Dr Vino's wine blog

So if a sleek wine shop opened in the arcade under the new Goldman Sachs building, you’d expect it to have oversized bottles of first growths and Napa cabs, right? Well, Vintry Wine and Spirits has plenty of trophy bottles, but it also has some reasonably priced and very drinkable ones.

Nestled among the magnums and imperials on the sleek shelves are the wines of Arianna Occhipinti from Sicily, Ar.Pe.Pe in Valtellina, and Chateau Thivin from Beaujolais among the shop’s 2,500 bottles. Clearly whoever assembled the selection thought about serving the area’s residents as well as the Masters of the Universe in the tower above. And that decision fell to Michael Martin, general manager, who told me that most of the purchases thus far have been between $20 and $40 a bottle–although one customer did buy a $2,000 bottle on whim on his way to the register. One of the store’s owners, Peter Poulakakos, comes from a fine wine background as his father owns Harry’s Steak, which has a lengthy wine list.

Customers who care to probe the shop’s inventory can talk to the staff or tap on one of the iPads mounted throughout the swanky shop. Mike told me that he’s most proud of the Champagne and Burgundy selections, and they are particularly deep, with many grower Champagnes (though the only Selosse is the Initiale!).

But there’s one wine that customers won’t find here: Yellow Tail chardonnay. Time for those who want it to get familiar with Chablis…

Just across the West Side Drive in Tribeca are three other stores that are also worth noting: Chambers Street Wines, a national leader; Frankly Wines, the most charming 300 sq. ft. wine shop in Manhattan; and New York Vintners, which has many events with winemakers among other charms. This area gives the locals plenty of choice and makes it wine destination neighborhood for the rest of us.

Vintry Fine Wines, 230 Murray Street (West Street), Battery Park City, (212) 240-9553, vintryfinewines.com Read more…

SPIT: bottles of DRC
SIPPED: the power of the internet; credit card return policies?
Don Cornwell, a collector and attorney, posted an impressively detailed assessment of lots that went under the hammer at a London auction last night. Spectrum and Vanquish, the auctioneers, did withdraw some lots but continued to sell others despite statements from DRC’s English and American importers urging buyers to beware. I heard about someone who bid on some DRC knowing all the backstory but was attracted by the (relative) low price; if he finds the bottles to be fake, he will dispute the purchase with his credit card company. For background on the consigner, see winediarst. For tweets from the room, see @Pigeage.

SIPPED: punishment
An arsonist who burned a warehouse with $250 million of wine in it gets 27 years in prison. [SFgate]

SIPPED: good vine hunting
Columnist Jon Bonne tracks Tegan Passalacqua, an influential and connected vineyard scout, as he scours remote vineyards in Northern California. Spot the one behind Carl’s Jr.! [SFgate]

SIPPED: more celebrity wine
Lionel Messi shoots and pours: announces a new wine from Argentina to benefit his foundation. [drinksbusiness]

SIPPED: charity tasting
This Saturday, a dozen top NYC sommeliers will help pour dozens of wines in a fundraiser. The big question is whether jeans will outnumber windsor knots–stop by to find out! The charity benefits Wheeling Forward, supporting those living with disabilities. [leduwine.com]

The French have a wine term that doesn’t translate. No, it’s not terroir. It’s vin de soif. A wine that’s thirst-quenching is a fun drink that accompanies food or a moment but doesn’t dominate them. It’s lowish in alcohol and in price. While the concept translates, the category comes up frustratingly empty when looking for American answers (for red, at least).

I put the question to my tweeps the other day “What’s in your glass when you want a thirst-quenching, domestic red wine?” The replies were telling. Bruce Schoenfeld,”Something domestic to a different country.” Mike Steinberger said “Um, Beaujolais.” Michael Kortrady replied ” (uh, gosh, umm, well, ya know…I’m sure I’ve had one).”

There may be hope. Chambers Street Wines recently offered the wines of Chris Brockway’s Broc Cellars calling them “Californian vin de soif,” including his 11.9% alcohol cabernet franc. Hirsch Vineyards has the ebullient, crackling Bohan Dillon 2009, a 13.1% pinot noir. Sommelier Raj Parr is teaming up with Arnot-Roberts to make a gamay. The trouble with the first two examples is that they are north of $25, so there’s only so much thirst one can quench. We have discussed California’s value challenge before several times.

Do you lament the dearth of American thirst-quenching reds or do you find some good examples?

Over the weekend I was out to dinner at a nice restaurant and encountered something I hadn’t seen for a while: the iceberg wedge slathered in blue cheese and bits of bacon. I told my cousin sitting next to me that I was surprised to see this retro dish on the menu, remarking that the last place I had read about it was when Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft with a net worth of $14 billion, was “dipping bits of iceberg lettuce into a ramekin of blue cheese dressing” at his canteen, a private dining room at a Seattle steakhouse. My cousin assured me that is coming back thought not as comfort food as I had suspected, but as an ironic appetizer. Yes, ironic!

Well, no matter why it’s coming back, the dish is appearing on tables again. And if that’s the case, then let’s help the Steve Ballmer and others. Which wine would you pair with an iceberg wedge and blue cheese dressing (bacon optional)? Or does that blue cheese dressing make it…impossible?

Recipe and photo credit at seriouseats.com

When asked the last time he had mistaken Burgundy for Bordeaux, Harry Waugh famously replied, “not since lunch.” Frequent drinkers today aged 26 – 34 have more confidence than Waugh since 78% of them think they can tell the difference between merlot and cabernet sauvignon, even more similar than Burgundy and Bordeaux! (Hmm, not the only place we Americans have a lot of confidence…)

That’s one of the many interesting findings I learned at the Wine Market Council’s presentation in New York City on Tuesday that included survey and market data. To set the backdrop, Nielsen’s Danny Brager presented data that showed wine and spirits are taking market share away from beer. That’s the good news. But, thanks to the economic headwinds, prices are falling modestly. And that may also be good news if you’re a consumer. Indeed, 73% of consumers surveyed say they are finding good wines available at lower prices. Citing data from the Beverage Information group, John Gillespie of Wine market Council said that the latest estimate for the size of the wine market is 291 million cases, up from 278 million cases the year prior. That’s up from 207 million cases ten years prior and is the eighteenth consecutive year of growth in the US wine market.

John Gillespie broke down some of the demographics of wine drinkers. The most important point is that 21% of those surveyed drink wine once a week, which makes them “core” drinkers. These core drinkers, in turn, consume 91% of the wine in America. So they’re the ones driving the bus. After a focus on baby boomers last year, John focused this year on the millennials, the cohort that is aged 18-34 (well, 21-34 for wine purposes). He found that the generation is large enough to split and that the older subgroup of 26-34 year olds drinks wine with more frequency, in greater quantity and are more experimental than their younger peers and the older bracket, Generation X. These older millennials are really into wine and are also online a lot, visiting wine websites, tweeting and doing status updates on Facebook more than any other age group.

Also worth noting was that across all generations, “high end” purchasers (wine over $20) a month, are very engaged online. Oh, and they’re even more confident about telling cab from merlot, clocking in at 83%. Harry Waugh would be even more impressed.

Okay, only about five years late on this. But, thanks to site reader Quizicat drawing a parallel to our recent discussion of moscato, I’ve learned that I missed an episode of “30 Rock” where wine featured prominently. Jack Donaghy is delighted to have his name on his own sparkling wine from Long Island and he shares it with Liz Lemon. They toast each other, take a sip–and then both spit it out and retch, with Liz scraping her tongue with her fingers. Jack wonders how he is ever going to sell 10,000 cases of this wine…

When Tracy likes it, Jack has the idea of getting the hip-hop star Ridikulous (played by LL Cool J) to flog the wine in a performance. In the spirit of full disclosure, Jack informs Ridikulous that Robert Parker wrote that “Donaghy Estates tastes like the urine of Satan after a hefty portion of asparagus.”

But how many points?!?

You can see the episode on Netflix streaming or buy it on Amazon or iTunes.

Here’s a wine store that looks just like any other high-end wine store…right? So where in the world is this particular store? Include the store name for full credit. (Image credit to follow.)

Many of us wine writers praise the trend to lower-alcohol wines. But there’s one low alcohol wine that has taken off yet generated little coverage: Moscato.

Sales of the $6 sweet, fizzy white that ranges between 5 – 9 percent alcohol have almost doubled each of the past two years, albeit off a small base. The top-selling Barefoot moscato, made by Gallo, had $31 million in sales in 2010. A spokesperson for Gallo told Marketwatch “What makes this so exciting is that it’s bringing new users to the wine category.” Yes, and where there are “users” there is “innovation” such as Beringer’s “red moscato” that adds zinfandel and petite syrah for some red and black cherry flavor. Yellow Tail recently introduced a moscato.

Moscato has now taken a revered place in pop culture as hip-hop performers are touting it. Yes, it’s a sign of the times that we’re no longer in a Cristal economy, but a Moscato one. Here’s a taste of the hip hop lyrics from Ab-Soul: When things get hard to swallow / We need a bottle of moscato. And Trey Songz’ “I Invented Sex” (wherein he also admits to drinking “Ace“: It’s a celebration / Clap clap bravo. / Lobster and shrimp and a glass of moscato / finish the whole bottle.

I’ve recommended Moscato d’Asti as perhaps the ultimate wine for newbies so it doesn’t surprise me that it has taken off, presumably poaching market share from white zinfandel. But good moscatos from Piedmont producers such as La Spinetta or Elio Perrone, with acidity undergirding sweetness, are not the wines driving this lastest trend. But that’s fine. I adopt a live and let drink approach–if this is a “gateway” wine then so be it. Maybe next they will discover Riesling.

What do you make of this moscato madness–a good thing or the next incarnation of Nasty Spumante?