What Wine Lists Have the Best Values?

 

Great high-end wine lists abound. They may offer vicarious pleasure, but ultimately are frustrating as they include so many wonderful wines that are beyond most budgets. Great low-end lists are another matter. They are testimony to the taste, creativity and determination of the sommeliers who diligently put them together.

In my column this week, I picked 10 exemplary New York lists with good selections of wines for $50 or less. The choices are somewhat arbitrary in the sense that any limited selection requires omitting worthy lists. For example, I focused on full restaurants and did not consider wine bars.

No doubt, many of you may have your own candidates for the list, and you may even disagree with some of my choices.

I’d love to hear your reasoning. Even more than that, I’d love to hear about which wine lists you would have included. While I restricted myself to New York City restaurants, please feel free to include candidates from anywhere. And if you want to include links to the lists you are suggesting, all the better for the rest of us.

Sherry-Lehmann’s Adams Optimistic About High-End Wine Business, Expanding Into New Territory

Sherry-Lehmann Wine & Spirits, the 77-year-old retailing powerhouse in New York City, has enjoyed steady growth in the wake of the recession and continued success of its Bordeaux business after Diageo pulled out in 2010. Led by CEO Chris Adams, who was also named chairman in November 2010, the Manhattan institution totaled $44.5 million last year, and Adams says sales were up 13% in the first half of 2011. Shanken News Daily recently spoke with Adams to discuss current retail trends and Sherry-Lehmann’s outlook for the future.

 

SND: What changes have you seen in sales this year?

Adams: There has been a perceptible trade-up happening for us. In 2008 and 2009, we saw customers trading down: buying sparkling wines instead of Champagne, buying petite chateau Bordeaux instead of cru classé. And the 2009 Bordeaux futures campaign in the summer of ’10 sort of marked a point at which the customers felt like they could spend more money. And then that was brought home even more so in the fall of 2010 and into the holidays when we saw great Champagne sales. So there’s reason to be optimistic. For a long time it was cautious optimism, but we’re feeling much better this year than we have for the last few.
SND: How do you feel about Bordeaux’s 2010 vintage?
Adams: I’m concerned with 2010 on two fronts. One is that there is higher international demand than there’s ever been. And then we’ve lost quite a bit on currency. Having said that, we’re seeing that there’s less wine being made available to the market, so that increases the demand for what is available. At many points it becomes for the consumer a chance at access. Price becomes not completely secondary but it’s two functions: 1) Can I even get the wine? And 2) If I am getting it, where is that price relative to the market? And our position is that we’ve been doing Bordeaux futures since the 1959 vintage so we have a track record of being able to offer these wines. We feel that America should still be an attractive market and that Sherry-Lehmann should be the place that customers go to get these wines.
SND: What other trends are you seeing in lower-tier wines or in general?
Adams: We’re seeing strength in New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs. Argentine Malbec for us is still a growth category. Our private label there is Miguel Mendoza Malbec made by Enrique Foster. And we’re still seeing a lot of people following these wines at the $15-to-$20 price point, especially in the warmer weather. We’ve had great success in the past year with the 2009 Beaujolais. There are some benchmark wines made there, and as soon as I bring a container in, I find myself ordering another a few weeks later. So it’s nice to see the focus on affordable fresh wines still there.
SND: What regions do you sell the most of?
Adams: Most of our sales are from France—Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne. Obviously, we follow the Rhône, Loire and Alsace as well. And then after that we sell a lot of wines from California. Even in the down economy, we were able to position our offerings from California to meet the right price points. And then of course Italy, Spain, Germany, Chile, plus South Africa is coming back a little bit.
SND: Spirits account for roughly 5% of your sales. Where are you seeing growth in that category?
Adams: We’re seeing a trade-up there as well. People are spending a little bit more on their vodkas and whiskies. When we moved into our current location (in 2007), spirits became a growth category for us but it’s leveled off. There’s still a little bit of growth, but it’s not astronomical like it was when we first moved here.
SND: How do you feel about wine being sold in grocery stores?
Adams: We don’t believe that it’s the right thing. And for me it’s a matter of, you can’t just suddenly change the rules and tell people that all the business models they’ve built for decades or years are no longer applicable. It just doesn’t seem that any proposal I’ve seen for wine in grocery stores deals effectively with the people who have existing businesses. Is it impossible? I’m not going to say that, but they haven’t shown anything (that seems fair).
SND: What are your plans for the future? Are you still considering opening new stores?
Adams: Now that the economy is getting brighter, there are a few things I’ve been thinking about. I can’t disclose too much, but yes, we’re interested in positioning this store outside of New York state the way it should be positioned. I’m taking it quite seriously. I hope that we can do something in the next 12 to 18 months. I’m optimistic that it can be fulfilled.

Back from vacation and appreciating my wine glasses

Spicy dark fruit nose with some sweet black cherry. Full in the mouth with good concentration and pervasive fine tannins. Nice tang and chewiness. Medium body. Strong finish with acid right in balance with rich fruit. Could be more complex but a very solid wine. 89.
I’m back from a week of vacation and boy did it make me appreciate my wine glasses.  We rented a house in Rehoboth Beach and it came with small size wine glasses not real stemware so last night was my first night back with my oversized Spiegelau Burgundy stems and it crystallized for me what I’d been missing.  We drank a lot of wine on vacation with some good and some bad but I quickly gave up on the idea of writing blog posts from the beach because I just couldn’t taste seriously out of those glasses.  Everything was muted and jumbled together.  My judgments ended up just being about feel, weight, and an overall flavor of the wine.
Last night was like I could taste again.  I felt precise in my ability to identify aromas, play with the wine to bring it out more (despite my efforts to try to aggressively swirl in tiny glasses), and to watch the wine develop with air.
This Cotes Du Rhone wine is great value and you can buy it for $13 now from Garagiste (comment below and I’ll forward you the offer email).  2009 is a big time vintage in the Rhone and Xavier Vignon has made a full line from low end to high end.  This is his lowest end wine but it doesn’t taste like that at all.  It is balanced just right with acid tang that is so well integrated with the dark fruit that I had to think about acid before I realized it was there.  It is drinking really well right now but the noticeable tannins also make me think it could improve from here.

We did a long piece on all the golfers who are tied in with wine

We did a long piece on all the golfers who are tied in with wine. Let’s give equal time to football stars…well, maybe not equal time since there are far more golfers than football players with ties to wineries. That may be because active players can’t promote wines…preserving the image of the league being the reasoning.
Still, there are some retired players who have the class to go with wine. Joe Montana has a wine called Montagia created in partnership with Napa Valley’s Beringer Vineyards. It is sold almost exclusively at benefit auctions. You can find it on Snooth.com, where it runs around $75.
You get to count coaches so Hall of Fame coach Dick Vermeil, who led the 1999 St. Louis Rams to an amazing Super Bowl victory, is on our list. He’s in Napa Valley where he is producing some astoundingly good Vermeil Wines from varieties like Zinfandel, Cabernet Franc, and even Charbono. Truly rare and exotic, there are fewer than 100 acres of Charbono planted in California. Charbono vines are quite stingy and usually the last variety harvested. They use traditional aging in French oak to produce a dense, purple-black Charbono wine laden with aromas of tar, violets and blueberries. His wines run around $40, with his top of the line 2006 Jean Louis Vermeil Cabernet Sauvignon priced at $85.
Terry Hoage Vineyards in Paso Robles fields award-winning Grenache and Syrah wines that are 100% organically produced. Terry Hoage was a defensive back on the Super Bowl winning 1992 Washington Redskins team. Terry and his wife, Jennifer, became the winemakers for their winery in 2005, and in 2009 Robert Parker in the Wine Advocate said: “This is the kind of wine the Central Coast should be producing more.” You can’t buy their wines online from the winery, but Snooth.com does carry many of them in the $35-$50 range.
Another famous former coach, Mike Ditka, does a Kick Ass Red in Mendocino along with some other good varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, and Pinot Grigio. Mike’s wines range from about $15-$20, but the Kick Ass Red is his high-end wine at about $50.
Rick Mirer, who played for a number of teams in the NFL, is now in Napa Valley, where he runs the Mirror wine label. Mirror wines are known for Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. The Cabernet comes in a three-pack for $225 or a magnum for $165, while the Sauvignon Blanc is an affordable $72 for the three-pack. Wine Advocate has rated the Cabernet in the 90s.
Last but not least is the player in my backyard. Drew Bledsoe, New England Patriots quarterback, located his Doubleback Winery in Washington. He was an award-winning player, and his wines run around the $75-$90. CellarTracker folks rate his wines an average of 91 points.

Wine of the Month Clubs – An Exquisite Gift Idea

With wines out there from either domestic or international sources, a wine of the month club makes great gifts for the gourmand or wine fancier in your life. It may also create a awfully nice corporate gift in addition.
What Club ought to I Choose?
The decision of that club to choose will generally appear slightly tough at first. With such a large amount of wine of the month clubs obtainable, how do you recognize that one to pick? Knowing your value vary is incredibly vital. With clubs offering monthly subscriptions from $30 all the thanks to $1,000 or a lot of, there are numerous monthly wine clubs which will meet the constraints of anyone’s budget. One issue to keep in mind is that most good wine clubs offer free shipping. This alone will be a true wallet saver considering the price of mailing packages in today’s economy.
Another alternative you need to make is what kind of choice you’d like have accessible. Some clubs supply a limited choice as to that types of wine their patrons may receive like red, white, or a selection of both. Others can truly let their patrons opt for whether or not they desire a dessert wine, dinner wine, etc. If you are longing for a high-end gift it’s potential to sign your loved one up for an international wine of the month club. they will then receive a monthly choice from different countries. this might create a very special gift that may be enjoyed by many. it is exciting to ascertain just what country the next wine can come from.
What Are Some attainable Drawbacks?
You must keep in mind, while it’s voluntary to be within the club you’ll not be ready to come back wines you are doing not like. many do however offer a 100 pc satisfaction guarantee which will permit you to discontinue your membership at any time. Another doable disadvantage is that you simply might enter your intended recipient into a wine club that supplies wines that they are doing not care for. maybe you set them up to receive Cabernet and that they only adore a decent Merlot. Some clubs will allow you to alter the terms of your membership to include wines additional to your liking. this is one thing to especially keep in mind when choosing that wine of the month club during which you want to enroll.