Education is important for Scott Pactor. Walking into Appellation, his light and airy store that opened in Chelsea last fall, requires customers to walk in front of a reading area complete with two chairs and a bookshelf stuffed with wine books—not for sale, but for consultation.
While all wine shops try to help customers know their Pouilly-Fumé from their Pouilly-Fuissé, Pactor’s consumer education adds a green twist: his shop concentrates on organic and biodynamic wines. With more consumers seeking environmentally friendly products from unbleached paper towel to free range meat, wineries that take a sustainable approach to agriculture are becoming increasingly popular.
The 200+ wines in the store are arranged by flavor profile from light to full-bodied, from left to right in the shop. The discrete tags above each wine describe the flavors in words (not numbers) and list the vital statistics including the green credentials of the winery.
There are definitely some oddities such as the inky-black Cepages Oubliés 2004 from the Loire’s Henri Marionette, the “king†of carbonic maceration (a fermentation technique that does not use a press and leads to fruity tasting wines). A Coturri Zinfandel has no sulfites so Pactor keeps it in the cold storage area since it is so delicate. I purchased a bottle of the Auratus Alvarinho 2004 from Portugal where the vineyard is farmed organically and the winery eschews pumps and instead uses the force of gravity for the juice to flow from one tank to the next. I made it my value wine of the week.
But taste comes first. Pactor chooses the wines in the shop based on taste first and then green credentials second. When he started working in wine, first at the New York City restaurant Balthazar and later at the shop PJ’s, the distributors gave him blank stares when he brought up the topic of the environment. But today there’s no problem finding plenty of wines made in an environmentally responsible way.
Winemakers who are committed to environmental responsibility frequently visit Appellation for talks and tastings. Coming up on March 3 the Coturri brothers will be doing a talk and tasting and on March 9 Mike Benziger will be in the store talking about biodynamics. Appellation is also doing events with burgeoning ranks of New York’s organic-influenced restaurants including Cookshop, Telepan, and Billy’s Bakery. The education continues on-line as the shop’s informative web site has some essays, including one about the use of sulfites in wine.
Appellation is definitely worth checking out, even if it is way over on the west side. Bring your dog—there’s a dog bowl and doggy treats. And bring your toddlers—there’s a table and coloring books. You gotta get the next generation while they are green.
Appellation Wine and Spirits
156 Tenth Ave (btw 19th and 20th), open 7 days a week.
Tel: 212-741-9474
tags: wine | organic wine | wine stores New York
