King Solomon was known for his wisdom. And when he ordered a baby cut in half, he made a woman cry.

John Slover is the Solomonic sommelier, though his splitting things in two is more likely to make people happy. When at Bar Henry, he introduced a bottle-splitting program, wherein diners could order 375ml of a regular bottle for only half the full-bottle price (No upcharge! The remaining 375ml is then available to other diners.). This encourages diners to experiment, by, as an example, having a half a bottle of white with appetizers and a half a bottle of red with the main course.

He’s continuing the wisdom of this strategy at Ciano, where he is the wine director at the restaurant that opened last year with Shea Gallante in the kitchen. Slover said wine sales have been strong, adding that the bottle-splitting program “has made money, certainly not lost any.” Two diners sometimes buy a full bottle and then order another half that they wouldn’t have normally ordered to try something new.

Slover divided the wine list into a “market” list where the splitting is allowed and a “reserve” list where it it is not. Unless he can broker a share on one of the pricey bottles. And he has done so, for example, selling a DRC Echézeaux 1985 for $1,200 per half to two tables. One evening, knowing a Rhone fan dining in the restaurant, he proposed a half of 1995 Henri Bonneau, reserve des Célestins, a Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The diner said, “Bring it on.” Then Slover proposed it to another diner who might be interested and he said “absolutely.” They enjoyed it so much they then went halvsies on a 1985 Rayas.

Let’s just hope Slover keeps his saber sheathed while doing his trademark bottle splitting. That would make us all weep.

Ciano, 45 E. 22nd Street, 212-982-8422

Wine under $50 certainly has obvious appeal. But it also has pitfalls, notably dull selections available at stores or supermarkets for $10 might appear for $40 on a list. That’s why there’s a paradoxical diner skepticism: on the one hand, we love a deal but on the other hand, we are apparently incredulous that lower-priced wine could actually be good. Pascaline Lepeltier of Rouge Tomate flagged this for us earlier, and she tweeted an elaboration yesterday about the place of wines under $50 and diner psychology:

i would say it is mainly the area where people may not expect to find good AND cheap wines; so you have to convince them

So which places can you cast aside your possible skepticism and order with confidence from the under $50 selections?

In the three years since the restaurant opened on the Upper East Side, that question has been the domain of Pascaline Lepeltier. In that time, the former philosophy major from Angers who could still pass as an undergrad on a university campus, has assembled an impressive list of over 300 wine selections and become an admired fixture of New York’s world.

As you might expect, most of the wines come from organically grown vineyards or are considered “natural” wines, about 70% of the list by her estimation. But she’s not a dogmatist. She looks for “wines that are true to their place, to their vintage, and to their winemakers,” adding that “many great wines are made conventionally.” The list thus draws not only on places like the Jura or Montlouis but also California, New York and Bordeaux.

“I’m opening a La Tache, Frank Cornelissen, a Movia, a sake, a Marcassin on the same night,” she says, illustrating the range of styles on the list.

While she says that her goal is to understand what each guest wants, she is also thrilled to be able to list wines she is particularly enthusiastic about. She told me that she listed an “orange” wine–a somewhat oxidative style of wine popular with some wine geeks–by the glass and was delighted at the response.

Chenin blanc is her not-so-secret passion. She has 25 Chenins on the list (sparkling and still), so you’d be hard-pressed to find more Chenin Blanc on any wine list in New York City or, probably, anywhere outside of the Loire. They include sparkling and still renditions of the grape and from up-and-coming producers such as Damien Laureau and masters such as Domaine Huet.

While there are some values on the list, she says that wines under $50 have had difficulty selling. Goes with the neighborhood, I guess. However, there are still some under $50, such as the crackling 2010 Muscadet from Domaine Louvetrie, the 2009 Hermann J. Wiemer “Dry” Riesling and several reds from the Loire. There are also some Calforia cabernets with age, as well as many hard to find selections from Cornas or Irouléguy. Check it out: the wine list is a feast for the eyes, as well as the palate at any price point.

If you do find yourself at Rouge Tomate, be sure to ask Pascaline for her suggestions. At the very least you’ll find her attitude refreshing, neither snobby nor doctrinaire. As she says, “I think wine is a question of humility. I want people to feel comfortable and not feel intimated by wine.”

Rouge Tomate
10 E 60th St between Fifth and Madison Aves
phone: 646-237-8977
rougetomatenyc.com
Wine list (pdf)

The London riots are simultaneously shocking and horrifying, so much so that the prime minister even came back from his Tuscan vacation to appear to address the issue.

The rioters moved on the Michelin two-star restaurant, The Ledbury, in Notting Hill yesterday. Blogger Louise Yang was there and describes the scene as looters wearing hoodies and masks smashed a plate glass window in the dining room, burst in, and stole her wedding and engagement rings right off her finger.

The kitchen staff scared off the looters, she writes, by brandishing rolling pins and fry baskets. The staff then tried to soothe nerves by offering everyone champagne and whisky. Stiff upper lip! When word spread that the looters were circling back to the restaurant, the staff told diners to go to the wine cellar and lock themselves in.

For stealing her rings, Yang wished the looters “a case of flaming diarrhea for the rest of your life.”

Best wishes to the restaurant staff and diners as they try to put things back together. And, of course, to the country at this time of societal fracture. (ht: eater)

Now, on page one of his wine list, Grieco entered a high-profile fray in the NYC dining scene by vividly showing his support for restauranteur Chris Cannon, who abruptly closed his restaurants Alto and Convivio recently. (The closings were part of the fallout from a dispute with Cannon’s former business partners chef Michael White and investor Ahmass Fakahany, who together own Marea, Ai Fiori, and Osteria Morini.) Who needs a blog to rant when you can you can print your views on a wine list?

On a related note, even if the Krug was not properly chilled on a private jet bound for Aspen last week, it must have been a frosty trip since Grieco and Michael White were onboard.

What would happen if guns were allowed in bars and restaurants? We will find out here, apparently. According to a NYT story from Sunday highlighted a change in four state laws that now allow loaded weapons to be carried into bars and restaurants. Twenty other states, including New York, have legal gray areas and thus could be up for a challenge soon from gun-rights groups.

There is a catch, however that’s possibly more important than a trigger lock: those carrying weapons cannot drink alcohol. That does give a slight twist on the ordering process: will waiters now have to ask if you’re armed before they serve you? Red or white? Packing or not? And what about winery tasting rooms? The Tennessee legislator who sponsored the bill there highlighted the need for security between car and the restaurant. So if a winery visitor wanted to pack heat before tasting some fruit bombs, would he or she have to check the gun at the door? How would this affect the tasting room experience? Should wineries ban guns?

Have your say in the comments or the latest poll!
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SIPPED: X-Ray vision for wine lists?
The above image comes from wondertonic.tumblr.com

SIPPED: satire
HoseMaster continues his discussion of Carbon Footprint wines, including “Creeping Deforestation” & “Screw the Ozone” [HoseMaster of Wine]

SIPPED: dug up from the cellar
“Perth Pink….This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding.” An old Monty Python wine sketch that had fallen through the cracks!

SPIT: convenience
Alcohol has been “too accessible to the people of Ontario,” so the LCBO will respond by shuttering retail stores and limiting the rest to 12-3 on Saturday. [This & That; cbc.ca]

SIPPED: natural wine humor
“So far only insufferable hipsters in New York and San Francisco talk about natural wines but they proselytize so much over the internet that we may pick up another 50 or so drinkers in the next few years.” A new new robotic sommelier video.

SIPPED: glass cleaning tip o’ the day
Don’t use the same sponge to clean wine glasses that you just used to clean the waffle batter bowl.

This week’s big story is the dramatic, emergency-slide resignation of JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater. Following verbal abuse from a passenger, he took to the PA system to let everyone on board know that he’d had enough, popped the inflatable emergency slide, threw down his carry-ons, grabbed a couple of beers from the drinks cart, and then slid down to the tarmac and walked to the employee parking lot at JFK.

Working in a restaurant is also a high-pressure situation (though fortunately, there’s not TSA screening for diners). So, turning this incident to the wine world: What would it take for a sommelier to shout expletives at diners, hit the fire alarm, grab two fave bottles, and run out the back door?

I put the question to Jean-Luc Le Dû, who was in the restaurant business for 20 years, the last ten as chef sommelier at the acclaimed Restaurant Daniel. (He now runs his own wine shop, Le Dû’s Wines, in the West Village.) It turns out that he actually did walk out of a job once! And I also asked him which two bottles he would have grabbed from the famed cellar at Daniel if he had made a dramatic exit.

I also asked the Twitterati (follow along). See all the replies after the jump! And add your own thoughts in the comments.

First, the Twitterati:

Pinotblogger: 1. Ask his opinion on pairings. 2. Choose none of the above. 3. Proclaim the wine tainted. 4. Spit on his shoes. The order is important in bringing about the requisite mania.

Greghirson: I’d add [to pinotblogger] – ask for the bottle price to be prorated for the sip the somm. took.

vinomarket: @drvino Taking an order from my mother would do it.

LCFwino: @drvino Larry David?

rmacomb: @drvino seemingly hourly requests for white zin or wine snobs who think every 3rd bottle is corked

jimwinebeer: @drvino one too many of the “return-a-wine-to-demonstrate-the-heft-of-my-private-parts” types; it’s wine, not manliness in a bottle

ebwinenews: @drvino lack of tips / half a gram / unresolved childhood trauma

nyplayful1: Customer sez “Cakebreadsthebomb!”

And now to the actual experiences of Jean-Luc Le Dû:

Pretty funny.

I quit the restaurant business when I sensed this could eventually happen to me.

This being said, I mostly had a lot of fun working as a sommelier in a top restaurant. While I’ve encountered a few really difficult customers during my 10 years at Daniel, I mostly tremendously enjoyed my interactions with most of them.

It’s not like I was working on an overcrowded plane with customers pissed off from the start because airlines take advantage of them in every possible way (I’m not taking the side of the passenger in this week’s incident as she had no business not confirming to FAA rules and regulations)

Now, If I’d blown a gasket and left, I would have grabbed a couple of Chartreuse Tarragone vintage from Daniel’s private stash! Voila!

I did once walked out in the middle of service at Bouley in the early 90′s because the Maitre d’ was such a prick (The one whom the play “Fully Committed” was written about). I gave him my jacket in the middle of the dining room and went home. Like nothing happened, he called me the following morning to ask if I was coming for the lunch service. That place was zoo!

John Slover, who previously worked at Cru, has assembled a wine list with 116 wines on the “market” list. Order any wine off this list and they will pour off half of it and charge you–gasp!–half the price of the full bottle. The remaining 375ml goes behind the bar and the wine gets written on a big mirror, where it is then in play and available for purchase by other diners, either as a half or by the glass. (The list also has 24 wines offered by-the-glass.) It’s a fun and innovative feature that offers the opportunity to try different wines at reasonable prices. The market list includes mostly French and Italian wines but also has selections from the US, Germany, Austria among other countries. Producers include: Tue-Boeuf, Belliviere, Knoll, Zilliken, Auguste Clape, Marquis d’Angerville, Paolo Bea and Cristom.

Bar Henry’s creativity features in a story that I wrote on the theme in the June 15 issue of the magazine Sommelier Journal. Unfortunately it’s not on their website, but if you are a subscriber, check out the story on the back page.UPDATE: the column is now online! Check it out at sommelierjournal.com.

Which wine bars or restaurants have you been to that are doing fun and innovative things?

Related: Bar Henry, 90 West Houston Street, (646) 448-4559 (map it)
“Finding a deal on the wine list at Bar Boulud in NYC“

April 19 at Rouge Tomate: Michel Delhommeau of Muscadet and Laetitia Gendrier of Domaine Huards in Cheverny will be among eight Loire winemakers on hand for a four-course dinner. Wine reception starts at 6:30. $95+tax and tip. (646) 237-8977

April 22 at Dressler (Williamsburg): a five-course dinner with Klauss Gasser, winemaker at Cantina Terlano in Alto Adige. Features four wines from 2005. (718) 384-6343

April 22 at Crush Wine & Spirits: not a dinner but a free, “epic” (their word) tasting of Gruner Veltliner from producers including Nikolaihof, Prager, FX Pichler, Brundlmayer and more…(Unlike the others, no producers on hand for this event.) 5:30 – 7:30. Food pairings from Seasonal restaurant. Must RSVP: events@crushwineco.com

And two arranged through Chambers Street Wines:
April 22: the distinctive, oxidized whites and high-acid reds of Jura will be offered in a private room at The Ten Bells in a walk-around, mingling, small plate tasting. More than a half-a-dozen producers will be in attendance. $55. (212) 227-1434

April 23 at General Greene (Fort Greene): a four-course dinner with excellent Loire producers Francois Chidaine (Montlouis and Vouvray) and Mattieu Baudry of Domaine Bernard Baudry (Chinon). Six wines will be served including two Montlouis still wines as well as Baudry’s top wine, La Croix Boisée. $90 (includes tax and tip) (212) 227-1434

UPDATE: Please note that the disruptions in European travel may have altered these events. Please double check with the organizers.

Although regular wine markup in restaurants is 300 percent of the wholesale cost, many wine lists have hidden deals. There are any number of reasons why they exist: Perhaps the sommelier has a soft spot for an unheralded grape and slips it on the list with a low markup or maybe there is a closeout item and the restaurant passes on the savings.

Today’s such gem comes from Bar Boulud. To accompany the restaurant’s extensive charcuterie menu, wine director Michael Madrigale runs an innovative program that focuses largely on wines from the Rhone and Burgundy. One of the exciting things he does is feature a different large format bottle, often a rare mature wine, open it and pour it by the glass. (Follow on Twitter to see which wines are being poured.)

But one deal that he doesn’t telegraph is what he calls “the nugget.” On the wine list at any given moment is a wine that Madrigale puts on for the wholesale cost (that is to say, even below retail). He doesn’t highlight the item and it’s often an obscure, wine geek’s wine and his stock can be quickly depleted. Diners have to spot the wine on the list as being an outrageous value, and then order it and accept it. At that point Madrigale lets them know the value they have uncorked. “Usually, they are quite happy about their choice,” he says. Previous such wines have included Chapoutier’s ’04 Cornas “Les Arenes” for $55 and the Chateau Grillet 2004.

So order wine like an insider when next at Bar Boulud. The current nugget is…Eric Texier, 2000 Hermitage rouge for $69.

Bar Boulud
1900 Broadway (between 63rd & 64th) New York, NY 10023
(212) 595-0303

You assume that the price of the wine and its quality can be neatly separated out. This seems reasonable, but is wrong. Price changes the very experience of quality. Neuro-economists have found, for instance, that while placebo painkillers work, they work best if the subject thinks they are expensive. Energy drinks give you less energy if you buy them at a discount. (Yes, really.) And of course, wine tastes better if you believe that it is expensive.

One possibility is to conceal the price of wine from your girlfriend and tell her you’re buying the expensive stuff when in fact you are buying the house red. This is a white lie: many people prefer the taste of cheap wine in blind tastings, and by claiming it is expensive you will quite genuinely improve the way she thinks it tastes.

Perhaps. But buying expensive wine might make the student look profligate. Or like a chump since price is actually an unreliable indicator of a wine’s quality especially as there are so many values in the market today. And, if caught, passing off Prosecco at vintage Champagne prices might deflate more than the bubbles on the table.

In fact, there are other ways for this student to impress rather than price: I say choose a restaurant with a good wine list, order a Zweigelt, an easy-drinking red from Austria that suffers a discount because nobody thinks they can pronounce it, or a lip-smacking, natural cru Beaujolais. After she has tried it and loves it, tell her the wine is a steal. Or go to a nice BYOB and scope out something at a good shop beforehand. You don’t have to be an economist to think that finding a terrific wine value is pretty damn sexy.

What’s your advice?

I stopped by SD26 on a recent weeknight and things were hopping. The restaurant, opened on Madison Square in September to the tune of $7 million, boasts a wine bar in the front. Tony May, who previously owned the traditional San Domenico, told the New York Times that with SD26 “We aim for the cutting edge.”

Thus behold the 24 bottles in Enomatic, self-service dispensers. And no matter where you are in the large space, the wine list only comes in one form and–paper-be-damned–it’s digital.

It awaits on the bar, propped up by a little kick stand in the back, beckoning you with “SD26″ on the screen. The hostess said that if there were a paper edition it would be “too big” given the amount of wines available. I couldn’t resist and picked up the 9×5 tablet and started tapping the touch screen. First fields: red, white or bubbly? Then drill down: glass, half bottle or bottle? Then drill down again: a list of producers, regions and vintages.

Drill, baby, drill! But this tablet system is a dry hole. When you eventually arrive on a page you want, there is the option to sort by price or alphabetically. Despite having interactive capability, the digitized wine list remains merely a list. There are no descriptions of the wines. No ability to sort by style. Few images. No suggestions for pairings with items on the menu. No interactions such as the ability to rate the wine that you had after you tried it and then coming up with a short list of popular picks or sorting by user-generated rankings. No internet access. So you’re pretty much left where you were with a paper list: talking with the sommelier for a suggestion.

Although the inventory could be instantly updated, the wines probably don’t change too often: the server I spoke with in the front said that the 24 wines in the Enomatic machines have been there since the opening and will likely be there through the new year.

So, really, the substance of the wine list doesn’t appear to benefit form the style of the tablet. It seems to have been done just for the tech of it.

SIPPED: American wine
The White House continues pouring only American wines, so far from four states at official events. The first state dinner is coming up next month–stay tuned for what the Obamas pick for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh! [Obamafoodarama]

SPIT: American wine; SIPPED: generosity
While dining in lower Manhattan last weekend, Chief Justice John Roberts and his wife Jane sipped a bottle of Villa Mangiacane, a Chianti. When they finished their meal, they offered the rest of the wine to a neighboring table, specifically, Gay Talese who blogged about it for City Room.

SIPPED: wine service tips
A budding restaurateur offers his first 50 service tips for his staff, including several wine related ones including “For red wine, ask if the guests want to pour their own or prefer the waiter to pour.” [You're the Boss, NYT]

SPIT: old vines; SIPPED: apartment complex
Philip White, a wine writer in Australia, has a scathing critique of Constellation, one of the world’s largest wine makers and marketers, and their apparent plans to scale back in Australia. Particularly irksome to him was the uprooting of John Reynell’s 161-year-old vines at Reynella; 41 “tiny apartments” will replace the vines. [INDAILY]

With restaurant markups commonly 300 or 400 percent you could be forgiven for answering, “never.” But right now, there’s a restaurant in NYC where the head sommelier is clearing out his inventory. Unfortunately, he’s already blown through most of the wines that cost him less than $300. But for all (both?) the high rollers out there, the wines that he bought for north of $300 and he has multiple bottles of, he’s happy to part with them for as little as $100 above his cost. As silly as it sounds, that means that a wine that costs $750 a bottle in a store might only cost $600 at the restaurant!

Consider another example. The sommelier told me that one patron wanted to spend $900 on the Domaine Romanee Conti, Grands Echezaux, 2005. But the sommelier asked him if he would like a better wine that’s drinking better now, the DRC, La Tache, 2006 for $750. The diner readily accepted. Fancy that, a downsell! (is that even a word?)

The price reductions are indicated not on the wine list, however. The somm told me that he gives them mainly to regulars or “people who seem nice.” So if you have an anniversary, marriage proposal, big birthday, or other celebratory event coming up no matter which fine restaurant you’re in, it might not hurt to indicate your (high) price point and ask if that’s the most exciting thing in that vein (cough**cough**price) on the wine list.

Unfortunately, the sommelier requested anonymity since he said that there is no across-the-board policy. But in other NYC deals, Veritas, the wine shrine on 20th St., is offering 25% off all wines on the list. And Bar Boulud is offering a “Pannier du jour,” wherein a magnum, jerobaum, imperial or Methusalem is hauled up from the cellar, uncorked and sold by the glass for between $19 and $29 a glass. It may sound like a lot but some recent selections have included the 04 Jadot Bonnes-Mares (3L) and the 1978 Ducru Beaucaillou (mag). Maybe if you get the last glass you could take the bottle home?

At the lower-priced value end, Perry Street, Jojo, and Vong each offers a red and a white bottle of wine for $20 at lunch time as well as a $5 wine by the glass.

Hit the comments with other deals you know about!