Dr Vino's wine blog

OK New Yorkers, time to cry into our Riedel stemware: the new Whole Foods on High Street Kensington in London beats the snot out of Whole Foods Bowery from a wine perspective. Roll the tape from the Financial Times:

“The eating-in aspect of this branch of Whole Foods is much more significant than anything we have ever done in the US because of the relative ease of acquiring a liquor license here rather than in the US where it is difficult in certain states and impossible in others. We simply could not do anything like this back home.” (emphasis added)

Thus said David Lannon, a regional president of WFMI in the UK. But it doesn’t stop there. “On the ground floor, between a large wine department (where not all the wines on sale are organic) and their temperature-controlled cheese room, is a small wine bar where one can sample the produce from either department.” (emphasis added)

Better in-store dining! Free samples with cheese! This New Yorker votes to import London’s laws on wine retailing!

With Father’s Day closing in this Sunday, inquiring minds might want to know: what do wine geek dads want as gifts? I polled three wine bloggers who are celebrating their first Father’s Day.

The Brooklynguy: “I would love to taste Krug NV.” This Champagne is a about $125 (find this wine)

Josh of Pinotblogger: “One thing I’d like to receive for father’s day would be a couple more Riedel wine glasses. I break far more than my fair share. :)” [Hmm, maybe Josh should try the impact resistant glasses? -Dr. V]

Lenn of Lenndevours: “My dream present would be: Sherwood House Vineyards a 36-acre vineyard in Mattituck. Cost: a cool $4.1 million. The realistic one: An afternoon in wine country with my wife and son…along with a lunch from Village Cheese Shop and local wines.”

Ah, sounds nice especially since I’ll be in Bordeaux this Sunday away from Mrs. Vino and our son. But if they still wanted to get me some wine related paraphernalia…I’d love a corkscrew that the TSA wouldn’t take away from me when I forget it in my carry-on. But in the event that is not available, I’d settle for the Chateau Laguiole with a handle of red stamina wood (about $129). But I wouldn’t want to sacrifice THAT one to the TSA!

With 44 million tourists expected in the Big Apple this year, not everybody can fit into the Met or go up the Empire State Building. Some might just want to do some wine tourism. So here is a suggested itinerary for 36 hours in…New York City for wine lovers!

You arrive from the airport late Friday afternoon. Because few hotels offer us wine lovers anything distinctive, you can roll the dice with Priceline. In this scenario, our home for two nights will be…The Pod on E. 51st Street. Remodeled recently, it now targets the “stylish and spendthrifty traveler” so sounds good. And thanks to Priceline, you scored it for under $200–more to deploy on the wine budget!

Drop off your bags and head up or down. The rooftop area has a bar; on the ground floor is Le Bateau Ivre, a good little bistro/bar to get your evening started on a wine note.

Then head down to 20th street to dinner at a vaunted wine destination, Veritas. If you want to keep the vino flowing before getting there, drop by Moore Brothers wine shop on the same side of the street. With the store constantly cooled to 60-some degrees, and bottles always open for free sampling in the rear of the store.

Then it’s off to dinner at Veritas. Ask one of the sommeliers to help you navigate the wine list and choose from one of the 100,000 bottle inventory. Prix-fixe menu of New American cuisine is $76–how much you spend on wine is up to you.

If you aren’t too weary from your encounter with the TSA on this travel day, an optional stop afterward is Flute champagne bar across the street.

Saturday morning: no rest for the winey! It’s up bright and early to pick up your paddle and start bidding at auction! Acker, Merrall regularly holds auctions on Saturday mornings at the venerable wine restaurant Cru (190 page wine list). You can browse the catalogue and bid or just soak up the 70-lot-an-hour pace and enjoy the yummy (free) coffee.

Next up, lunch at Fatty Crab in the West Village. Try some of the excellent noodles, crispy pork, skate panggang skate with the well-crafted, concise wine list.

Then it’s down to pick up some wines for dinner in Tribeca. Chambers Street Wines is a great neighborhood wine shop that specializes in the Loire, Champagne and other wines from boutique producers. The staff will help walk you through some great options for your dinner.

All right, you said you want some rest? Well stroll over to Delluva day spa and soak up the wine with their “vinotherapy.” If there’s one thing us wine lovers like besides drinking wine, it’s bathing in it–right?!? Well, maybe not. But you probably need to put your feet up so why not let someone rub grape waste into you while your doing it.

Then it’s back uptown to Read more…

Beyond standing out in the crowded dining scene, many restaurants in this category are BYOB for three main reasons. First, getting a liquor license–and liquor–can be an expensive hassle. Second, the current economy has made diners more frugal. And third, diners have become much more knowledgeable about wine.

To apply for a liquor license from the city, the restaurant must already be in operation, which explains why many restaurants are BYOB when they first open. This allows city inspectors to assure that the license is not being used to simply run a bar, for example. The license itself costs a flat fee of $2,000 a year: A 30-seat restaurant pays the same fee as a 300-seat restaurant. The costs of training the staff, stemware and storing an inventory of wine can be incentives to remain BYOB.

Such is the case for Chinoiserie, an Asian fusion restaurant in Wilmette, which expanded three years ago to 90 seats. "We never got around to it," says owner Janice Lee about applying for a liquor license. "When we enlarged,
we thought that we would at least add wine and beer. But no matter how much space you have it’s never enough."

A trend toward frugality has made diners tighten their purse strings. Rather than cutting back on the frequency of eating out, diners can simply cut back on the bill. A good way to do that is to bring your own (most BYOB places do not charge corkage fees, or charge a small amount).

Jody Andre has just started her third BYOB restaurant, Speakeasy Supper Club, which includes a 1930s bar (without alcohol) and a menu ranging from tapas-style dishes to ostrich Wellington. The economy made staying with the BYOB model an easy choice. Because two restaurants she opened before have been successful as BYOBs, (Tomboy, which she sold recently, and The Room), Andre feels that "the formula works. I couldn’t imagine anything else."

There are limits to the BYOB model, however. For the owner, the margins are thinner.

Tougher to make a profit

"It takes a lot more labor to sell $1,000 worth of food than it does $1,000 worth of drinks," says Daniel Bocik, chef-owner of A Tavola, which serves regional Italian cuisine in Ukrainian Village. His 8-year-old restaurant was BYOB for the first year while awaiting a license.

Rents also matter. Linda Raydl, a new co-owner of Tomboy, cites increasing rents in Andersonville as the main factor in making the transition to a liquor license. And for Andre’s Speakeasy, the low-cost neighborhood on the edge of Rogers Park
is essential to success.

"I open my restaurants in more obscure neighborhoods," Andre says. "This keeps it about the food and BYOB keeps it affordable for the residents."

The final factor pushing consumers toward more BYOBs is a growing wine knowledge–these diners do not want to be confined to a wine list.

Many consumers have amassed personal wine collections and like to
tap into them. Wendy Gilbert of Savoy Truffle in Logan Square says that her customers "are always bringing in wines that they have personally brought back from Napa" to accompany her $35 prix-fixe menu for six courses.

Diners have also grown more savvy in the cost of wine in restaurants. Robert M. Parker, the international wine critic, has called restaurant wine markups, which can exceed 300 percent, a "legitimized mugging of the consumer."

Wine club members rejoice

Indeed, many wine enthusiasts agree and are voting with their pocketbooks. Joseph Wu, head of the local wine dining group Grape Lakes Wine Appreciation Guild, says, "I can’t tell you the last time I bought a bottle of wine in a restaurant. There are so many great places that are BYOB or have modest corkage fees."

Wu’s is one of many wine groups in the Chicago area that frequent BYOB restaurants. "When you get the right pairing of food and wine, they each complement and elevate each other," says Wu. So group members bring a dozen or more bottles to a monthly themed dinner.

Two dozen wine groups dine at Andre’s restaurants every month. She explains that for the diner, "it’s like having a dinner party without having to cook." And Six says he has had "the best wines of my life" in his BYOB restaurant, thanks to generous diners who share a glass of rare fine wines with him.

The future looks bright for the BYOB strategy. When A Tavola’s Bocik opens a new restaurant, it will be BYOB.

"I’m a chef, I cook food," Bocik says. "People can save money and bring exactly what they want to drink. There’s a whole culture of BYOBs in Chicago that can be tapped into."

In the past week, I’ve gotten solicitations from practically every wine shop in NYC. This is the home stretch of the sacred fourth quarter and they are all vying for our business! But there is something missing in their gift baskets.

I got an email from BottleRocket with wines and books in their gift baskets.

I got printed materials from Zachy’s showing wine and stemware selections in theirs.

I got print and emails from Crush suggesting their gifts of miscellaneous essentials for wine lovers including a Laguiole corkscrew with a black horn handle.

What do all of these things have in common? They are all missing gourmet cheeses or other foods. Why? The kibosh on the food-wine pairing is courtesy of the ancient laws that govern wine retailing in New York State that prohibit wine retailers from selling food (or cigars). You never know what might happen if you could buy Camembert with your Sancerre…New Yorkers can say it with wine this holiday–just get the cheese from somewhere else.

Related: Interactive map of NY wine shops

tags: wine | wine gifts | new york

Whoever says that you have to spend a ton on each bottle to have a great evening is wrong. However, moving out of the “cheap and cheerful” under $10 category when you have guests over certainly does pay rewards. We had some non-wine friends over a couple of weeks ago here for a late afternoon/evening meal at the Dr. Vino World Headquarters and assembled this line-up:

Domaine de Baumard, Clos du Papillon, Savennieres, 2002. $25 (find this wine) Importer: Ex-Cellars, Solvang, CA.
What a wine to lead off with. Delicate yet intense, floral and almost sweet with an invigorating minerality and a long finish. Everyone was blown away. It was gone quickly.

Vignoble Guillaume, Pinot Noir, vin de pays Franche Comte, 2004. $17 (find this wine) Importer: Fleet Street, Moorestown, NJ
A clean pinot that is Burgundian in style with a great balance of acidity and fruit. One pinot lover with an admitted preference for new world styling admitted to disappointment. But I found it a great transition wine to the reds. It was still light out at this point, so I didn’t really want anything too heavy.

Clos Roche Blanche, Cabernet, AOC Touraine, 2004. $15 (find this wine) Importer: Louis/Dressner.
Mmm, terroir. This Cabernet (Franc and Sauvignon) from the Loire has great balance between acid and tannin, mineral and fruit. Some people were scratching their heads at first but paired with quince and manchego they attacked it with gusto.

Honig, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2002. $27 (find this wine)
A more familiar style for some with a lush, rich mouthfeel of tobacco, leather, dark fruits, and vanilla. It’s like a 700 thread count of California Cab.

Macallan, 18 year old whisky. (find this whisky)
Going out in style. This bottle had done some additional aging in our cabinet because we drink whisky at a slower drip than any IV. I think this bottle had been with us for three moves in fact. One friend who loves whisky saw it and insisted on a round. I’m glad he did. Once I got over the straw aromas and the burning in my throat the finish was very smooth. Much more smooth than the Knockando 12 year that we had to try in comparison apparently.

Who knows, we might even get some whisky glasses? Otherwise everything we had was in Tritan Forte stemware. Unbreakable! And like the wines here, they were easy on the wallet.

tags: wine | food and drink | wines for a dinner party

In a boon to couples in long distance relationships everywhere, researchers at MIT have developed glasses that can communicate with each other via wireless:

When either person picks up a glass, red LEDs on their partner’s glass glow gently. And when either puts the glass to their lips, sensors make white LEDs on the rim of the other glass glow brightly, so you can tell when your other half takes a sip. Following tests in separate labs, Lee says the wireless glasses really do “help people feel as if they are sharing a drinking experience together”. [New Scientist]

Now if they can work that into Riedel stemware, then wine lovers separated by walls or time zones will be able to rejoice (or live in fear while your spouse is out of town: “I hope that’s not the good stuff you’re drinking!”).

Link (check out the other suggested uses, quite hilarious.) Via boingboing

tags: wine | wine glasses | wine technology

On the subject of sports, 26 year old French woman Amélie Mauresmo clearly has poise on the court winning her first Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open yesterday.

And clearly she has good taste off the court:

“I have a special bottle of wine I kept for my first Grand Slam title,” Mauresmo said of her Château d’Yquem 1937. “It’s at home waiting for me very quietly in the dark at the right temperature.” [NYT]

And at $3800 a bottle (find this wine) for this nectar-like dessert wine, she must be thinking how sweet it is! (Thanks, Skip!)

Hopefully she upgrades the stemware

tags: wine | Mauresmo