The Per Se Experience

I now refer to it as the Per Se “sexperience”, since few things are more enjoyable. For those of you who are not tuned-in to the New York restaurant scene, Per Se, the sister restaurant to Thomas Keller’s French Laundry in Napa, is widely considered to be the finest dining experience in New York, and one of the finest in the world (Michelin 3 stars and New York Times 4 stars). After the extended wait for reservations, I finally sat down at the Columbus Circle hot spot with my lady Deborah last Sunday afternoon anticipating the feast of a lifetime. And that is exactly what we got.

Sparing you most of the decadent details (as to assuage any inadvertent jealousy), I’ll abridge the experience for you with the following assessment…..This 5 ¼ hour gastronomic marathon was a sheer delight for all of the senses (for instance, no music was playing in the background and many courses featured specialized utensils, all to heighten the effect of the cuisine). We sat in an elegant, minimalist dining room overlooking Central Park while the city’s most meticulous and professional wait staff presented to us a seemingly-endless 18-course lunch with 9 world-class wines to match. Put simply…..to work your way through the Per Se tasting menu is to enjoy oysters, sablefish, poached lobster, caviar, 3 types of foie gras, black truffles, white truffles, duck pastrami, pork shank, Wagyu beef, Himalayan sea salt, olive oil ice cream, homemade chocolates, Zind-Humbrecht Riesling and René Rostaing Cote Rotie all in the same sitting (whew!). Not to make a blanket statement about everything I ate, but there was a common thread of extraordinary textural refinement throughout, and a fundamental sense of ümamí that I have yet to uncover in European fare. This meal will rate as one of my top 5 to date, and is the only one of those 5 to be consumed in the U.S!

I won’t tell you how much the “sexperience” costs, but I will declare that, for the passionate foodie, it is one of those endeavors that are painfully expensive but worth every penny (I think we’ll start saving now for the winter menu). I want to extend kudos to the brilliant Per Se staff, warm gratitude to Alice and Stanley for generously making it all possible, and my love to Deborah for picking me as your chow mate. Cheers, all! –Michael Koehler - http://www.suburbanwines.com/

WINE WITH DINNER – Hudson Valley Wine & Food Festival

Earlier this month, I drove up to Rhinebeck, NY to attend the eighth annual Hudson Valley Wine & Food Festival, not only because I love New York wines, but also because I am Suburban’s New York wine buyer. Over the years, the Festival’s attendance has grown to such an extent that it had to be moved last year to the Dutchess County Fairgrounds! Close to 20,000 people were expected to attend this year’s September 5-7 weekend wine and food event. More than 50 wineries participated - representing New York wine regions from the Finger Lakes to Long Island - and food was prepared and served by over 20 local restaurants.

The Hudson Valley is the oldest winemaking region in the country - it was first planted by French Huguenots in the 1600’s and is still the home of New York’s oldest continuously producing vineyards. There are now at least 33 wineries in the Hudson Valley. In Suburban’s New York wine section, I have chosen Millbrook Vineyards & Winery to represent the 10 wineries on the East side of the river and, indeed, their wines showed well at the Festival – especially their 2007 Estate Tocai Friulano, which was a best seller at our June 21st New York Wine Expo. Tocai Friulano is the most widely planted white wine grape in the Friuli region of northeastern Italy. It produces a dry, but fruity, wine that has no connection whatsoever with Tokay d’ Alsace or the great Tokaji dessert wines of Hungary. It is the signature white wine for Millbrook, and very few other domestic vintners even grow this grape!

Of the 23 wineries on the West Side, I have always had a particular fondness for Benmarl Vineyard in Marlboro and I knew its original owner and winemaker, Mark Miller, who died this month on September 9th at the age of 89.

A recent New York Times article about him said, “He was widely regarded as the father of the winemaking renaissance in the Hudson Valley … although he was not the first modern winemaker in the region, he was for decades the best known, becoming a highly visible public advocate for small artisanal wineries, known as farm wineries. Praised by critics, Benmarl wines were featured at prominent restaurants, including the Four Seasons and the Quilted Giraffe in New York City.”
In honor of all that he did to promote New York wines, Mark was awarded New York State Farm Winery License No. 1. In 2006, he sold his vineyard, which he bought in 1957 (originally planted in the early 1800’s) to Victor and Barbara Spacarelli. They renamed it Benmarl Winery at Slate Hill Vineyards and continued the winery’s tradition by hiring as their winemaker Kristop Brown. Kristop apprenticed under Eric Miller, who was the former winemaker at Benmarl and, yes, was Mark’s son. Kristop also worked at Millbrook for a year (small world!). Eric is currently owner and winemaker at the Chaddsford winery in Pennsylvania.

So, Benmarl represents the west Hudson River wineries at Suburban and we currently stock their 2007 Estate Seyval Blanc. This inexpensive, dry white wine showed well at the Festival and also was a best seller at Suburban’s June 21st New York Wine Expo. The Seyval Blanc grape is a well-known, winter-resistant, French hybrid that is widely grown in Canada, the Finger Lakes and the Hudson Valley. – Jay Roelof - www.suburbanwines.com

Coming Clean on Kistler

If you have been reading our blog you know that I had both of my blind wines pegged (almost perfectly) at a recent outing. I wanted to take a minute to write about one of those wines, the 2004 Kistler Vine Hill Chardonnay. I thought the wine was fantastic.

Truth be told, I have never been a fan of Kistler wines. Having tried several different bottling’s on half a dozen occasions, they left me quite uninspired. I had the ’04 Vine Hill in my cabinet and was actually planning on selling it because I did not think I would enjoy it. When we planned on this dinner, I thought…let’s bag it and see what happens.

My past experience with Kistler has always led me to believe that it was really just another overdone California chardonnay. Way too much oak…so much of it in fact that the fruit was nowhere to be seen. No true of the ’04 Vine Hill…yes, there was oak (and a fair amount of it). But it was perfectly integrated and not over the top at all. The other two people at dinner that night thought it was Grand Cru White Burgundy, and I would have agreed with them if I was tasting it blind.

Why was this bottle different than what I have seen in the past? I have come to the conclusion that perhaps Kistler needs some time in the bottle for the oak to integrate. In any event, I have been talked off the edge and am now looking forward to trying another appropriately age Kistler to see if I can duplicate the experience. – Lance Cerutti – www.suburbanwines.com

Wine With Dinner – The Finger Lakes Wine Festival

Over the July 18 weekend, I attended the 2008 Finger Lakes Wine Festival held for the past dozen years at Watkins Glen International on the southern end of Seneca Lake. Once a year, this huge racing complex is transformed into the Finger Lake’s largest tasting room. The 2008 event hosted a record number of 89 New York State Wineries – there are over 100 in just the Finger Lakes, which is the largest wine producing region east of California. Wineries from Long Island to Lake Erie were also in attendance. Festival goers, numbering in the tens of thousands, paid $40 ($35 advance sale price) for the weekend tasting and were given a souvenir wine glass and a 130-page Tasters Guide to help navigate them through the 500+ wines poured at this huge event.

I was reminded of the first annual Finger Lakes Wine Festival, which I attended back in 1994. It was held on the grounds of the New York Chiropractic College in Seneca Falls and was also a weekend program with, at that time, a record breaking attendance of about 8,000. We tasted wine in three large tents manned respectively by 30 Cayuga Lake, Seneca Lake and Keuka/Canandaigua Lakes vintners. Nevertheless, the program was basically the same as it is today. There were booths set up featuring the work of local artists and artisans plus purveyors of gourmet and ethnic foods. Live music was featured as well by several bands and there was an Education Tent, in which I gave wine & food seminars along with several other featured speakers. All this for a single admission price for the two-day event of only $15 ($12 advance purchase price).

The Festival was conceived by, planned for, promoted and put on by a local vintner couple, Doug and Suzie Knapp, with the help of a few fellow vintners and close friends, all of whom believed in the project. It took at least a year to put together and Doug and Suzie even designed the logo themselves (which the current logo quite closely resembles). I knew Doug and Suzie for many years prior to this event, through my various trips to the Finger Lake that I made for local newspapers for whom I wrote wine articles. So, I helped staff the education tent and my wife, Georgia, joined a group of Suzie's local friends selling tickets at the main entrance.

But we all ended up doing more than one thing. Georgia, and I drove up on the Friday before to help with the set up. We pounded in tent pegs, ran water lines, strung up signs and, in general, joined the other willing volunteer workers in doing whatever we could to help Doug out. I recall seeing young Amish children in their severe black attire, pitching in with the adults in a myriad of chores. It was refreshing to see how these children of local farmers were able to take time away from their farm chores to help the vintners out getting this show up and running.

There was a "barn raising" atmosphere that day. Whenever one vintner was struggling to get something right with his tent, several other vintners dropped what they were doing to give him a hand, making jokes and laughing all the while. It was a beehive of activity and, like a beehive, everyone was working, not only for themselves, but for the Festival as a whole.
This was truly a grass roots project, led by a leading Finger Lakes vintner with a vision for what the Finger Lakes could eventually do for New York and the New York tourism industry. Doug and Suzie sold their Knapp Vineyard and Restaurant to Glenora Wine Cellars eight years ago and are now happily retired. – Jay Roelof - www.suburbanwines.com

Pour Lance

This was classic stuff. Lance, George, a friend Mark, and I showed up last Wednesday for the Pratt’s Inn BBQ-bring-yer-own, and we poured our wines blind. Lance added an element of competition to the festivities, and suggested that anyone who guessed someone’s wine, right down to the producer, vintage and single-vineyard would have his dinner paid for by the rest of the group.

Lance poured his white first, and we immediately began to brainstorm. Most of us thought Burgundy, but I came to the conclusion that I was sipping California Chard. I entered a guess of Kistler Vine Hill Road Chardonnay ’05, a wine I’ve never tasted, but suspected tasted like this. Poker-faced, Lance attempted to discourage my guess, but ultimately revealed the ’04 vintage of that very wine! A near miss, but an impressive enough attempt as to concern Lance about how guessable his red would be.

Half an hour later, confident and poised for success, Lance poured his blind red. Smelling it, it seemed mature and had us all stumped. This could have been anything from Malbec to Brunello. After about 3 minutes of cold silence, as if he were directed by Rob Reiner, George randomly uttered “I’m gonna go with Leonetti ……’97…...Sangiovese”. Now, although this was a wine he knew Lance to have recently acquired, it was still a clever and more-than-educated guess. And when I saw Lance’s I-don’t-wanna-play-anymore gesture, I nearly flipped. Out of the paper bag came the ’97 Leo! Ding, ding, we have a winner.

Lance, I think we have your number. Next time, you might as well bring your wines wrapped in Ziploc bags. A good sport, you are. Overall, it was a great night with some generous wines. Nice job, guys. –Michael Koehler - www.suburbanwines.com

Michael In Austria, Part V

Austria’s Pride & Joy: These terrassen, or “terraced” vineyards famous in the Wachau are farmed by Lagler, and are located a stone’s throw from the Danube. Wachau is also the only wine region in Austria to have its own wine classification system, in addition to the national classification rules. The Vinea Wachau Nobilis Districtus divides Wachau wine into 3 qualitative categories: Steinfeder indicates basic quality and at least 10.7% alcohol, while Federspiel guarantees at least 11.5% alcohol and is roughly on par with Germany’s Kabinett. Smaragd, named after the emerald-colored lizard that dwells in the Wachau vineyards, is evidence of top-quality, exhibiting at least 12% alcohol and less than 9 grams per litre of residual sugar. Often, the Smaragd-level wines of the Wachau are amongst the best Austria has to offer.

Getting Cozy in the Wachau: I spent the night at this charming estate in the village of Spitz of the Wachau region. It is centered on the property of Weingut Lagler, where the Lagler family has lived for 200 years. Karl Lagler tends old Gruner Veltliner, Riesling and Neuberger vines and creates some of the most world-renown wines of the Wachau. Amongst all of his cru wines, the centerpiece is the great multi-vineyard Gruner Veltliner Elisabeth, of which I sampled the ‘06. Harvested by 8 women named Elisabeth, this stone fruit and wet stone-laden Gruner is dry but potent and thick, and will probably mature for 30 years. - Michael Koehler - http://www.suburbanwines.com/

It's A Tough Job

People often envy me for the environment I work in. I get to taste great wines all the time. I sniff, swish, swirl, sometimes gurgle and spit out (most of the time). Many times I sit in front of 15-25 wines that I must evaluate. Aroma, taste on palate, longevity, finish, sense of place, uniqueness, price, availability, competition, anticipated customer appeal, – all considerations whether to purchase.

Taste a wine now – wait an hour and taste it again – store it and taste it the next day. Wines are ever-changing and often surprising. Just when you think that you can identify the wine; it changes again.

One of the more interesting events at Suburban is our blind tasting. Each year we cycle through a series of wines to determine the best deals by varietal, category and price. We are supplied with between 75 – 250 wines in a category and set up several flights for evaluation. Each bottle is bagged and numbered to insure impartiality. With the ever growing small wineries making their debut it’s rare to see a wine make our top 12 a second time (there are some exceptions).
Time to go, another flight has been set up (now, where did I leave my glass!!). – Fred Horowitz – www.suburbanwines.com