We made our second visit to Falai, and if anything it was even better than our first last fall. The room is chicly unpretentious, in the manner of many Ludlow area restaurants: a thin, long room, principally white. It could be a shoebox stood on its side. The food is refined Italian cooking that manages to deliver robust flavor along with a restrained hauteness. We both had roasted rabbit loin, deconstructed into a neatly methodical line of meat, kidneys and liver—with the legmeat shredded, braised in white wine and served up as a sort of dumpling to the side. The service is attentive but informal. Well, we were very happy.
And not just with the food: Many small and particular producers like to feature their wines at small and particular restaurants. At Falai, where the wine list is slender and focused, we experienced a delightfully obscure, greenish-gold aromatic white grape found only in the Carso, a tiny sliver of a DOC within the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region running down the southern border of Slovenia. This picturesque area, with its chalky limestone and sandy soils, is home to many traditional winemakers whose reputations outstrip their tiny properties. The Vodopivec family, who produce the Vitovska varietal, are among these winemakers. The family adheres to biodynamic agriculture and keeps their yields extremely low. The wine comes nonfiltered, aged in French oak for two years with an additional six months in the bottle before its release. If you’re lucky to find this 2004 vintage wine from the 240-odd cases the family produces each year, you’ll encounter a well-balanced, medium-bodied wine with exceptional concentration of flavors midpalate and a silky mouthfeel. The acidity is somewhat mild, but carries the flavors to a very long finish. And what might those flavors be? I noted oxidized apple, blood orange, wildflower and lemon. This wine can age a long time. The color is opaquely amber with pink tints. For this wine, you’ll likely spend in the neighborhood of $100—which may seem exorbitant in these times. But it was my birthday. Forgive me! Falai, 68 Clinton St., New York City.
No. 1. I recently paid a visit to a highly touted new Italian restaurant in Miami Beach. This restaurant had an interesting, well-priced wine list covering most of the regions of Italy. My eye was caught by Ca’ del Bosco’s 2001 Curtefranca Rosso. While I have enjoyed many of Maurizio Zanella’s still and sparkling white wines, I hadn’t had any of his reds. When my waiter appeared, I asked him about the bottle. Waiter: “It’s a barbera.” Me: “Just barbera, or is it a blend?” He scampered off to find out. Answer: “Mostly barbera, blended with marcellino.” Eh? I’d never heard of marcellino, but on the strength of the producer’s reputation, I ordered it anyway, then checked with my source: the Google on my Blackberry. Turns out that the 2001 Curtefranca is a blend of merlot (27%), cabernet sauvignon (25%), cabernet franc (19%), nebbiolo (16%) and, coming in at the end, barbera (13%). Nothing I’ve run across mentions a marcellino grape. The red fruits of this soft, medium bodied wine went perfectly well with our meals—lamb shank and rabbit—but clearly it was not the wine I anticipated. Shouldn’t the wine director have known its contents? Isn’t honest service still better service? Caveat, sommeliers: Consumers armed with their Blackberries may soon make your job obsolete.
No. 2. The next day I took the causeway into Miami and dined at one of the city’s top hotel restaurants. Reading the wine list, I happened upon the 1994 Dom. Aux Moines, La Roche-aux-Moines, Savennières. Trailing that name were the words “Grand Cru.” Savennières is a famous dry white wine appellation in the Loire’s Anjou region, celebrated for its wines made from chenin blanc. Within Savennières are two sub-appellations, Savennières-Coulée de Serrant, a single estate run by the Joly family, and Savennières-La Roche aux Moines, in which several producers own properties producing notable chenin blanc wines, Dom. aux Moines among them. “Grand Cru” literally means “Great Growth.” But legally, there’s no “Grand Cru” designation to the wines of Savennières, or to any wines of the Loire. You will not see the term “Grand Cru” on that 1994 La Roche-aux-Moines. At the restaurant I dined, might the restaurant have used the term to justify the grand $80 price of the bottle? 1/9/09.
The specialization of wine shops continues apace in lower Manhattan. California Wine Merchants, which goes by the initials CWM, is a new wine shop in New York’s Financial District that specializes in wines from — well, you can guess where. According to Jennifer Frank, a marketing professional and author of Wine at Your Fingertips who launched the store with Taylor Senatore, a former lawyer turned wine director, “the idea is to offer hidden wine gems from appellations all across California.” That includes such internationally known regions as Napa Valley and Sonoma as well as lesser known places like Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, Mendocino and Monterey. Currently on hand are the 2003 Westwood Wines Hayne’s Vineyard Pinot Noir Napa Valley ($72.99), the 2005 Meander Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley ($89.99), t he 2005 Z Vintage Cycliste Heritage Blend Sonoma County ($33.99) and the 2005 Highway 12 Merlot Sonoma ($14.99), all exclusive to the store and select New York City restaurants. Also offered are hard to find spirits as well. Like Domaine Charbay Pomegranate Vodka from California ($39.99) and Aviation Gin from Oregon ($30.99).
And dig the mustard yellow leather sofas.
California Wine
Merchants, 15 Bridge Street, New York, NY 10004. 212-785-7285
12/18/08
