Our date with the City, part 2: the best natural wine bar in the U.S.?

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beaujolais

Above: I may be going out on a limb here when I say that Ten Bells seems to have captured the title of the “best natural wine bar in NYC” but I’ll go ahead and say it anyway. The selection of stinky cru Beaujolais was pretty impressive, even after affable owner Fifi Essome had sold out of many of the labels for his Beaujolais festival the Thursday before our Sunday visit. Photos by Tracie B.

Whether it’s Saignée, Wine Digger, Eric, Alice, or McDuff, it seems like all of my fav bloggers are either writing about or hanging out at The Ten Bells on the Lower East Side of New York City (which takes its name from the homonymous and notorious London pub).

So after Tracie B and I finished lunch with Michele at Kesté, we took a stroll over to the east side and picked up Alice in SoHo and walked down the Bowery to Broome and Orchard on the Lower East Side and tasted a few of the by-the-glass Beaujolais selections that were leftover from the wine bar’s Beaujolais festival the previous Thursday — and what an impressive, if picked-over, list it was!

alice feiring

Above: Alice Feiring is one of my dearest friends and one of the persons I have known the longest in New York. Her book The Battle for Wine and Love was recently released in paperback.

Beyond Lou on Vine in Los Angeles, which remains my favorite American winebar, I can’t think of anywhere else you will find a greater selection of natural, stinky wines. And while Lou can trump nearly any joint for the hipster celebrity sitings on any given night, The Ten Bells seems to have become the official backdrop for the natural wine dialectic of our fine nation and seems to be the official satellite office for visiting natural winemakers.

I liked the way McDuff put it best: “The Ten Bells is mysterious… The Ten Bells is dark… The Ten Bells is Dangerous…” Just quickly scanning Fifi’s hand-written chalkboard wine list as Tracie B, Alice, and I caught up after our last meeting in Paris at Racine’s, I eyed at least a score of labels that I wanted to try. The oysters looked fantastic, too.

We had lots to catch up on but the main topic of conversation during our all-too-short visit was Alice’s recent and heated exchange with The Wine Spectator’s James Suckling, who was finally hipped to natural wine by our mutual friend (and jazz guitar great) Anthony Wilson. I’ll be connecting with Anthony early next month and I’ll be sure to get the juice behind the juice he turned Suckling on to!

Our date with the City was too short and there were so many folks and places that we would have loved to have seen. I can’t say that I miss living in New York but you gotta love the buzz of that city, the energy, and the wine. With London, Paris, and Rome, New York is right up there as one of the great wine destinations of the world — whether you’re drinking old Nebbiolo at Manducatis in Queens or stinky, natural Beaujolais on the Lower East Side at The Ten Bells. I sure don’t need it everyday… but a beautiful, crisp, clear fall day in November, with some yummy Beaujolais in our tummies, catching up with some dear friends, felt just right…

Our date with the City, part 1: pizza at Kesté

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faicco

Above: It was such a beautiful fall day in Manhattan yesterday, perfect for some noshing, tasting, and strolling. Before we hit Kesté Pizza e Vino, I took Tracie B for some rice balls, prosciutto balls, and potato croquettes at Faicco’s Pork Store on Bleeker (old school, no website). There aren’t many things I miss about living in the City, but Faicco is one of them. (Photos by Tracie B, except for this one, obviously.)

Ever since reading Eric’s post in April, Tracie B and I have been dying to get to Kesté in Manhattan. We both needed to be at work on Monday morning so we only had a few precious hours yesterday to visit the City before we jumped on a plane to head back to Austin. (That would be The City, the apotheosis of cities!)

Above: The Regina Margherita at Kesté. Tracie B also ordered another Neapolitan classic, Broccoli Raab and Sausage (white) Pizza, and pizzaiolo Roberto also sent over his signature Battilocchio, yesterday with figs and gorgonzola.

Who better to eat authentic Neapolitan pizza with than our good friend Michele Scicolone? Charles was otherwise occupied on his way back from Montefalco and the “Experimental Classification of Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG tasting” and conference so it was up to me to accompany these two beautiful ladies to lunch.

Above: Michele is the author of countless tomes on Italian cookery. She and Charles are another thing I miss about living in New York.

I wish I could share with you the joy of dining alla napoletana with Tracie B, who lived for nearly five years in Ischia off the coast of Naples: at Kesté, she was like a kid in a Neapolitan candy store and with her eagle eyes, she swiftly selected a wine that wasn’t on the list and that I had never tasted before, Lettere.

Above: I had never had a wine from Lettere (Penisola Sorrentina) before. It was delicious.

But you’ll have to tune into her blog My Life Italian for a report on that part. As they say in Latin, ubi major minor cessat: I don’t know anyone else in the world who knows more about Campania wines than her and she’s promised us a blog post about this wonderful bottle.

I guess there are a few things (bagels, pastrami, pork stores, friends like Charles and Michele, not necessarily in that order) that I miss about living in Manhattan. But without Tracie B at my side, they just wouldn’t be any fun, would they?

We had a great time on the East Coast but we were both so happy to get back to Austin where we belong. There’s no place like my new home, Dorothy…

Tomorrow, part II: tasting natural Beaujolais with you-know-who (who else?). Stay tuned…

Congratulations Eileen and Greg!

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What a great wedding…

Eileen and Greg are a gorgeous couple and their wedding was an immensely joyous occasion. I have never seen so many people cry tears of happiness at a wedding ceremony (myself included!). Not a dry eye in the house!

The Vajra showed beautifully, too. The bartender told me she’d “never poured so much red wine at a wedding. Everyone loves it. What is it?” Great choice, Greg!

Greg’s been such a good friend to me and I love him a lot. It was SO MUCH FUN to join him on stage and do my toast. That’s Dan (aka Jean-Luc Retard, bass, Nous Non Plus) stage left.

jeremy parzen

We’re a little rough around the edges this morning but it was worth every moment… such a great feeling to celebrate a couple so in love…

CONGRATULATIONS EILEEN AND GREG! A great wedding, a great couple. We love you…

Happy Sunday ya’ll.

Bolly and NJ pizza: who could want for more?

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Tracie B and I are going to have a hard time topping the wedding guest welcome gifts left for us by betrothed Eileen and Greg. When we arrived last night at 2 a.m. to our hotel in West Orange, NJ, we found a chilled bottle of Bollinger Special Cuvée (the official wine of the band that both Greg and I play in, Nous Non Plus) waiting in our room. Today, as we are primping for the wedding and I am practicing the Beatles songs I am to perform during the ceremony, Tracie B ordered peperoni pizza and broccoli raab from Enzo’s in West Orange and we popped the cork on that bottle. Who could want for more? (A funny thing: Tracie B grew up in West Orange, Texas. No genuine Italian-American pizza there!)

We’re really looking forward to the wedding tonight and celebrating with Eileen and Greg!

Antonio knows that pleasure is the child of pain

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From the “run don’t walk department”…

Last night, after leading an Italian wine tasting in Houston, I finally got the chance to sit down with cousins Marty and Joanne for a proper dinner at Catalan, where — and I’ll just cut to the chase since I need to get my butt on a plane in a few hours — wine director Antonio Gianola’s list just blew me away. Joly by the glass? Erbaluce, Vin Jaune from the Jura, Edi Simčič Pinot Grigio, López de Heredia, Nikolaihof, 1989 Domaine des Baumard????!!! There were just so many great wines that I wanted to taste… and that was just in the chapters devoted to white wine! Antonio’s list is precise and informed, informative and fun, easy to navigate for the neophyte and thrilling to leaf through for the connoisseur. There is a threshold where a wine list becomes a thrill of its own and a form of profound dilectio for wine lovers (remember this piece by Eric?). Antonio’s list passes through that threshold with ethereal and seamless celerity. And the best part? His prices are among the most if not the most aggressive I’ve seen anywhere in the U.S. Click through to the restaurant’s website to read his list (which Antonio seems to update like clockwork). And check out this profile of importer Neal Rosenthal by Houston Chronicle wine writer Dale Roberston where Antonio is featured (and where I lifted the photo).

De vinographia: Perhaps the greatest wine writers of all are the authors of great wine lists.

Antonio loves the desert, Antonio prays for rain…

Tracie B and I are on our way to New Jersey for the wedding of one of my best and dearest friends in the world (and the drummer in Nous Non Plus). Stay tuned… I heard something about some Vajra being poured tomorrow night and some Beatles songs… mmmmmm…

*****

“Antonio’s Song”

—Michael Franks

Antonio lives life’s frevo
Antonio prays for truth
Antonio says our friendship
Is a hundred-proof
The vulture that circles Rio
Hangs in this L.A. sky
The blankets they give the Indians
Only make them die
But sing the Song
Forgotten for so long
And let the Music flow
Like Light into the Rainbow
We know the Dance, we have
We still have the chance
To break these chains and flow
Like Light into the Rainbow
Antonio loves the desert
Antonio prays for rain
Antonio knows that Pleasure
Is the child of Pain
And lost in La Califusa
When most of my hope was gone
Antonio’s samba led me
To the Amazon
We sing the Song
Forgotten for so long
And let the music flow
Like Light into the Rainbow
We know the Dance, we have
We still have the chance
To break these chains and flow
Like Light into the Rainbow.

An Italian wine walks into a bar…

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austin wine merchant

Above: Yesterday, I tasted through the current releases of Fèlsina with my friends, from left, Craig Collins (who works for the winery’s distributor in Texas), John Roenigk (owner and manager of The Austin Wine Merchant), and Chiara Leonini, Fèlsina’s export manager. For the record, Fèlsina is pronounced FEHL-see-nah.

It’s a labor of love and it’s my self-appointed duty: I just spent the first hour of my day translating Franco’s editorial on the list of The Wine Spectator’s top 100 wines and the Italian showing in the list. You’ve heard me say it before: Franco (the “Giuseppe Baretti” of Italian wine) is a friend, a colleague, a mentor, a partner, and one of the wine writers whom I admire most. I encourage you to read what he has to say: here in America, where few read the Italian wine media, we are often unaware of how the Italians view us and our wine media and how our wine media generally ignores the wines and the styles of wine that Italians hold to be the best representation of their enology.

In another editorial published today, by a young wine blogger and marketing consultant based in Apulia, the author writes: “Just think that the first wine in the list is an American wine that costs $27 and the second is a Spanish wine that also costs $27. In order to pay the tidy sum of $110, you have to get to the eighth place in the list for a Tuscan wine that costs a hefty $110!”

Today, I’ll leave the editorializing and pontificating to others, but I do encourage you to put it in your pipe and smoke it, so to speak.

As it just so happens, yesterday I tasted with the export manager for a winery that landed the thirteenth position in the magazine’s list: Fèlsina, whose Fontalloro, a barriqued 100% Sangiovese that has long been a popular wine in the U.S.

“Some would call it a Super Tuscan,” said Chiara (above), “even though I don’t like that term.” And, in fact, the wine actually qualifies as a Chianti, even though the winery has chosen historically to declassify it, initially to vino da tavola status and now IGT (it was first released in 1983, she said, the same year as the first release of the winery’s “cru” Chianti Classico, Rancia).

I’m a bona fide fan of Fèlsina but my favorites are always their entry-level wines, made from 100% Sangiovese grapes, vinified in the traditional style, and aged in large old-oak casks that have been used over and over again. The wines generally cost under $25 and I highly recommend them. The 2006 harvest was a good vintage for these wines, 2007 a great vintage. (I also had fun trading notes with Chiara about our university days in Italy. She studied Chomsky and generative linguistics at Florence, around the same time I studied the history of the Italian language and prosody at Padua and the Scuola Normale in Pisa. We knew a lot of the same professors!)

I’ve spent enough time in front of the computer this morning and it’s time for me to head to Houston, where I’ll be speaking about and pouring Italian wine tonight. So I’ll leave the punch line up to you Italo Calvinos out there…

An Italian wine walks into a bar…

Best Thanksgiving wines (or at least, what me and Tracie B will be drinking)

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Above: Tracie B and I held an informal wine tasting last night with our friends CJ and Jen, who made some excellent pulled pork for dinner (photos by CJ).

It’s that time of year again and everyone’s doing their “Best Thanksgiving Wines” posts. So I figured I’d do mine. Seems like there’s more humor and a greater twang of irony this year in the otherwise traditionally Hallmark consumerist spirit. Maybe ’cause everyone is so broke (or at least I am), it feels like you’re reaching beyond the perfunctory when you compile these lists. It does occur to me that we in the U.S. of A are probably the only folks who believe in these “best” and “top” lists. I just can’t imagine Franco writing a “Top Ten Christmas” wine list. Can you?

My favorite top Thanksgiving wine post so far was authored by Saignée, “I Feel Obligated to Do a ‘Thanksgiving Wine Pairing Post'” (it’s worth checking out but it also sports a NC-17 rating).

Above: The only wine that exceeded my $20-or-under-rule for this year’s holiday was the 2007 Bucci Verdicchio dei Castelli di Iesi, which you should be able to find for under $30. Man, I love that wine.

The Solomon of wine writing and blogging, Eric, poked some fun (or at least, I read it that way) at the Grey Lady’s perennial Thanksgiving suggestions (marked this year by the absence of Frank Bruni) in his post “Six Years of Thanksgiving Wisdom.” I love the wine that Eric brought to the paper’s Thanksgiving tasting, a Frappato by Valle dell’Acate (Sicily). I also love the new wine descriptor, coined and used by Eric to describe it, and I love that it made it past the paper’s grammarians: “earthy chuggability.”

And lest he think that I’ve forgotten him, I got a genuine chuckle and chortle out of Strappo’s “THANKSGIVING WINE STUNNER: EXPERTS CLAIM RED OR WHITE OK!”

This year, Tracie B and I will be heading to Orange, Texas, just like last year, but this year, we’ll also be bringing Mamma Judy with us — her first visit to Texas since I moved here last year. Mrs. B and Rev. B are expecting 24 people at this year’s festivities. Since finances are tight for this fiancé (especially in view of our upcoming nuptials), I tried to keep my wines under $20 (and, for the most part, I succeeded on that part, as they say in the south).

Bucci 2007 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi
($22.99 at Jimmy’s in Dallas)

CJ and I really dug the crunchy mouthfeel of this wine and its elegant, lingering finish. The acidity was “tongue splitting,” as Tracie B likes to say.

Domaine Fontsainte 2008 Corbières Gris di Gris
(rosé, $17.50 at The Austin Wine Merchant)

We all agreed that the fruit in this wine was approachable and fun, juicy and tangy. This could go with just about anything at the Thanksgiving table.

Marchesi di Gresy 2007 Dolcetto d’Alba Monte Aribaldo
($18.75 at The Austin Wine Merchant)

I just can’t believe what a value this wine is at under-$20. It’s rich and chewy, surprisingly tannic, and has that noble rusticity that you find in the Marchesi di Gresy.

Mas Lavail 2007 Terre d’Ardoise Carignan
($11.25 at The Austin Wine Merchant)

Tracie B called this “salty” wine “the stand alone” wine of the flight we tasted with Jen and CJ. The price-quality ratio here is stellar (at $11.25? HELL YEAH!) and the wine is chewy, rich, with dark fruit and lots of savory flavors. I can’t wait to pair it with Tracie B’s Meemaw’s deviled eggs and Mrs. B’s sweet potato pie.

AND HERE IT IS, THE MOMENT YA’LL HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR… MY NUMBER 1 THANKSGIVING WINE FOR 2009!!!

Selvapiana 2007 Chianti Rufina
($16.25 at The Austin Wine Merchant)

Selvapiana is one of my all-time favorite producers (one of Franco’s favs, too) and Rufina is one of the greatest expressions of Sangiovese. This wine is tannic and will benefit from a little aeration before serving but once it opens up it’s all about bright acidity and plum fruit flavors. The price range will vary for this wine across the country but it’s always a tremendous value.

Thanks for reading ya’ll! I’m wishing you a great (and safe) holiday with your loved ones.

In other news…

I had a blast pouring and talking about wine and pairing European and domestic wines with Asian food at the Saheli “Discover Asia through Wine” event on Saturday night. The Tandoori chicken (above) was one of the hits of the evening, as was the Selvapiana Chianti Rufina, which I paired with the Chinese roast duck. Donations support battered Asian women and immigrants in the greater Austin area.

In other other news…

I’ll be pouring wines from Piedmont and Tuscany this Thursday at the Galleria Tennis and Athletic Club in Houston. Click here for details.

Best places to eat in Nashville (or at least where I ate)

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Above: The Salmon-Bacon Sandwich with Farro Salad at Marché Artisan Foods. Ashley told me that the bread there was fantastic and it was.

If you want to eat well in any given town, ask a wine rep: because they spend time and money at their accounts, they always know the best places to eat (and they get the best tables!).

Above: The Club Sandwich at Marché. Also excellent. The bread and the peeled, gently roasted, and caramelized tomatoes took it over the top.

I was the beneficiary of such knowledge on Wednesday, after Ashley Hall, Kermit Lynch’s southeast U.S. sales manager, picked me up at the airport in Nashville and took me around town with her as she made some account calls (I love that her blog is called “Ashley Hall, the person”).

Above: I am a little hesitant to eat seafood when the sea is more than a stone’s throw away but the octopus salad at City House, an Italian-themed restaurant, was excellent. It was fresh and the octopus tender.

Kermit had been complaining that he hadn’t had a good meal in Nashville (where he’s recorded his current and upcoming records). But Ashely ably remedied that by taking us to City House. I wish this place had a better wine list but the staff was highly knowledgeable about the wines and they did have one of my favorite (undisputably) natural wines, Lunar by Movia, which our super nice waiter Jocelyn handily decanted. The pizza was among the best and the most authentically Neapolitan I’ve had in the U.S. Thanks again, Ashley, for hooking it all up!

Above: The pizza at City House was truly superb and the venue should definitely be added to the many “best pizza in the U.S.” lists that have circulated over the last year. An expert in all things Neapolitan, Tracie B always points out that the dough of true Neapolitan pizza should be crispy and firm but slightly undercooked in the very middle of the pie. She would have thoroughly approved. Road trip, Tracie B? ;-) I highly recommend it.

The Kermit Lynch listening party event was a lot of fun that night and a great success (here’s another blogger’s post on the shindig). I met a lot of wonderful folks that evening and found that Nashville — no surprise — is a highly cosmopolitan and culinarily minded destination.

Above: Noshville (get it? NOSHville) isn’t exactly what I’d call an authentic New York delicatessen (Kenny and Ziggy’s in Houston still holds the top-deli-outside-the-city spot in my book) but bagels and lox for breakfast were good and the celeb-watching is well worth the price of admission.

Thursday I made a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame and walked around Broadway and did me some honkytonking. I’ll post about the Hank Williams exhibit and the music I heard tomorrow.

Above: Would a trip to Nashville be complete without a fried Bologna sandwich? I stopped into Robert’s Western Wear on Broadway for lunch yesterday.

I had a blast in Nashville but man, am I happy to get back home to my baby’s arms (and her cooking)! We’re staying in tonight…

Good wines and good times with Kermit Lynch in Nashville

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rick vito

Above: Last night at Kermit’s event, where I emceed, I got to hang out and chat with GUITAR HEROES George Marinelli, center, and Rick Vito. It just blows my mind to think how many hit songs these guys have played on. Top session bassist Michael Rhodes was there, too (see below).

Wow, what a week it’s been! On Monday, I presented Kermit Lynch and Ricky Fataar and we spun their new record at Vino Vino in Austin. Tuesday night I taught the last class in my series of Italian wine seminars at the Austin Wine Merchant (“Italian Wine and Civilization,” my favorite class, where we read from Italian literature and history and taste relevant wines), and then last night I emceed for Kermit again in Nashville. I can barely catch my breath…

Above: Guests were greeted last night with this fantastic sparkler, Vin du Bugey-Cerdon, a blend of Gamay and Poulsard from the Jura. It weighs in at an ethereal 8% alcohol. I loved it.

There were SO MANY famous musicians at Kermit’s listening party last night. Seems they all like hanging out with the ol’ man and drinking his vino. And who can blame them? But of all the amazing players who showed up for the event, the dude I was most geeked to meet was George Marinelli. He’s played on countless hit records but he was the guy who played on Billy Vera’s 1981 live album (recorded at the Roxy in LA) that included the hits “I Can Take Care of Myself” and “At This Moment.” I never saw George play with Billy but I used to go see Billy Vera and the Beaters play every month at At My Place in West LA when I was a freshman in college at UCLA in 1985-86. Billy’s album By Request, which features George on guitar, is still one of my all-time favorite albums (if you ever ride around the streets of Austin you might hear me and Tracie B blasting “Millie, Put on Some Chili” in the car!). Billy’s number 1 hit “At This Moment”? It’s ALL ABOUT the harmonics that George plays at the end of the song… wow… can’t believe I drank a glass of 1998 Vieux Telegraphe with that dude!

wine shoppe at green hills

Above: Ed Fryer, owner of the Wine Shoppe at Green Hills, brought a 3-liter of 1998 Vieux Telegraphe. Man, I like the way that dude rolls!

I’ve got many more tales to tell from Nashville, including some thoroughly delicious and truly authentic Neapolitan pizza we ate last night (Tracie B would have approved). I’m stuck all morning working at my computer this morning at my hotel but I’m taking the afternoon off and heading over to the Country Music Hall of Fame and I might just do me some honkytonking down on Broadway before I get on that plane and head back to my lovely lady in Austin.

Above: That’s bass player Michael Rhodes center. When you shake that dude’s hand you are shaking PURE GOLD (I’m not kidding: click the link).

Stay tuned…

Kermit Lynch, pulled pork, and 01 Moccagatta and 01 Faset

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kermit_jar

Above, from left: my buddy Mark Sayre, Kermit Lynch, and me last night at Vino Vino for the Kermit Lynch listening party. A grand time was had by all. Photos by Tracie B.

Tracie B and I had a blast last night at the Kermit Lynch listening party at Vino Vino here in Austin. It’s been a while since I took the stage with a microphone in my hand and it was great to feel that energy again and the buzz that comes along with playing music (even if I was just cueing it from my Ipod). Click here for highlights from the event.

ricky fataar

Above: Kermit’s producer Ricky Fataar, right, with his friend and awesome bass player, Austin-based Sarah Brown, who joined us for dinner. Ricky and the entire band will be fielding questions from the audience tomorrow night in Nashville at the Basement.

We’ve had a great time hanging out with Kermit, his wife Gail Skoff (who is delightful), and Ricky Fataar, who’s played with so many musical greats over the years (the Beach Boys, Bonnie Raitt, Jon Scofield, Boz Scaggs, Crowded House, The Rutles). I could have listened to Ricky tell stories from his years on the road all night long.

lamberts

Above: What does this country boy pair with his pulled pork? Nebbiolo, of course!

After the event, I swept the entourage away in the Hyundai limo and we hit Lambert’s downtown for dinner (not my favorite barbecue, but solid and open late). Earlier I had raided my Nebbiolo stash and so we BYOBed some 2001 Barbaresco Moccagatta by Produttori del Barbaresco (which was deliciously chewy and tasted like sumptuous mud) and 2001 Barbaresco Faset by Castello di Verduno (wow, this wine was off-the-charts good, almost Baroloesque in its austerity, regal and elegant, and showing nicely with some aeration despite its youth). Some would say that it’s a shame to pair savory, tannic Nebbiolo with the tangy, smokey flavors of Texas barbecue but, man, o man, was it tasty — especially riding on the high and the brio of the evening and the event…

Thanks again to the staff at Vino Vino and to everyone who came out last night for the sold-out event!

Tomorrow night: Nashville! (It’s fun to be “on the road again,” even if for just one night).