Jayson Cohen
Jayson Cohen
We often post on the wines we have, or the wines we drank, or the wineries and winemakers, but less often about the hunt and the joys and disappointments of the hunt that most of us are on perpetually to source wine.
Which brings me to my Saturday afternoon free in Manhattan yesterday....
Chapter 1. In Search of Sorbo. A single bottle of 1999 Fontodi Vigna del Sorbo at Bee Wines & Liquors at a very good price motivated a trip to the East Village. I’ve kept a lookout for this wine for a few years now after being wowed by a bottle, and this week I was feeling the disappointment of passing on a recent auction lot (reverse buyer’s remorse). I hopped in the car and headed Downtown. When I arrived and asked at the counter how long the bottle had been there, the honest guy at the register said it had been on the sales floor 5-6 years. I asked about conditions. Again he was honest: no A/C at night in the summer and a heated store in the winter. I thanked him for his candor, sighed, and passed.
Chapter 2. Love for Labet. My other motivation to venture to the East Village was Labet Les Varrons at Discovery Wines, one of the only places I know to get this wine. It was less than 10 minutes from Bee to Discovery. Trevor chatted me up on the Labets and others, and I wound up leaving with: a bottle each of 2015 and 2016 Les Varrons for a side-by-side; a 2014 Coteaux Champenois En Barmont from my Riceys vigneron icon, Olivier Horiot; a completely unknown-to-me Rosé-ish wine from Strohmeier, Karmin #8 TMZ, made from the completely unknown-to-me Blauer Wildbacher variety and brought in by Jenny and Francois; and a plan to come back soon for a couple other bottles that are hard to find anywhere else.
Chapter 3. Falkenstein Fanaticism. On the way back Uptown, Waze routed me dangerously close to Eastside Cellars, where they always seem to have a stash of Falkensteins, not all of them always on the website. I couldn’t resist a quick detour. The 2018 Altenberg Spatlese Feinherb (#7) found a home.
Two plus hours well spent.
Which brings me to my Saturday afternoon free in Manhattan yesterday....
Chapter 1. In Search of Sorbo. A single bottle of 1999 Fontodi Vigna del Sorbo at Bee Wines & Liquors at a very good price motivated a trip to the East Village. I’ve kept a lookout for this wine for a few years now after being wowed by a bottle, and this week I was feeling the disappointment of passing on a recent auction lot (reverse buyer’s remorse). I hopped in the car and headed Downtown. When I arrived and asked at the counter how long the bottle had been there, the honest guy at the register said it had been on the sales floor 5-6 years. I asked about conditions. Again he was honest: no A/C at night in the summer and a heated store in the winter. I thanked him for his candor, sighed, and passed.
Chapter 2. Love for Labet. My other motivation to venture to the East Village was Labet Les Varrons at Discovery Wines, one of the only places I know to get this wine. It was less than 10 minutes from Bee to Discovery. Trevor chatted me up on the Labets and others, and I wound up leaving with: a bottle each of 2015 and 2016 Les Varrons for a side-by-side; a 2014 Coteaux Champenois En Barmont from my Riceys vigneron icon, Olivier Horiot; a completely unknown-to-me Rosé-ish wine from Strohmeier, Karmin #8 TMZ, made from the completely unknown-to-me Blauer Wildbacher variety and brought in by Jenny and Francois; and a plan to come back soon for a couple other bottles that are hard to find anywhere else.
Chapter 3. Falkenstein Fanaticism. On the way back Uptown, Waze routed me dangerously close to Eastside Cellars, where they always seem to have a stash of Falkensteins, not all of them always on the website. I couldn’t resist a quick detour. The 2018 Altenberg Spatlese Feinherb (#7) found a home.
Two plus hours well spent.