Hello and welcome to our newest monthly WineChap feature wherein one of our correspondents will be dropped off in an unfamiliar neighborhood and left to profile the area’s wine bar offerings. This month we leave Sarah Chappell stranded in the West Village. Coming Soon: East New York, Spanish Harlem, and Tribeca.
Blue Ribbon Downing Street Bar | 34 Downing Street
This small 18-seater is frequently standing room only, but the French oak panels and industrially-hip exposed Edison bulbs make for a comfortable—if cramped—experience. A mix of neighborhood types, post-service restaurant workers, and wine nerds swarm the bar for the selection of over 30 wines-by-the-glass. An impressive half-bottle selection makes it easy to try Biale’s Black Chicken Zinfandel without disintegrating your bank account.
For those who prefer a more didactic approach, a rotating list of three tasting flights is a foolproof way to self-educate. We particularly like the flight of off-dry Rieslings from three different producers that use grapes from the Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyard; pair it with the excellent salty-sweet goodness that is the Manchego cheese and honey toasts to maximize the Riesling-esque effect of acid and sugar coming together to make the perfect summer quaff.
The Blue Ribbon team has worked together to create a list that has something for everyone, even if it’s something you didn’t even know you wanted. Take the Vevi “Dordo 1954” NV Rueda Verdejo for example; it’s made in the style of Sherry and aged via the solera system, and you may not know this yet, but trust us: you want it.
Insider Intel: Bottles in red are discounted 20-30%
What to drink: Rosé, Dei-sec, Bugey-Cerdon NV, Lingot Martin $15/gl; Viognier VdP de l’Ardeche 2009, Paul Vendran $15/gl; Pineau d’Aunis “La Verre des Poètes” 2006, Domaine de Montrieux $42/btl.
Anfora | 34 8th Avenue
Anfora is surprisingly large for a wine bar, its inner sanctum punctuated by low-slung purple leather banquettes that bring to mind MePa boozing rather than W. Vill sipping. While the cozy lounge atmosphere is a lovely waiting place for those dining at the sibling next door—dell’anima—the list of natural wines is a draw for local wine nerds as well.
Joe Campanale, Beverage Director of this mini-empire (West Village destination L’Artusi is also part of the family), has infused the list with his considerable knowledge and organized the wines by producer rather than grape variety or region. Each producer page comes complete with a Wine 201 excerpt that forces you, the drinker, to use your brain before numbing it.
Get prepped for some schooling and taste the namesake wines of the bar: anfora aged wines. According to Campanale, anfora, or amphorae, are large clay pots that were used to store wine in the days of the Greek and Roman empires, and they’ve recently come back into fashion as a way to connect with history, to drink what the antediluvians used to drink. One of our favorites is the 2007 Cantina Giardino “Sophia,” which smells like a Petri dish from bio class and tastes like your first dorm room homebrewing attempt that failed to carbonate, except in a good way.
What to drink: Coda di Volpe ‘Sophia’ 2007, Cantina Giardino $56/btl; Rosé ‘Ko’ 2009, Thierry Puzelat $10; Rioja Gran Reserva Rosado “Tondonia” Lopez de Heredia 2000 $15/gl; Cornellissen “Rosso del Contadino 6” NV $68/btl; anything from Laureano Serres.
The Upholstery Store | 713 Washington Street
Like the railroad style apartment that you convinced yourself to take because of the high ceilings, The Upholstery Store is a better idea in theory. As a spot to grab a drink pre- or post-dinner, the bar is fine. A back room with the illusion of privacy is a saving grace, complete with a cute city view of their garden/outdoor storage space. Snacks from next door sister spot Wallsé help keep the drinks flowing, and the fact that the glasses are no longer doll-sized help you forget that the space was probably better off as an actual upholstery store.
The wine list isn’t particularly inspiring—despite a few fun twists, like a $9 glass of 2007 Syrocco Syrah from Morocco—but it’s definitely a space to keep an eye on. Come September, Wallsé’s Beverage Director, Leo Schneeman, will unveil a new list that promises a heavy focus on high-end back vintage Austrian wines; this promise, if kept, may make this a spot well worth the elbowing you’ll have to do to get yourself settled in for the evening.
What to drink: Riesling Schieferterrassen 2006, Heymann Lowenstein $12/60; Syrah ‘Syrocco’ 2007, Thalvin $9/45.
Aria | 117 Perry Street
The white tile bar, massive chalkboards, and meat hanging from the ceiling make this bright space a comfortable spot to grab a drink or quick bite with the illusion of dining outdoors. The wine selection features some of the wine world’s finest female vintners; in fact, all of the wines on the list are produced by ladies, including 15 that can be purchased by the “ombre” (a tiny glass) to pair with the large collection of Venetian tapas called “chicchetti.” Considering the all-female roster, we have to say that we did expect a bit more from the selection, which seems to make the mistake of putting the concept before the wines, even when it doesn’t have to. That is, the list could stand to include more pioneering ladies such as Arianna Occhipinti, Patricia Greene, Gaetana Jacono (of Valle dell’Acate), Cathy Corison, María José López de Heredia, and Jutta Ambrositsch—just to name a few—but instead, the by-the-glass list focuses on inexpensive wines from Chile and South Africa, and the rest of the list doesn’t do the concept any justice. In short, if you’re visiting for the wine selection, you’re better off walking 5 more blocks to Anfora.
Lelabar | 422 Hudson Street
Lelabar’s Beverage Director, Madeline Maldonado, hails from Tinto Fino, the pocket-sized all-Spanish wine store in the East Village, but here she’s stepped outside of Spain to offer wines from the U.S., Rhône, and beyond, all with a focus on classical wines from the Old World with the occasional quirky artisan wine thrown in. But Lelabar sets itself apart from the slew of other EV wine bars with this simple offering: for any bottle of wine not available by the glass, if you purchase two glasses, they will open the bottle.
Jazz concerts, beer tastings, and $1 oyster nights bring out a diverse local and post-work crowd, and with every wine essentially available by the glass, this is the place for that potentially awkward second date—dark enough that you can’t see each other, loud enough that you don’t have to talk, and boozy enough that, well…you know.
What to drink: Penedes Moscatel/Grenache Blanc 2006 $12/42; Ribeira Sacra “Pena do Lobo” 2008, D. Ventura $65.
