State of the Somm #1
If you could visit one winery, anywhere in the world, right now, where would you want to visit and why?
Call me Billy on the Street because I am out here asking the sommeliers of New York City hard hitting questions.
In The State of the Somm series, I’ll be answering your wine and culture questions with the help of some of my friends, the talented and experienced wine professionals of New York City.
It’s summer, which means it’s vacation season. Grapes are growing across the Northern Hemisphere and most wineries are open to tourists. I’m asking a few of my friends, accomplished sommeliers in New York City, what wineries they want to visit more than anywhere else, and why.
I’ll go first.
Kongsgaard is a winery in Napa Valley. Winemaker John Kongsgaard is a man of myth and lore and tradition and innovation. The winery sits high up in the mountains, overlooking the Napa Valley below. The high elevation and volcanic soils make for excellent drainage for the vines, producing wines of intense concentration, beautiful quality, and unmatched balance.
They make Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, plus miniscule amounts of Syrah, Viognier, and Albariño. The wines are singular and spectacular. Because there is so little information on these wines on their very mysterious website, I am itching to get my questions answered through a visit to the winery.
We have a vertical (many different vintages of the same wine) of Kongsgaard Chardonnays at The Modern if anyone is interested in some spectacular American wine in Midtown this summer.
Haley Wood, sommelier at One White Street in Tribeca
“After ~much~ thinking I’m going to have to say Luis Pato in Bairrada, Portugal. This was one of the first producers I fell in love with when learning about wine and I am continuously impressed by the range of this Quinta. Although it’s a little atypical to the usual Portuguese blends, Pato’s mastery of the age-worthy grape, Baga, feels so representative of Portuguese reds with its dark fruit and savory spiced character.
I sell their young whites to my Sauvignon-Blanc-loving guests and they love it and I sell the aged whites to wine nerds looking for an interesting food pairing and they love it too. The sparkling wines are creamy and floral and so elegant. Luis Pato himself just sounds like a real rebel winemaker and a fun guy to spend a day with. Maybe I would really just love to be on the coast of Portugal right now… I imagine it smells like sea salt and lemons there (just like their white wines).”
You can find them at Astor Wines and Flatiron Wines, imported through our friends at GK Selections.
Nick Walters, sommelier at Eleven Madison Park
“If I could visit one winery in the world, I would visit Domaine Jean-Louis Chave in Hermitage. This is THE singular estate in the Northern Rhone Valley, and he’s in the conversation for best winemaker in all of France (which, by the way, is saying a lot).
These are some of my favorite wines on the planet, both white and red are age-worthy, memorable and delicious. A long (no, really long) history of winemaking tradition and a cellar full of some of the most rare and collectible wines in the region put Chave at the very top of my bucket list. A chance to meet Jean-Louis and taste his wines would be a once-in-lifetime trip for any person who loves wine.”
Find these wines on fancy wine lists in NYC, and hardly anywhere else.
Abbey Rose, Wine Director at Casa Tua on the Upper East Side
“Passopisciaro on Mount Etna in Sicily! I think that it is incredibly cool that there can be vineyards on the slopes of an active volcano. I got into wine because of my interest in the effect soil compositions and terroir can have on the expression of the wine. Passopisciaro sort of comes at it from the exact same perspective. I think it would be fascinating to see how Passopisciaro is studying the differences in their lava-based soils through their different wines in the Contrada series. I’d love to touch and smell and feel the soils, and then taste the corresponding wines.”
These wines are imported through our friends at Skurnik. Find some on wine.com, or find the entire line at Eataly.