Wine Bullets (NYC Edition)
Jacob Collier, buckwheat pancakes, and a bunch of Riesling in NYC
Hey friends. I recently spent a fun weekend wining-and-dining in NYC, which always makes me envious of the wine scene there. Just like the food scene, you can find pretty much anything you want. Here’s a quick recap of some of the highlights.
Fun wine bars
La Compagnie: I really only planned to hop in for a glass or two, but I unintentionally timed my visit during happy hour and was told the full bottle list was 15% off. They had this 1998 JB Becker Spatlese Riesling that I think I paid somewhere around $85 for, and it was drinking so well.
Terroir: This place is like a knowledgeable somm with ADHD did a bunch of drugs and opened a wine bar. There is an entire manifesto and I’m still trying to figure out the purpose of this section on why the different Harry Potter characters would drink Riesling. But the selections were dope. I tried my first Slovakian Riesling and loved it. I’m pretty sure this bar could only work in NYC and I truly mean that as a compliment.
Best meal
Smithereens: This restaurant has been getting lots of hype recently, and I had to be quick on the trigger to snag a reservation. It’s a New England-inspired seafood restaurant with a tightly curated wine list. The lobster roll and the buckwheat pancake with smoked bluefish + caviar (pictured below) were the highlights, and we enjoyed it all with a bottle of Julian Haart Riesling. You should read Vom Boden’s write up about Julian Haart. He apprenticed under some of the top winemakers in Germany: Keller and Egon Müller. “That’s like learning to draw under da Vinci, Picasso, and Warhol.”
My favorite retail shop
Chambers Street Wines: I have bought so much wine from this iconic NYC institution, but I’ve never actually set foot in the store. So I thought I needed to at least see it in person. I picked up a Pinot Noir from Sven Enderle, previously of the legendary Enderle & Moll, and drank it in the park with friends. Damn it was tasty.
Best sandwich
Unrelated to wine, but every time I’m in NYC I get an Italian sandwich at Faicco’s and I just have to give them a plug. Nothing beats it.
Cork Beats (wine + music pairings)
Jacob Collier’s cover of The Beatle’s Norwegian Wood, paired with Chateau Ferrand’s Pomerol. I just want to drink this woodsy Bordeaux by the fireplace on a cool fall evening while listening to Collier’s new acoustic album, The Light for Days. He also covers one of my favorite Bombay Bicycle Club songs, Fairytale Lullaby.
