The Feiring Line

Moët Gets the Ice Treatment

Why does LVMH get so peeved by the knocked-off pocketbooks for sale on Canal Street or the Champs? After all,  they seem dead-set on doing down-marketing damage to their brands all by themselves. Not that Moët had that far to fall, but they've plunged to a new low point with their latest flavor extension at a high price. Moët  on Ice. ($58.99 per bottle).

Full disclosure, I've not tasted it.

I am prepared to eat my bubbles if I'm proved wrong and it's actually delicious.

The press release tells me that this is a new 'must-have,' just like a new required seasonal accessory. Really? Pass the cheap Pet'Nats for my summertimebeattheblues bubbles. Or take the $60 and get something like Franck Pascal Sagesse, or Bereche for $18 cheaper, and save yourself the sugar/S02 hangover?

Anyway, formulated (?) for ice cube drinking--take a peek.

 

Historically, LVMH has never demonstrated a desire to be something for everyone. They are what might be considered an inspirational brand. But when it comes to champagne, one of the few affordable 'luxuries' they have, they seem to insist on embracing the lower-middle class as well as the princes of Versailles--for  le connoisseur as well as for the soda slurper. A friend, an ex-director of a luxury brand once told me, LVMH excels on the 'appearance of luxury, hence their vinyl-impregnated bags.' That seems to sum them up. Face cream or Champagne, marketing matters not product. 

Hence, those slick soundbytes from the mouth of  their director of marketing. Hold on to your refraichoir: "Moët Ice Impérial is a radically new way to drink champagne, and with a single sip, whisks you away to its warm and sunny world,” said Arnaud de Saignes, International Director of Marketing and Communications for Moët & Chandon. 

I'd have loved the gig. I could use a well paying one. And, if I had had the writing assignment I would have summoned up the advise from my wise friend Elizabeth in Rome, "Close your eyes and write." Because the whisking away to warm and sunny," could not have been written with eyes wide open.

The frenzy continues! A Beverly Hills store has been so enthused (or despairing) about  the bubbled wine that they sent out not one but two promotional emails. $195 gets the starlet or salamander on the beach who wants to look cool and groovy or at least have something to sell at their next yard sale,

2 bottles of the crap

2 Moët  goblets  

1 Moët  ice bucket.

++

I had one reaction to that: barf.

Psst. Better idea for people on the beach? Gin and tonic. Or the above mentioned Pet'Nats (Grange Tiphane's Rosé Rosa Rosam for one) 

To think, $195 could get me three bottles of exceptional  austere, non dosé, perfect for summer or a case of low sulfur fizzy pink pet nat or Casa Coste Piane Prosecco.

 

(Thanks to CC of SM for the heads up.) And...for Samantha's take on this...I offer her post on a visit to a Southern Tasting. As she actually tasted it, poor thing. 

Tête de veau in Blanceret

I gave into tourism, because I do know a rare sight when I see one and when I saw Madame Monique do her thing, with implements of dissection,  

I knew this was indeed rare. Yes, folk, on a Thursday in August, this little restaurant in Blanceret was packed.  The 29.50 euro menu  was the Maison Mayançon main event, the Thursday specialty, Tête de veau.

 

 

That would be the chin, Monique said to me. Ah yes, I thought, hair and all-- nestled between the blanched onion and the boiled carrot and some cartilige and whatever. 

 

To think it all started life as one of these .  

 

Now, one of the best versions I've come by how to make this gelatinous gloop, bolito misto-like boiled body part comes from Nicolas Lander.  Monique, as powerful as  a hummingbird attacked one head after the other. I  was just compelled.  

 

and then for a closer look....    that's the

ear, she said to me, that thing falling off the plate.

The head is split, stuffed and cooked beyond recognition.

 The great thing about this presentation is that you can ask for the bits you want, and hence the packed crowd. So if you want to avoid the hairy chin, it's possible! 

And so I ordered a plate of tomatoes that I thought was a safe bet in August. But no. That didn't quite work. But it came with a sublime though surprising poached egg, (Russell said that Monique had feared for my nutrition, thus the supplement.)  For a traditional, home cooked place if meat is your game, fresh eggs and well picked animals, this is a swell spot for a spot of that old-world Beaujolaise. I enjoyed the theater and saved my stomach for dinner.

 To drink? A beaujo blanc, raised in Acacia. Actually not bad, not natural, had that enzymed texture, but  still,  well, you know, wet.  

The cheese/wine seminar wines

Vermont makes wine? Yup. And I presented them along with Sean Buchanan this past Sunday. A week before hand, I had only had La Garagista's--and that's it. So it was a moment of discover for me and that? Always fun.

They're focusing on the winter-hearty hybrids which makes sense. But one of the problems I found was a desire to make a wine that tastes a certain way rather than a wine that is what it wants to be. Reminds me of when my father bought me a pair of purple knickers when I was 14 years old. They weren't me. They were what he wanted me to be. Loud instead of shy. Most new wine regions--fall into this pitfall. As the region grows, so will the wine's identity.

However, the  wine star for me was Louise Swenson which seems like it could be similar to kerner and ice cider--tart, sweet and zingy. Le Crescent could also be a winner. And the reds? Those are a little more difficult, but I know something interesting there can work. After all, slate and schist? I don't know, I am thinking, mondeuse?

Anyway, here was our program of wines, posted as promised. 

 

Cheese: VT Butter & Cheese Bonne Bouche

Wine:        Lincoln Peak Louis Swenson

            + Shelburne Vineyard La Crescent

 

Cheese: Grafton Village Cheese Bismark 

Wine: East Shore Vineyard Frontenac Rose

 

Cheese: Springbrook Farm Raclette 

Wines: Lincoln Peak Marquette

           + Shelburne Vineyard Marquette

 

Cheeses: Consider Bardwell Pawlet & Shelburne Farms Smoked Cheddar

Wines: Snow Farm Vineyard Vidal Ice Wine 

              Boyden Valley Vermont Red Ice

 

Cheese: Shelburne Farms 2 Yr. Cheddar 

Wines:  Eden Ice Cider

           Newhall Ice Cider

 

 

 

 

 

The real txakolina

Two years ago I sent the importer  (okay, it's José Pastor)  a photograph of a wine I fell for.  It wasn't like most of the crap Txakolina that is available in this country (even the hip stuff--even that rosé, which frankly, I find a little toxic).

He said, hey! I'm bringing it in.

Two years, José? Well better late than never. 

It's  a wine pared  down. Apple skin and lemon pith --and subtle complexity so it's not a one-noter. It didn't make me sweat from the sulfur like most of the summer of rieslings do.  

 Bengoetxe.

Currently this winery is only organic operation left in the area of spoof and more spoof. Where chemical agriculture, super S02, added yeasts, deacidification and added C02 reign.

The owners, Iñaki and Rosa Mari Exteberria ran his family's dairy farm. But in 2001 they laid down 3.8h of vines on their farm, 45 miles south west of San Sebastián. They were organic from the start. The grapes?95% Hondarribi Zuri and 5% Gros Manseng.

Most of the areas producers are clustered near the coast, yet they are inland, on heavy clay soil. As a result had to fight to be granted DO status, a fight he won when he proved historically the wine was was made there.

Taste? Go down the muscadet road but go to a Protestant church in the Hebrides. I'm not religious, but this could turn me into one of them. This is the real deal. 11.5%. The fizz might be a little more gentle than you'd expect, but that's because any trapped co2 here is natural.

 About $19. Too expensive. Should be $8, but the world isn't like that anymore. So, I'll pay.

The label says it all.

            

Krug gets caught over-sulfuring

Breaking News:

The Drinks Business (a pub that sometimes does get it wrong) reports:

 Five batches of the company’s Krug Champagne have been withdrawn as consumers allergic or intolerant of sulphites have been advised not to drink the products and the Food Standards Agency has issued an allergy alert.

The products withdrawn are: all sizes of Krug Grande Cuvee; and 75cl bottles of Krug Rose, Krug Vintage 2000, Krug Clos du Mesnil 2000 and Krug Clos d’Ambonnay 1998.

The official Krug response: sulfur is a natural byproduct of fermentation. Well, yes, but show me the wine that produces maximum legal amounts and I'll show you a tab of petrochemical Campden at work.

Actually, at first read I thought, wow, they over-sulfited the wines. But no, they were just buttonholed because they neglected to stick the warning label on. In a house as corporate as Krug, that is a surprising flub.  Someone's head is going to go down the bowling alley.

Make sure you read the comments, they're hilarious.

Are (wine) women different from men?

I think so. Yes. Mostly.

+When it come to making wine list?  Perhaps.

+Is it accident that four of the more interesting and thoughtful lists gathered in New York (and Brooklyn) right now are created by women?  I don't think so.

+Why?  Because women tend to react more emotionally-- even to wine, they also seem less likely to gouge on prices. They also tend to create more personal wine lists. Just as in writing, the best ones have voice,  point of view with little pandering to market concerns and somehow also manage to hit decent price points for lovely wines.

Which is why I offer you; Laura Maniec (Corkbuzz), Pascaline Lepeltier (Rouge Tomate), the fabulous Lee Campbell (Reynards) and Juliette Pope (Gramercy Tavern).

These pros have their own distinctive style of working the floor, from classic to rock. Their lists show their individual style and when needed how they work their personal point of view into the vagaries of necessity.

(Sweetie-pie)Laura,  
has the distinction of  having been the youngest person to have scored a Master Sommelier.  I also know that she makes a mean cacio e pepe, and is a perfectionist.

She's got that fetching combo of clear in her palate but yet has a slight, sincere insecurity-- in the most charming way. It was no surprise when she told me,  I think the job a sommelier is to curate wine and make people happy. If someone wants to discover new regions, esoteric grapes or wants a wine they recognize I feel they can find it at Corkbuzz. Both Morgan Harris and Stacey Gibson (sommeliers) help me to curate the list of about 250 bottle selections and our 40 by the glass.

She submerges her ego for the greater good--education. The CB list covers a lot of ground, (of note, she only offers mature Bordeaux, with the youngest vintage 2007). But Laura should get this summer's finest wine fairy award  for her Champagne Campaign.  

Head to Corkbuzz tonight, at 10pm to witness and drink Laura's ground breaking idea of great self-sacrifice! Until she decides to stop, at every night, beginning at the 10pm witching hours, they sound the gong. That means? 50% on all bottles of champagne. This is the best bargain in the NYC wine world. $50 for Lassaigne?  $72 for Marie-Noelle Ledru? Pascal's Sagesse for $70? She can't be making money off this but she is turning people on to champagne and it's a thrill to hear the bell tinkle every time someone orders a bottle. She is developing a following, she is growing champagne drinkers, and she is happily taking one for the team.

We are all forever indebted to her for not only this but for Muscadet out of magnum. 

+

Afer her stunning tenure at Louis/Dressner Ms. Lee Campbell        
     is back. And if you go to visit her at Reynard's (she's not on every night) you'll  need sunglasses, that's how much she sparkles in fact her wine list is a French jewel box,    
which sidesteps the cliché.  Lee has little tolerance for wines that aren't flat out delicious. Unlike Laura, she is not trying to educate, just shut up and drink something good. In her words,  "It's a wine list with a particular point of view and welcoming without trying to be everything to everyone," she explained. She also adds that the list reflects the restaurants ethics, "careful sourcing, sustainable farming, good value, distinctive flavors and supporting people we admire and often count as personal acquaintances."

Like Laura (and forthcoming, Pascaline) these femmes all love their bubbles and I love that Lee democratically lumps the champagnes under Les Bulles, mixing it up with Eric Bordelet and two sparklers from Muscadet. She's got the Strohmeier Schilcher for $54! Yet, imbedded is a tight  ten champagnes ever, ranging from $78 (Drappier) to $198 for Fleury 1995. Who else? Léclapart, Prévost, Bouchard, Vouette & Sorbbé, Lassaigne and Colin.   Then she has the guts to avoid all Bordeaux, and instead push twelve wines from the region of Nantes (muscadet alert!), 12 rosés. Serious burgundy is a little weak, but look at those   11 beaujos. When there last I opted for the  $60 Foufone (look it up) the Crozes from Les Chaps Libres. In other words, this that follows my own heart with a ton of stuff between $40-$50. 

 

Okay. Now, what to say about Pascaline Lepeltier?  

When she came back from France/Belgium to take over the Rouge Tomate list four years back, she had to contend with some real listicular damage. She proceded to weed out the noxious weed-type wines that 'somehow' popped. She pared and primed until she arrived to where she is today, almost happy with her list. 600 or so references, and vying for one of the top lists in New York City. Honest. This is a list of seriousness, complete with large selection of different formats, and the important references, eccentricities such as 5 deliciously different Barolo Chinato.  

This is the only 1-star Michelin restaurant in NYC (possibly in the states) that elevates biody, org and stripped down,  to its proper place--great wines made minimally.  She has some compromise issues, she's struggled to find enough New World bottles, she has included wines 'she can live with,' because she has to have certain wines for certain clients, I'm sure she would rather have more Loire Valley reds than Bordeaux, but it doesn't take much to find where her personal stamp is.

Again, prices for everyone, even in this location right across from Barney's.  33 champagnes from $63 for La Caravelle La Nina. $780 for  1996  Salon, "Le Mesnil - Blanc de Blancs."  Then, let's talk the Loire. Here, a Sancerre will be either Vatan ($119) or a Gaudry ($56)--truly excellent stuff. Chenin? 18+ ($51-$152). 

Not saying men don't make great lists, (Michael Madrigal, Aldo S., William Fitch) but often there's an intellectual touch that replaces the caretaking. There had been one notable exception, and that was Levi Dalton. When Levi reigned over Alto and Convivio, yes, he brought that formal service, he slipped into that slicked back hair role, but his selections were marked by Levi's palate and he was going to cover that gentle price point if you needed it. He sensed his customer, he vibed the customer, and he let them gently into their world. 

Last night I was at Edy + Wolf, a fun spot on Avenue C. The wine list was mediocre, oh, there were some bottles to drink, but it was near to impossible to find anything under $60. Which brings me to Juliette Pope at Gramercy.         

Enough said. Juliette is one of the finest wine directors in New York, possibly the country.  So, will you tell me why she's never been nominated for a James Beard award unlike some of her Danny Meyer colleagues? I know, this is more my issue than hers, but still we all need some recognition and she's been going about her non-self-promotional self, just doing the best she can and that is at the top of the heap.

Like Laura and PP, she'll have a wine for everyone, no matter what you want to drink. Yes, this is a mature list and a deep list, she has the benefit of momentum. But still, from $38 to the heavy thosands, these are the kinds of lists that will thrill a drinker, whether broad, or a specific point of view and a trustworthy palate.  I would trust any of them to take me there, never upsell, find me a bargain and a little joy.

 

 

 

A letter from Nicolas Joly on 'natural wine means nothing'

 Back in May The Drinks Buisness interviewed Nicolas Joly where they quoted him as saying, "The term natural wine is nothing more than a drawer in which to put all the winemakers who didn’t make enough effort to convert to organics and biodynamics.”

This struck me as a case of jaundiced tabloid journalism as a chunk of the Renaissance consider themselves natural winemakers, and  who strive to reduce or eliminate sulfur and also work biodynamically.

Something was fishy.

So I got around to ask Nicolas to clarify. I publish the email below. He once again raises the important issue (almost dirty little secret) that the prevalent use of petrochemical is not the same as using elemental sulfur. And of course, he brings up a very important issue: if you farm using a chemical model, you can't really claim to be 'natural,' and the importance to recognize a charter of 'natural' philosophy.

Hello Again Alice, 

I think Drink Business misunderstood my comment which I thought was very clear .

Vin Nature means nothing in itself  as any one using chemicals can mention is wine comes from nature itself.

So behind that name (which definitely needs a charter of quality)  lies both.

Some people who are organic or biodynamie,  who do not want to be controled and some people who cannot, or do not wish to move to  organic or Bd use a name which will extend their market.

What I mentioned not clearly enough ( altough I thought it was clear ) is that the people who want to have a flag and stay behind this name, must by all means underline the charter of quality which is behind that flag .

Life inhabitate nature; so  Plants and animals comes from nature event the one saturated with chemicals! Wines comes from nature even the ones full of technologies.

Genetic comes from the change of a natural sequency of DNA so it is also link to nature and can pretend to bear that name.

So, for me that name, if it is chosen as a brand, needs a precise definition to be a reliable flag, otherwise it is meaningless. This is especially  important at a time where there's a rush to catch the organic or BD market to give a precise definition of what it means for a group.

This is what I told to Isabelle Legeron who is indeed serious when she makes a Selection of wine growers. But a transparency toward the consumer is a necessity otherwise it is " tout et n'importe quoi!"

Also on sulphur this  is never treated more in depth : .

Most wine for being exported needs an antioxydant .

First option a very tight filtration ( 1/3 of a micron ) which I think are very significantly disturbing and diminishing the wines even if it has a capacity to partly rebuild itself ; like agressing a painting and having it restored.  I cannot use it .

The other option is  to use an Antioxydant. There are  3 types :

1-Sorbate of potassium legal and dangerous in my mind ( it can be used on a wine where it is writen free of sulfur !!!) There is a project to forbid it in Europe .

2-Acide Ascorbic ( vitamine C ) I really dont feel puting this in my wine

3-Sulfur 

Important question; which sulphur?

1-sulphur as a derivative from the oil industry

 2- -mineral sulphut from mines ( a long time ago from volcano )

3-- volcanic sulphur,  a "recent " sulphur and therefore more active as basalt is a young earth,  more  active than old earth this is why it used sometime as a fertilizer.

Then how to use it ?

1- gas in a container ( it is issued from the oil industry under that form)

2--liquid solution ( it is also made with the sulphur from the oil industry

3-- from a burning sulfur as it was done in the past but is difficult to use as you need a racking to have it "taken in by the wine "

We will have in the coming 2 months a system done by P Gourdon where we burn sulfur in a small container and use a small hose to get it in the wine even if there is no racking. We will  use epurated mineral sulphur or may be a volcanic one.

 Presenting sulfur as a danger is a joke. There is a family of plant producing sulphur including garlic , onion , mustard etc ...the question is (not whether to use sulfur or not) but which sulphur to use. 

 Keep going Alice,

Nicolas

 

Sweet Stuff (word proud, sherry poor)

The somewhat lukewarm New Yorker review of Francesca's located in the old Frankie's space on Clinton didn't bother me, but the writer's take on drinking there made me do a double take.

The most notable risk that Francesca takes is encouraging patrons to drink sherry with dinner instead of wine (one waitress joked, “It’s not your grandmother’s sherry,” as if that were a selling point). There’s nothing wrong with simplicity or grandmothers, of course, but suggesting that diners forego wine in favor of the sweet stuff bespeaks an eagerness bordering on impatience to show off what Francesca knows about Spain.

 From the look of it right now, Francesca's  does not have a destination-worthy selection of sherry, though they do have some very interesting looking sherry cocktails.  However, if  you go there for a copita check out the Byass ($8) and El Maestro ($11). (There had been better offerings over at The Beagle (closed for renovations) hope they keep up the good work when they reopen. $24 will get you a copita of La Bota 30 @ Tertulia, and I think Casa Mono might have some better options, at least by the bottle.)

But getting back to the  matter at hand, I wanted to call the writer up and just let her know that sweet sherries are the minority. "Really, you can be sure, no one was suggesting you drink a PX with your Fideuà."

But, such is the reality the makers of sherry have to deal with. I wanted to guide the writer to  Eric Asimov's tone poem to the wines of Jerez.  I wanted to point her to the writings of Peter Liem. And also wanted to tell her about my evening with the wonderful Jancis Robinson.  This past May, after tasting many saperavis with some Georgian friends at Jancis Robinson's home round table she graciously insisted we stay for dinner. When she insists, if you're smart, you obey. We did.

But first Jancis had a big problem to solve. She knew the Australian riesling wasn't going to work for me. "What am I going to give you to drink." (It sounded more like , what the hell am I going to give you!) 

No problem there: she played sure-footed sommelier as she said, "This is the only thing I can think of."  She then disappeared and emerged with  what could have been my personal bottle of Gonzalez Byass Palmas fino, but it was not too be. The other's loved it too.

How wonderfully thoughtful, and I hope to one day return the favor. I might have polished off the 500ml myself, enjoying everything as a pairing. Herring and fino?  Excellent.  (by the way, the herring rivaled Russ & Daughters.)

But meanwhile, over at The New Yorker, there's no range of sherries, there is only the equivalent of  Harvey's Bristol Cream, a syrupy, one note aberration.  I could cut the publication some slack, blame the gaffe on a summer intern  syndrome, but even if it was the fault of a  sub-drinking age word-picker, the assumption flags the issue at hand: most people don't know shit about sherry.

 Now, it's fine if the writer doesn't like sherry, but that she doesn't know there's a wide rainbow of ocean-air-like sherries under the categories of  Fino, Manzanilla, Amontillado, Oloroso and Palo Cortado, was not due diligence, even though it is the tragedy of sherry. But the good news it is finally starting to reclaim its reputation, because we live in the age of the oxidative wine revolution.  Maybe one day, she'll learn what she missed: the angular, salty, nutty, umami side of the Palomino grape.

 I shouldn't be too harsh, though.  After all, if  I were  given an assignment to write about baseball, I too could make this kind of mistake, afterall, aren't the Dodgers a New York team? But you know, the chances that I'll ever cover baseball......

 

This morning's news: Roederer

Delighted! And win against the writer's in my category? Absolutely no way. I lucked out by winning last year for this very blog, but it will not happen again. Thanks to all who put me up!

Importer vs. producer and sleep vs. the Bowery

It was already past midnight, post Saam Bar and Anfora when Alice & Co sat down next to Mike F. & Co. at Ten Bells. It was the third time in two nights I bumped into Mike F. & Co and this is always a good thing. The last time a certain burlesque on Orchard Street was involved, complete with flopping moveable body parts of all kinds and a very good time laughing from a place of utter silliness.

But this night, there was no burlesque, we were our own entertainment. The magnum of Philippe Tessier came out, so did glasses. Nose in glass, hit with the seductive cinnamon of some carbonic action. (Thank you Mike.) 

 Mike flipped over the buxom bottle and we all started to gossip about how Tessier, the Cheverny vigneron, hopped importers from Savio Soares to Zev Rovine.

Hmm, went out the collective thoughts.

Vignerons swapping importers are the new baseball cards.  It's hard to keep the collections straight. The Barolo producer, Cappellano just moved from LDM to Neil Rosenthal, in an even more notable move.

The late, vibrant, Baldo Cappellano had such a warm relationship with his previous importer, it was a little shocking.  Afterall, LDM did much to promote the greatness of their wines (and Chinato). I think it's safe to say they made their reputation.  Likewise, Savio carved out a place for Tessier on the shelves in a market that didn't know of the vigneron previously. It's got to hurt to help raise  a reputation in order to become someone else's easy sell.  

Sometimes the leap to another company is random, sometimes there's active poaching and sometimes it is strictly business. But when the relationship is a close one, such as the Cappellano or when  the Bretons left LDM, it feels like a divorce.  When Pacalet left Jenny & Francois for LDM, that was a knife to the belly. And now that Pacalet has left to some broker, well, that's another story. 

Four people at our narrow Ten Bells table were representing four different importers, and it could have happened to either one of them. In fact it could happen to all of us. We had a moment of reflection, of silence to consider the way of the world, Morgan Stanley and the way of the wine business. As fabulous a world it is, it still is about, business, selling the products.

A few beats later Mike asked, "How many producers have their name on the front label?" 

Remember when Kermit's name  showed up larger than Foillard's and Lapierre on those front labels?

Chadderdon does it as well.                    

 

Another was disturbed about this and I'm with him.  "It's the vigneron that is important not who brings them in!"  He said he didn't want people to know his  imports, he wants them to know Laureano, Todd or Jordi, and the consumer should learn about them and forget about the importer.

Given how noisy it was and how much I wanted in on the conversation, I had to shout at/to the boys  instead of being my usually more subtle self.  The mere exertion felt like a good workout at the gym. I think I was high off of the adrenalin of yelling.  "This nonsense about the consumer needing to learn the producer and not the importer? Sure, but it ain't going to happen. At least not quickly!" I said. The consumer learns one bottle at a time. I was drinking steadilly for two years before I ever knew how to navigate a wine list. Given how much spoof is out there, people are so relieved to discover the importer of a wine in question. After all, a drinker can't be on top of every new producer in the market unless they're a triple Virgo. I'm not happy about the importer on the front, it communicates a message I'm not comfortable with,  but am delighted to look at the back. In fact, I'm grateful for it.

"Well, so what does the importer mean if now Tessier is with Zev and not with Savio?" Mike asked, supporting the other fellow's stance.

It was quiet now, and I didn't have to yell and returned to my saner self, "For the consumer it means nothing. From the buyers point of view, it makes no difference if they're buying, José .P, Jenny & F., Zev R., Savio S., KL, Neil R., Selection Massale , and any of the new kids on the block such as Mike's new venture with Mike Wheeler.  If they had jumped to someone like...Lauber, that might have been confusing. 

We started in on the Vouette et Sorbée saignee rosé.

It was extremely vinous, more like a rosé with bubbles, and perhaps a little weak on the acidity, or at least by that point of the night all I felt I could deal with was something extremely austere or oxidative. Needed food. And the food part of the evening was over.

And alas, I could drink no more, so in the tiny drops of drizzle, I stepped over the sleeping bodies on the Bowery. There was one man buried under a cardboard box, shielding himself more from the streetlamps than from the weather, his hand stuck out straight out, in the air, like  a chicken leg in a soup pot. It was a sad sight, but though different people, the drunks, drug addicts and unsettled have been a fixture here, on the Bowery for decades, no longer sleeping outside of flop houses, however, they are sleeping out in front of fancy shops and luxe condos. They have been loyal to the Bowery ever since I could remember even as the scenery changes. 

                                                       

My heart was heavy by the time I reached my door.