West Side Wine

Claire, Mathilde and Olivier Cousin on the C train

What a great week this has been for celebrating natural wines from around the world.  It started last Friday with the arrival of our first winemaker guests, The Cousin family — Olivier, Claire and Mathilde  – from the Loire Valley.  Ever the troopers, they got off the plane, dropped their bags and went for a long, chilly walk in the park.  Me, I would have taken a nap.  Then we were all off to party welcoming a bunch of winemakers, wine writers, and the crème de la crème of wine retailers (we got on the list because we were housing Olivier) at the famous wine writer Alice Feiring‘s apartment downtown.  The place was packed, the conversation lively and French, and the wine and food great. Thank god for Ellen for her charm and her extensive knowledge of the French language.  She always gets exhausted at these things, translating.  Thank god, also, for the French education system, because a lot of these folks spoke pretty decent English.  Somehow we all made ourselves understood.  Great fun and such nice people.

Saturday night was lamb steaks and roasted root vegetables at our house with Nic Coturri and his girlfriend Charlene who were in from Sonoma, along with my daughter, her boyfriend and our neighbor Bill Kent. Let’s just say it was 2:30 AM when we saw them out, and much, much later when the last glass was washed and dried. But we all rallied on Sunday for the Coturri tasting at WSW, where we were joined by Nic’s father, Tony. And our French guests? We barely saw them over the weekend.  These guys can certainly out-party us. We’re talking 4, 5 in the morning. Mon dieu.

Monday was the big “Return To Terroir” tasting at the Metropolitan Pavillion.  Bill and I went down there together, and were just blown away by one delicious wine after another.  It’s great to have the winemakers right there to answer questions.  Excellent tasting, but it only happens every two years, unfortunately. 

That night the Cousins moved out, and Magali Terrier from Corbières moved in.  She and her husband make wonderful organic reds at their winery, Domaine des 2 Anes (two donkeys.)  As seems to be the custom, these guys always arrive with a great bottle of wine as a gift for putting them up. Not that we do it for that reason, but it is a nice bonus.  There’s a magnum of Magali’s “Les Cabrioles” sitting on my kitchen counter, just calling my name.

Tuesday was the big tasting of Jenny & Francois wines.  Jenny & Francois are the guys who import the wines made by our house guests, as well as wines from a number of other natural winemakers in France.  This tasting was held at The Smith on Third Avenue. Every year this event attracts, as does the  Louis/ Dressner tasting,  the most serious natural wine enthusiasts, better known as geeks (in the good way.)  We brought Tiffany (our future guide dog puppy) downtown with us via subway, and she was the belle of the ball.  Not a drop of wine was consumed by her, for the record.  Great tasting and really well attended.

And finally, last night we had our free natural wine tasting at West Side Wine with three of the winemakers — Cousin, Jean-Marie Rimbert and Alain Rochard of Le Vignoble du Loup Blanc .  It was a smash hit, and we turned a lot of folks on to these kinds of wine.  Everyone who tasted bought something, which is really rare. 

All in all, a good time was had by all. Magali is still with us, still partying, and still sneaking in at very odd hours.  She’ll be here until Sunday, when she’ll pour herself into a plane and return to her donkeys and beloved Corbieres.  We’re invited to visit and stay with her and her family.  Too good an opportunity to pass up.  That’ll be another blog.

Now about that nap…..

Every two years, late in February, the wine world is treated to a week of celebrating natural wines.  What are natural wines?  Call them organic, biodynamic — they’re wines made with little,  if any, “intervention” by the winemaker.  In short,  they’re wines that purely express the region, the terroir, from whence they came.  And, to me, that’s what great wines and winemakers are all about.  Every winemaker will tell you that it all starts with great grapes, but only handful of them, around the world, will truly let the grapes do the talking.

The other thing about these winemakers is that they’re not just in it for the money.  Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure they would love to be rich and successful. But inherent in low yields and vigorous, work-intensive viticulture, are small quantities and little limelight.  So when these folks come to New York the Four Seasons is out, and so is the Quality Inn. And we don’t have a Motel 6 (even though they would keep a light on for them.)  So Ellen and I often jump at the chance to put a few of these winemakers up. 

This year we have the honor of housing Olivier Cousin , his wife Claire and his daughter Mathilde from the Loire for three nights, and Magali Terrier from Corbieres (Domaine 2 Anes)  for two more.  The nicest people you’ll ever meet.  We’re talking hard working, honest, lovely, real folks who just want to make the best product they can possilby make.  How many people like that have you run into lately? 

Anyway, this rant is all about getting you to seek out these wines and, if you’re in the NY metropolitan area, come to the Return to Terroir event.  If you’re at all curious about natural wines, and if you want to meet some really great people, this is a slam dunk.  It opens to the public from 4-6 pm this Monday night the 23rd. And we’re doing some very special tastings at WSW with these guys, so check it out and come in and partake.

When Ellen and I went to Spain a couple of years ago, we kept asking ourselves where we might find this wonderful thing called tapas in New York. We wanted the real thing.  There are plenty of places out there that call themselves tapas bars, but very few that truly qualify. 

Enter Tia Pol, a tiny slip of a place on Tenth Avenue between 22nd and 23rd, where not only is the tapas for real, but the vibe is for real as well. The people are warm, helpful, charming, unprentious, and know what they’re talking about. The food is the real deal, including razor clams, torta espagnol, chorizo, pan con tomate (toast, garlic, olive oil, fresh tomatoes and salt), the works.  The wine?  Forget about it.  The owner of this place also has a great wine shop in the East Village called Tinto Fino, which only sells Spanish wines, so they know what they’re doing in that department.  Everything you could ask for culinarily from a great tapas bar in Barcelona, only it’s a 20 minute subway ride away.  Who needs airfare? 

One word of caution.  Forget trying to shoe horn your way into this place after work.  Make plans for a lunchtime getaway and the place is all yours.  Same food, same wine, same vibe, but no flesh against flesh crush of bodies, unless you like or need that kind of thing.  I’m old.  I don’t.  And one more thing.  Tapas is not expensive, nor is a good glass of  Spanish wine.  If you’re going to go out in these times, make it worth your while and make it delicious, and make it cheap.  Three for three in this excellent joint.

Throughout the first half of 2008, Champagne prices routinely went up.  With each passing month, starting in January and continuing through May,  I would receive notifications that there would be yet another price increase.  The explanation was that Champagne was being consumed at such an incredible rate worldwide that the Champagne houses couldn’t resist seeing how far they could push it.  Now, I don’t react too kindly to greed, and I have a very long memory. So when the economic roof caved in, I couldn’t help but enjoy watching the scrambling that was going on by the importer/distributors who were trying to move their over-priced bubbles for the holidays.  Screw you, guys.  When Christmas and New Years came around, I bought as little of the sacred bubble as I could, and instead loaded up on recessionary bubbles.  Prosecco, Cava, Sekt, Cremants, domestic fizz.  We couldn’t sell enough of it. And the poor little rich kid sat on the shelf, all by himself. 

Now it’s Valentine’s Day.  And in the midst of our economic meltdown, what could be better than to indulge in some bargain bubbly?  I do love the real thing as much as the next guy, but there is no reason not to enjoy these babies for what they are — fun, celebratory and delicious.  Check out some of my favorites here.

That’s right. Between the luncheon meats and household goods.  Yup, our illustrious Governor Patterson is proposing that wine be sold in grocery stores. It’s supposed to help bridge the budget gap. As if the unemployment problem isn’t bad enough, let’s put Mom and Pop stores out of business and send their employees to the unemployment office.  Good thinking. 

Then there’s the level of expertise you’ll receive from a supermarket stock person when mulling over your choices for a dinner wine.  “Excuse me, could you tell me a little bit about this Cabernet? What would you pair it with?  Spam?  In what aisle can I find the spam?  Dinner solved, thanks for your help.” 

Let’s also not forget the 16 year-old bringing a bottle of Chardonnay up to the 19 year-old cashier.  “Can I see some id?”  Uh-huh.  Like that’s gonna happen.  And if this legislation does happens, wine will flow freely in every mini-mart, bodega, package goods store, anywhere where food is sold.  I can here the teenagers of NYS crossing their fingers.  Next?  Why not the hard stuff? 

What’s a wine guy to do?  There’s a lot of behind-the scenes lobbying going on, and a lot of power brokering from both sides with the state legislators.  Imagine what this could mean for poor little struggling Costco or Wal-Mart. They’ve got a some clout up there, so it’s getting ugly.  Anyway, I thought you should know about this, in case you want to give your legislator a piece of your mind, but only if you agree with me.  If you’re on the other side, then keep your opinion to yourself.  And you who are friends of us wine guys,  who care about our wines and care about giving you the very best, most interesting, fabulous stuff out there, not to worry. We’ll always have that Gruner or Cabernet Franc or organic Grenache for you as long as we are able to keep our doors open.  That may get a lot tougher if this idiocy happens.  But in the meantime, give your wine guy a hug, and buy a bottle or two.

Yesterday, three people came into West Side Wine looking for a job.  Normally I get three a month,  and they tend to be guys who are young, poor, and don’t speak much English.  Yesterday’s guys looked like they came straight from Wall Street. 

Assuming he was a customer, I asked one of the guys if I could help him find something. He replied by saying that maybe he could help me sell something.   Wow, I was floored.  It’s tough for anyone to come in off the street and ask for work, but  for these guys, it must have been brutal.

It’s a tough world out there. Let’s all try to do what we can to help each other through it.