by his friends, you can also know his life from the wine he keeps.Copy of Article Below

‘Just Send It’

For vendors, those empty shelves spell opportunity. In Los Angeles, retailer Wally’s Wine & Spirits began providing prefab collections as props for Hollywood studio shoots more than a decade ago, and now it fills a couple instant-collection requests a month, from $5,000 apiece to more than $1 million. The Wine Club, a warehouse-style store in Orange County, Calif., says overnight-collection buyers accounted for about 2.5% of its $40 million in revenue in 2006. At New York’s Sherry-Lehmann four years ago, a client fresh from a remodeling job asked for help filling his new wine room. “I put together a proposal for 400 cases of wine, anticipating him to say, ‘I’ll take this or that,’” says company chairman Michael Aaron. “Instead, he says, ‘I got the list. It looks good. Just send it.” The $700,000 tab remains the retailer’s largest instant-collection sale, Mr. Aaron says, but now the company says it fills about three turnkey-cellar orders each month.

Michael Lorber, a 27-year-old principal of a real estate agency, likes to buy wines gradually for the 400-bottle cellar in his New York apartment. But he took the express track for his new one-bedroom piede-terre in Boston, where he plans to entertain friends and business associates in a wine-bar area off his open kitchen. “Considering I’m only there two days a week, I can’t keep on top of it,” says Mr. Lorber. He spent a couple hours with a personal shopper at Gordon’s Fine Wines & Liquors, a chain in the Boston suburbs, spending $3,000 for 40 bottles, including Caymus from California, Bollinger champagne, Montrachet from Burgundy and some sweet French Chateau d’Yquem. “I completely stocked up,” he says.

Instant stashes have their detractors. Wine experts say the collections tend to be less diverse than those gathered over time because buyers are limited by what’s in stores or at auctions. Thanks to a recent collecting boom, the most desirable bottles have become pricier at retailers and auctions, while many bottles in stores now either won’t improve markedly with age or won’t be ready to drink for years. Simon Lambert, a senior sales manager at The Chicago Wine Company, a retailer that holds a monthly auction, says overnight buyers are practically guaranteed a sub-par mix. “At a one-stop shop,” he says, “it’s virtually impossible to get a good, well-balanced collection.”

Long-time oenophiles also don’t relish extra competition for already-pricey bottles, particularly from collectors who might not know their Domaine de la Romane-Conti from a Beaujolais Nouveau. It’s also, some say, an example of people buying the trappings of wealth. “It’s not that these people want to be considered rich, they want to be considered connoisseurs,” says Sharon Zukin, a sociologist at City University of New York who studies consumer culture. “It’s similar to buying books by the foot.”

Not all the new owners are depleting global stocks of Chateau Latour. Two months ago, Kurt Manley, 44 and his wife, Sara, 30, issued a challenge to wine store co-owner Kristen Kowalski: Their new house has a cellar with a vaulted ceiling and 18th-century French monastery floor tiles, and they had a week to fill it with 700 bottles, in time to host a fund-raiser for Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. “He was really complimentary,” says Mr. Manley, a real estate developer in Eagan, Minn.

Sniffing out the Subway

Ruarri — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 07:53:20 +0000

Earthy, meaty, opulent, forthcoming aromas, cigar-box and compost, though these may sound to be the bouquet of a rather interesting red blend, in fact they’re just a component of how I would describe just a handful of the more subtle aromas on the New York Subway this last week. Usually I try my best not to smell too much, but of late, things have been running behind schedule with the power-cuts, and thanks to good old Con Edison I can’t help but bask in the dizzying conglomerated aroma of New York’s greater metropolitan populace. And of course, being into wine, one sometimes can’t help but try separate individual smells from the great overpowering whole: which can be a little unfortunate when you’re sitting next to a construction worker and an ER nurse with an off-duty bus-driver standing in front of you.

Anyhow, back to the opulent and meaty subway. What normally would be a slick, swish and efficient 20 minute journey in an air-conditioned vessel has of late become an hour’s journey on a hot, sweaty, humid and increasingly aggravated steel tube of tension that is the E train. People have been cursing and muttering, other people vent aggravation by surreptitiously elbowing their neighbour and the whole commuter experience is rapidly deteriorating into bellum omnium contra omnes.

What does this have to do with wine you may wonder? Wine is generally bought only on an impression or reputation basis, that is to say that a wine won’t be sold to a restaurant or store unless someone in charge has tasted it or heard of it. The result is that tens of thousands of people around the country wake up every day and go to work tasting people on wine. It’s a full time job drinking wine and, if you’re lucky, it’s just 9-5, but for many people there are dinners to host in the evenings so the job may end up being 9-11:30! Next time you wake up to go to work, just know that there are people out there who work full time just drinking wine and going to dinner.

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