Tempranillo Inc.

Tempranillo Inc. is a pioneer of Spanish wines featuring the selections from heralded importer Jorge Ordonez. Before Tempranillo came on the scene about ten years ago only a handful of familiar names were available to the market. I first dealt with them shortly after my first trip to Spain and considered them a treasure. The market for Spanish wines has gotten condiderably broader with several recent importers, thankfully, but TI has been and continues to be a prime source.

TI doesn't always have a regular spring/fall tasting event schedule so I make sure to be a part of this one situated at the stylish BLT (Bistro Laurent Tourondel) Prime, itself of prime dry-aged steaks. However, today the tables are moved to open space for wine bottles. While the typical tasting event has a table set up with an assortment of cheeses, bread and maybe even some cured meats, Tempranillo gets a gold medal for having a whole leg of aged jamon serrano being expertly hand cut - with the grain in small slivers - as it is done in Spain. A special treat for our palate.


  

David Bowler Wines - Fall 2010

Wine distributor, David Bowler, always offers a number of interesting wines and has now raised the roof with the acquisition of my favorite importer, Joe Dressner. Bowler makes regular use of the restaurant Tribeca Grill, usually taking up the entire dining room, however this time the tasting is confined to the upstairs banquet room for a more focused product selection.

The space is a bit cramped and hard to get to some tables which I had to bypass and a very warm late September day has a habit of making this south-facing room too hot for the wines and the wilting participants. Nevertheless, I would never miss a Bowler event.

Afterwards, I travel to the Lower East Side where I dined last week to check out Ed's Lobster Bar located on Lafayette St near Kenmare St. across from tiny Petrosino Square, an odd crossroad connecting Little Italy, the Bowery, Chinatown and SoHo in an exciting, bustling neighborhood.

I found the concept of a New England style seafood restaurant that featured lobster to be interesting. The place is about a wide and long as a bowling alley except for a enlarged area with tightly packed tables in the back. Aside from the narrow space, there is a long white marble bar with beadboard behind the seats and exposed brick - both whitewashed, behind the bar.

The counter of Ed's Lobster Bar which

holds about 60% of the seating.

While Ed's offers a nice selection of oysters, clams and mussels, the lobster is the show and the featured lobster roll is the head banging headliner. A heaping mound of tail, knuckle and claw, dressed with a deft touch of mayonnaise is mounted onto a butter-toasted, top-sliced hog dog bun and plated with crunchy golden brown fries and house-made pickles at market price ($27). I was sceptical that I was getting all lobster when I saw what might be red pepper, but it was actually the coral tinged knuckle meat. Excellent sandwich. 

The lobster roll plate from Ed's

Ed's offers four quality draught beers including the crisp, refreshing Gaffel Kolsch, a good compact selection of wines and classic cocktails.

September Tripleheader

The fall tasting season gets seriously heated up this day with three viable venues.

I decide the tasting of Terry Thiese Champagnes is best done with a fresh palate a head to City Winery, a unique combination of urban winery, music stage and restaurant. Theise's renown Champagne, German and Austrian imports have been sold through Michael Skurnik Wines for some time and these featured Champagnes are always one of my favorite attractions of the season.

A table of wine from Skurnik at City Winery.

I first came across Theise's selection of small producer Champagnes in 1998 while working at a top wine retailer in San Francisco, about the same time they first appeared on the scene and have been a big fan ever since. For the past few years I have been tasting these Champagnes three of four times a year. They are spectacular and unique.

Part two of the days three tastings is just a short walk to Skylight, an 18,000 sqft special event gallery for Winebow which features the Italian portfolio of Winebow's founder, Leonardo LoCascio's  as well as a broad market of popular brands and an excellent group of mostly French wines from top importer Kermit Lynch. Being a regular attendee of Winebow I am very familiar with the offerings and just poke through a modest amount of samples just to stay on top of the portfolio.

Winebow at Skylight.

After a brief lunch of bruschetta at the tiny wine bar, Ino in the West Village, I make way to the Path train to Newark and the short walk to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the host for R & R Wine Group a major wine/liquor distributor in New Jersey. Here I am able to get re-acquainted with several major brands and to see what's hot in the spirits category. It was a good experience and ran into a friend that now works for R & R.

NJPAC offers a main floor plus three levels of display.

The major distributors usually offer a large selection

of items to sample - both wine and food.

I started the day on the road starting at 8:30am and make it home around eleven o'clock. A long, but rewarding day. 

Frederick Wildman 2010 Fall Event

For the third consecutive year Wildman held their event at Gustavino's, tucked away under the Queensboro Bridge at 59th Street. I like Gustavino's for its spaciousness. Sometimes these events can get quite crowded and one can end up jostling for position. Not here.

Wildman's portfolio is diverse with a little bit of everything from everywhere. The highlights for me were the quality Austrian selections from import partner Monika Caha. Every session she seems to add something exciting and new. While the Austrian grape, gruner veltliner, has made its way into American retailers and onto better wine lists, they are still unrecognizable to most. Too bad. Gruner has become one of my favorite white wines and easily one of the most adaptable to dining and social situations and Monika has a bunch of exceptional ones at popular prices.

At table 34, I revisited the unique wines of Cleto Chiarli. This is an old family name of producers of real lambrusco in Emilia-Romagna, not to be confused with the cheap sweet lambrusco's popular in this country. While not classic wines, in that they are not made from vitis vinifera grapes, but they are indeed classic in that they are remarkable pairings with food and the sparkling rose is spectacular.

A pleasant surprise were the Champagnes from Besserat de Bellefon situated in Epernay. I know I've seen this label before, but during this tasting I came away very impressed.

After the tasting I zipped south on the 6 train to the funky Lower East Side. I went to check out  a new place called The Meatball Shop. All meatballs, all day. Typical of many places in this part of town the space is small with only thirty-nine seats including the modest bar where I am. It has a retro look harkening back to pre-WWII with old photos and a collection of meatgrinders on the wall. The open windows in the front gave it a more open, breezy atmosphere with a view of the sidewalk tables and the street scene. If I turn to the left I have a grand view of the open kitchen which seems to have more staff than necessary in a symphony of organized chaos.

The bar/counter at The Meatball Shop.

The basic formula is to order a type of meatball (beef, spicy pork, chicken, fish or special) paired with a sauce then the option of either on the side of or on top of a starch (mashers, risotto, polenta, spaghetti or rigatoni). There are also subs and single sliders or just plain naked. I selected the special meatball, jambalaya, four balls made of pork, shrimp and speckled with rice placed on top of risotto and lightly sprinkled with aged cheese. I also selected a side garden salad and a draught Pironi for a total pre-tax bill of $20. While I didn't order a classic dish, these balls were right on. Good flavor and texture. The risotto was acceptable, but can be hard to pull off in this kind of setting. Better off with mashers or a pasta, though the creamy polenta sounds good for next time.

The Meatball Shop menu.

The staff was helpful and reasonably attentive though the place doesn't develop a queue until about seven o'clock, about two hours later than my arrival. They stay open until 2am and to 4am Thursday-Saturday. The menu is covered in plastic with a glass of marker pens to check off your selections. The classic green rimmed diner plates and vintage mis-matched silverware are all in line with the cuisine and decor style. Well thought out I thought. Aside from the Pironi there are two other draught spigots, a well thought out bottled beer selection and a tidy, yet solid wine list.

First Tasting of the Fall Season

Monday was the beginning of the 2010 fall tasting season commencing with a doubleheader. I arrive earlier than usual at 10:30am for Jenny & Francois Selections and what has become one of two of my most anticipated events.

Jenny has a collection that is entirely made up of natural/organic wines, predominately from France. These wines have a unique character that I find extremely attractive. For me, they bring back a  sensibility of winemaking from a time past, before chemical manipulation became more common. While some wines are just plain funky, most are very enjoyable and fairly priced in a retail setting.

Amongst the highlights were the Sablonettes gamay (Copains Aussi) and their grolleau (Copains d'Abord from the Vin de Table wines from the Anjou area. The Tournelle wines from Arbois made from ploussard. L'Anglore produced an old vine Vin de Table blend of carignan with a small portion of grenache and clairette from just outside of Avignon in the southern Rhone and the Rimbert wines from St Chinian in Languedoc.  

Taking a break between set of events I had a modest walk over to Gramercy Tavern for lunch. While I  have been there several times, I couldn't resist the allure of my favorite appetizer, their carrot and calamari salad. I also ordered the seafood chowder accented with fennel and accompanied by a glass of Lambrusco sparkling rose.

At the bar at Gramercy Tavern

The beloved carrot and calamari salad

Next up was the 25th Anniversary Grand Portfolio Tasting with Martin Scott at the Lincoln Center. As I am familiar with their book, I browsed about to re-familiarize myself with their staple items. The Martin Scott portfolio has never been more deep and diverse. I still find the Ole Imports to be worthy as well as the Italian selections. While they have a broad selection of well known domestic pinot noirs, I still find most of them to be over-ripe and over priced.

Martin Scott tasting at Lincoln Center.

There was another level below and in a side corridor.