Dr Vino’s wine blog

First time here? Check out the "site highlights," send in a question, subscribe to the latest posts by RSS, daily email, or free monthly updates by email (right sidebar). Thanks for visiting!

The cover story of Time Out New York this week is about cool free stuff happening around NYC. I’m briefly mentioned as a way of highlighting the fantastic free wine tastings that happen in New York.

They can be really a fun and informative aspect of wine life in the city. They’re free because stores can’t (easily) charge for tastings on their premises with the off-premises retail license. Many stores have regular free tastings, check out my NYC wine shop map for my favorite stores. Here’s what’s happening at a few of them:

Chambers Street Wines: Italian white wines, Friday, 5-7; Summer favorites from local distributor, Polaner, Saturday, 4-7.
Crush Wine & Spirits: Free tastings Thursday, 5-7; annual “War of the Rosés” June 11, (session one 5–6pm, session two 6:30–7:30pm; R.S.V.P. to events@crushwineco.com)
Moore Brothers: there’s always something open in the back.

Hit the comments with some other worthwhile ones you know about!

Next Wednesday I’ll be at the James Beard House to talk about my new book, A Year of Wine: Perfect Pairings, Great Buys, and What to Sip for Each Season. It’s part of their monthly author series called Beard on Books.

I was fortunate enough to have been able to give a talk there last year for my other book, Wine Politics, and the turnout was great and the discussion was excellent. Because A Year of Wine dovetails on the seasonal food movement by suggesting varying the wines you drink with the seasons, I’m thrilled to be heading to this gastronomic institution for this discussion. Hope to see you there!

Wednesday, June 10, Noon - 1 PM
167 W. 12th Street
Suggested donation: $20; students free. Event page on their site.

SPIT: corks in Champagne!
Champagne house Duval-Leroy has announced that they will be replacing the cork with a “revolutionary” metal cap. Full details will be announced next month. The BBC reports that it will “still produce the familiar “pop” and spray beloved of generations of racing drivers on the winner’s podium.” But how will this affect the Japanese corkslinger?

SIPPED: wine as a tax revenue source
New York State will raise the excise tax on wine sold or made in New York from $0.18 a gallon to $0.30 a gallon, effective May 1. This rate increase of roughly two cents a bottle may be too little to pass on to consumers thus may fall to producers or wholesalers. In order to avoid channel stuffing, there will be a “floor tax” levy imposed on warehouse inventory as of May 1. So will there be mega sales in NY wine stores between now and then to draw down said inventory? [NYT]

SIPPED: fraud
Fraudsters posing as buyers for British wine retailers have bilked French producers out of an apparently large amount of wine. Sad. [Decanter]

SIPPED, surprisingly: Bordeaux 2008
If in 2008 grapes were, in the words of Jancis Robinson, “swollen with summer rain,” vineyards are “ravaged by mildew and threatened by rot,” would that make for a good vintage in Bordeaux? Despite all odds, Robinson in the FT and Elin McCoy on Bloomberg attest to finding some surprisingly good wines. McCoy asks the money question: “But dropping prices dramatically in a good vintage? It’s not in the Bordelais DNA.” But some have gotten the message as she quotes Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou, owner Bruno Borie: “We have to go back to basics, go back to the consumer, instead of the speculators.” Subsequently, Decanter reports several releases down 20 - 40% from last year’s prices. What will happen ultimately to the weak and expensive 2007 vintage? A caution against buying wine as futures…

The budget battle in Albany looms on the calendar–and with it a decision for a possible overhaul of New York wine retail law that would expand wine sales to supermarkets. (See backgrounders here and here.)

In an op-ed in yesterday’s NYT, wine shop owner Marco Pasanella makes the case that he and other independent shops should be allowed to expand to have more than one location and be able to sell bread, cheese, microbrews, and, yes, recyclable bags, which they are not allowed to currently sell. I’ll drink to that! In fact, it is absurd that this corollary is not in the proposed reform legislation and should be corrected immediately.

I stopped by Pasanella & Son last week for a book signing. It is a handsome shop with an antique Fiat on the floor; the wine selection is excellent. The staff did a fantastic job setting up the event and it was great to see so many people, particularly from the neighborhood turn out. In his op-ed, Marco says that the staff at a local shop will remember a customer’s name. In fact, one woman there that evening told me that the staff member actually remembered which wine she had bought on her previous visit when she couldn’t. Bet that won’t happen at D’Agostino.

Also check out their clever and popular free wine and movie nights, Sip ‘n Cinema!

“If You Sell Wine, Then Let Me Sell Cheese” -NYT op-ed
New York City wine shops, a map

Remember, wine stores in New York can’t charge for tastings on premises. So take advantage of these free tastings!

March 12: I’ll be signing my book, A Year of Wine, at Pasanella & Son near the South Street Seaport, 7 - 9 PM. Four free wines! Hope to see you there.

March 21: Several producers from one of my favorite importers, Louis/Dressner, will be heading to Chambers Street Wines. Includes: Jean-Paul Brun, Domaine des Terres Dorées;Marc Ollivier, Domaine de la Pépière; Pierre Breton; Matthieu Baudry, Domaine Bernard Baudry; Evelyne de Jessey, Domaine du Closel; Catherine & Claude Maréchal; Jean Manciat; Alain Coudert, Clos de la Roilette; François Pinon; Eric and Christine Nicolas, Domaine Bellivier. There are also a couple of interesting winemaker dinners around that time arranged through the store, although they’re not free.

March 24: Several producers from another of my favorite importers, Kermit Lynch, will be heading to Thirst Wine Merchants in Fort Greene, 6 8 PM. Includes: Reynald Delille from Domaine Terrebrune (Bandol) in Provence, Laurent Barrera from Dupéré Barrera and Domaine de la Procure (Côtes de Provence) in Provence, Isabelle Champart from Domaine Champart (Saint-Chinian) in Langedoc-Roussillon, Cinzia Sommariva from Sommariva (Conegliano) in Veneto, Guido Porro from Azienda Agricola Guido Porro (Serralunga d’Alba) in Piedmont, and Jean-Yves Bizot (Vosne-Romanée) from Domaine Bizot in Burgundy.

Christy Frank of Frankly Wines–last seen in front of her cork wall–returns with some answers to a few of my questions about the possible changes NY wine retail.

Size of store: 320 sq feet, possibly the smallest in Manhattan [66 West Broadway; Tribeca]

Style of selections: well-edited! My version of the well-stocked wine closet: including daily essentials, quirky finds, and higher end treasures. Selection skews toward the Southern Hemisphere.
price average: 50% of stock is $20 or less

A cool bottle: “Syrocco” Syrah 2006 (Zenata, Morocco) - eye-rolling aside at the clever, rhyming name, the wine is a great value at $16.99. Alain Graillot of Northern Rhone fame is the man behind this project.

Date store opened: December 14th, 2007

Position on proposed reform to allow food stores to sell wine: There’s a Whole Foods around the corner, so the possibility that this will pass, combined with the current economic environment does worry me. Prior to opening my wine store, I ran the national business for several wine brands, so I understand that independent wine/liquor stores can co-exist with large, corporate grocery chains that also sell wine. However, given the current economic environment, this is probably not the best time to test the entrepreneurial spirit of the existing independent retail base to adjust to a drastically changed regulatory landscape. What I find interesting about this proposal is that the benefit (or possible lack of benefit) to the consumer barely enters into the discussion. The proposal was issued as a way to raise state funding, and as such, I think the financials need to be given real, detailed scrutiny.

I’ve seen top-line numbers from both sides, but the devil is in the details - and the only detail I have seen is the written testimony submitted by Whole Foods on 11/30/07 in preparation for last year’s budget (found herein pdf). I hope that unlike the scenario in that document, the State’s calculations take the negative consequences of existing store closures into account. I hope that “700 full-time-equivalent jobs” are enough to off-set the jobs lost due to those closings. And I hope that if passed, the actual franchise fee per location isn’t actually 10% - 0.2% of location sales for small stores ($500K or less per year) and only 0.05% - 0.06% of sales for the largest stores.

My suspicion, although I welcome hard numbers that firmly indicate otherwise, is that this plan will transfer wine sales from small, local retailers to large, corporate chain grocery stores at the time when these retailers have the least chance of success to successfully adjust their business models.

What you might do differently if passed : I already focus on smaller, boutique brands and offer a very high level of service. Ideally, the legislation would allow me to sell high-end beer and a small selection of gourmet goods - without turning myself into a full-on grocery If a grocery store gets to tag wine onto their existing business model, I should think I should have the opportunity to tag beer and cheese onto mine.

And if grocery stores are now allowed to sell wine in multiple locations under the same corporate license, shouldn’t wine stores be given the same ability to gain scale and compete? I’d love to see Frankly Wines logos in locations across the city….I bet I can pick up some old Starbucks leases on the cheap…if only I could find the funding.

Reading about wine may be fun but there’s a lot to be said for tasting it. Many wine stores offer tastings, which are always free in New York and may be the best priced tastings for our times. But if you can rub two shekels together, there are some other paid events that offer some good opportunities in the near future.

February 21 & 23: natural wine Nirvana. Hirsute and Birkenstock-clad natural wine wine producers, vignerons, and “nature’s assistants” will descend on NYC next weekend. The first, smaller (and cheaper) event will be at Astor Center, which will feature seven natural wine producers. (Feb 21, 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM; $15)

The main event is the Return to Terroir tasting of 76 biodynamic wine makers from thirteen countries. They will be pouring what are some of the most exciting wines made today. It’s principally a trade event but it does open to the public from 4:00 - 6:00 PM on Feb 23 for $100 admission. If you’re curious about the slow-motion collapse of the French appellation system that I discuss in my book, Wine Politics, the iconoclast Nicolas Joly of Coulée de Serrant will be giving a talk mostly about biodynamics and perhaps a bit of appellation politics at 4 PM. I will also be signing copies of my books there from 4:00 - 5:00 PM and earlier in the day (if you’re in the trade). Stop by and say hi! Registration (For DC readers, the event will be held there the following day.)

March 7: At $1,400, my initial reaction to the La Paulée Burgundy bacchanlia is, “Holy crud! People still have that kind of scratch to blow on one evening?!” But fortunately the festivities also include a tasting of top Burgundies Saturday afternoon from 12 - 3. Even though it is still pricey at $300, Daniel Johnnes, the force behind the event, has lured Jean-Francois Coche to these shores for the first time ever, which means the big three of Meursault will be pouring that afternoon–Coche, Lafon, and Roulot–along with many others (see the complete list). Given what just one of those wines would cost, it actually might just be a bargain–and a must for Burgundy buffs. (reservations and details)

March 12: I’ll be signing copies of my practical guide, A Year of Wine, at Pasanella & Son, a wine shop at 115 South Street. Drop by, sample some of the free springtime wines and see if the 1967 Ferrari is still in the store! Map it

For more NYC wine events, be sure to check out localwineevents.com.

Buying crudité and rosé at the same time might help New York solve its budgetary woes. Or so Governor Paterson thinks.

That’s why he has proposed to allow food stores to sell wine, a subject we discussed the day the idea was floated. To recap the budgetary logic, he proposed to more than double the excise tax on wine and increase the points of sale beyond the 2,400 wine and liquor stores in the state and allow the 19,000 grocery stores to sell wine. The Governor’s office estimates that it will bring in an additional $150 million over three years, presumably from new store license fees and excise taxes rather than an increase in overall purchases. The deficit for next year alone is forecast to be $15 billion.

Shortly after I moved to New York State from Chicago four years ago, I was looking for a supermarket wine for a story and wondered where you found “supermarket wine” in New York. The answer is epitomized in this store I saw the other day, which we can call “Wines & Liqu” since that’s the only part of the neon sign that was illuminated. It’s these stores, uninspiring package stores, that don’t much invest in human capital and stock high-volume brands that will be most threatened by the impending change.

But alongside the Wines & Liqu stores are thriving boutiques that is probably the best concentration of wine stores in the universe. Read more…

“I used to say that the shop was 400 square feet,” Christy Frank told me when I visited her in her downtown wine shop, Frankly Wines, last week. “But it’s actually closer to 350.”

The diminutive shop at 66 West Broadway has a selection that skews toward wines from the Southern Hemisphere and wines under $20. But perhaps the most distinctive feature of the shop is what might well be the world’s largest cork board made entirely from corks pulled from wine bottles.

Christy says that the covered portion of the wall, approximately six feet by eight feet, has about 15,000 corks affixed with wood glue. It took a total of 30 hours of labor to adhere them all. The original inspiration was to tastefully cover a fusebox but it grew to cover the whole wall.

The amount of corks that she actually pulled herself is a relatively small, she told me gesticulating at a small corner of the space. Instead the bulk of the corks came from purchases on eBay where she said there is a thriving market for corks.

Christy says that kids love the tactile nature of the wall and some have written their initials on the corks. Take that Facebook: people can write on Christy’s real wall.

Related: “I just saved you $40 at Pottery Barn”
13,500 bottles of wine are the wall
Map of the best wine shops in New York City