The Inside Story from Italian Wine Merchants

Winebar, Burger, and Recent Wines of the Night (WOTN)

Plus, New York Wine Tips

At the recommendation of Melissa, our Creative Director, and in the service of finding  Manhattan’s next amazing wine bar, I stumbled onto an even more elusive find: a great burger and an incredible red.   It was an “OMG,”  “WOTN” and “w00t” discovery, all rolled into one.

I experienced what many of us wine enthusiasts look for –that moment when a little patience is rewarded, and that time when the primary and secondary flavors of a wine have evolved and meshed to create a spectrum of tastes.  The wine in question was a 1996 Sociando-Mallet, and thanks to Bar Henry’s new “Marketplace” approach, you don’t have to pay the full bottle price to have a glass of vintage wine.  Typically, it’s prohibitive to enjoy a respectable thirteen-year-old Bordeaux by the glass at a restaurant. However, when you order half of a bottle of the Sociando-Mallet, Bar Henry opens a fresh bottle, pours half to satisfy your order and then places the remaining half on their “Marketplace” board for others to enjoy. In essence, you are sharing the cost of buying a full bottle of wine. It’s not a bad idea, especially if you are coming in to retrieve the second half after it has had a little time to breathe and open up.

Wine and burgers at Bar Henry

Wine and burgers at Bar Henry

To accompany this unclassified and often unsung wine of Bordeaux’s Left bank, we ordered the La Frieda Burger (named after Patrick La Frieda, the meat master behind some of Manhattan’s landmark burgers at joints such as Shake Shack, Minetta Tavern, among others).  Bar Henry provided a tasty and sizeable burger:  fresh, juicy, perfect for some vino, and a welcomed change from the 2:00AM Corner Bistro-Bud combo. From the Sociando-Mallet, we moved on to the 2006 Tempier Bandol, which could use a decade of aging, some German beers and more. However, this night belonged to Sociando-Mallet; it’s a wine that’s currently peaking and joins my list of value performers or “WOTN” for the month.

The WOTN List:  Value Wines of the Night (December)

1. The 1999 Fontodi Flaccianello: While everyone is focused on buying the 2006s from this Tuscan estate—and with good reason—I have been pouring the 1999. With ten years of age, the wine can be better described as a masculine Brunello. I poured this wine in the company of aged Barolos and single vineyard Pinots for a group of eight enthusiasts two weeks ago.  On tasting the Flaccianello, three of the eight stopped what they were saying, stared backed down in their glass for a second take, and then returned their attention to me to say, “I will take a case of that.” This wine is simply on.

2. The 2001 Castello di Cacchiano Chianti Classico Riserva: It’s the little wine that’s capable of changing the perception of Chianti. While most of us consume the Tuscan red within five years of the vintage date, this is a great example of a Chianti Classico showing maturity and providing tertiary notes of mushroom, underbrush, and cherry.  We poured this wine at a tasting event for 100 guests outside of Philly, with emphatic responses like “what is that?” and “that’s Chianti?” I completely recommend this wine.

3. The 1996 Chateau Sociando-Mallet: Thanks to Bar Henry, I was able to share a half bottle of this with a friend without a premium, and I am now in the process of asking our Wine Acquisitions Director Christy for some bottles to enjoy at home.  This is a classic Bordeaux blend and one of the great values in the overpriced region. I also think this 1996 is great example of how the rating and point system can dissuade enthusiasts from experiencing a great bottle.  This wine over-delivers in price and reviews.  Visit Bar Henry and try this wine while it’s in its moment, and be sure to ask Patric the bartender-sommelier for his well-prepared and seasonally appropriate Tom and Jerry cocktail. It’s the perfect ending for an evening of wine and burgers.

How’s the 1929 Château Capbern Drinking?

In Wine, Miracles Happen

Dinner at New York restaurant Daniel isn’t the hardest Friday night I’ve had to suffer through, especially when I’m spending it eating beautiful food and drinking lovely wines with friends.  Such was my fine fortune last weekend and the wine de résistance was a 1929 Château Capbern.  Château Capbern, you might ask?  Mais, oui!

I hadn’t heard of the wine, but happily two of my friends—one a founder of Gourmet Garage and one an esteemed wine writer—have long trusted their taste buds and discovered this estate’s wines back in the 1970s at the tasting of a trusted merchant.  They lovingly cellared a cache of a variety of the chateau’s vintages that they purchased at the time.  Château Capbern-Gasqueton, they informed me, is a St. Estèphe Cru Bourgeois nestled in the appellation better known for châteaux Cos d’Estournel and Montrose, as well as the more widely-recognized Crus Bourgeois like Phélan-Ségur and Haut-Marbuzet.

Delighted to be invited to partake, I still had to hide my surprise that my host was brimming with confidence about how the wine would show.  I had only tasted one other 1929 Médoc, and it looked and tasted like mud.  In actuality, the wine seemed like nasty joke on terroir, literally “involving the soil.”  So as we sat to eat an elegant meal in the honor and company of this supposed treasure, I tried to bury the memory of this prior disappointment, hoping the wine in the silver-gilded, basket-woven cradle wouldn’t produce similar heartbreak.

Then it was time to uncork the bottle. I held my breath and crossed my fingers.

Formidable! The 1929 Capbern vibrantly perfumed the glass and its seamless structure coated our palates. The wine enchanted the entire table.  My friend, John, who had co-purchased the wine, marveled, “How in the world can a plain old Médoc stun us like this…80 years on?”  And another companion replied, “It’s wine…miracles happen.”

Knowing as I do that now is a time of great worry over the provenance of the world’s best wines, I admit I couldn’t completely check my incredulity. This bottle was a “simple” wine that most of us probably wouldn’t touch ten years out of vintage today, much less eighty.   And yet I was delighted. I am someone who goes to great lengths on a daily basis to ensure the provenance of our wines and to have the luxury of simply sitting back and savoring a wine made in 1929, the end of the Roaring Twenties and the year of the great Wall Street crash that lead to the Great Depression, was an invaluable experience.

Moreover, one sip and I was blessed with not just history but a gorgeous moment rich with a reminder of why wine is such a mystical treasure.

« go back