Home-grown Brooklynites? No, but Proud Adoptees Where the Brooklyn Bridge is on the label Drink this, Brooklyn! Boroughing |
Home-Grown Brooklynites? No, but Proud Adoptees Brooklyn Oenology sells a well-made merlot ($18) and a crisply fruity chardonnay ($15), made by Premium Wine of Long Island. These wines are sold at a few shops in New York, including Vintage New York stores. The labels, by Brooklyn artists, depict parts of the borough, like one of Newtown Creek by Tracy Silva Barbosa on the 2005 chardonnay. At Brooklyn Wine, the Feliz white, mainly sauvignon blanc, is light ($11.95); the red is a hefty blend of zinfandel, barbera and syrah ($13.95). Grand Army Meritage, a mix of cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc ($25.95), is more polished. Darrin Siegfried, a partner in Brooklyn Wine, sells them only at Red White and Bubbly, a wine shop in Park Slope, where he is also a partner. But these wines aren’t true New Yorkers: they are made in California. Bridge Vineyards in Peconic, N.Y., has a line of red, white and rosé wines (each $12) whose bottles show the bridge. Greg Sandor and Paul Wegimont, the owners, have opened Bridge Vineyards Urban Winery and Tasting Room, right, an industrial, brick-walled space nudging the Williamsburg Bridge. Their wines and others are available for tasting with small plates of wine-friendly food ($4 to $10). Come fall, they hope to start using the stainless steel tank on the premises for blending wines and bottling, too. Bridge Vineyards Urban Winery and Tasting Room is at 20 Broadway (Kent Avenue), Williamsburg, Brooklyn; (718) 384-2800. Where the Brooklyn Bridge Is on the Label Inside every sommelier, a would-be winemaker is itching to break free. He yearns to prove that he can not only recommend the right wine, but have a hand in crafting it. The past president of the Sommelier Society of America, Darrin Siegfried, demonstrates it can be done — having released a trio of intriguing wines under the Brooklyn Wine Company label. The wines have been selling briskly at Red White & Bubbly, an easygoing Park Slope wine shop at which Mr. Siegfried is operating partner. Their labels feature an iconic image, rendered by local artist Ryan Seslow, of — what else? — the Brooklyn Bridge. The prototypes of all the wines — Feliz White 2006 ($11.95), Feliz Red 2005 ($13.95), and a more ambitious red called Grand Army Meritage ($25.95) — were blended in a back room at the wine shop by Mr. Siegfried and veteran winemaker Clark Smith, who supplied sample batches of California "juice" from different varieties of grapes. Once the blends were set, the wines were bottled at Winesmith, Mr. Smith's facility in Sebastapol, Calif. "Clark asked me if I wanted to create wines to make people smile or to make them think," Mr. Siegfried said last week. "My idea was to start with a pair of red and white wines for people who just want to come home at night, pour a glass, and say, 'Aaah, that's nice.' It's not about asking whether the wine goes with this dish or that. Feliz has to make you happy, which is what it means in Spanish." But a happy wine needn't be a boring wine or fruit-simple. The two Feliz wines, in fact, are on the subtle side, and it's not easy to figure out what grapes have gone into them. I caught a lemony whiff from Feliz White, and then the wine settled into my mouth with a firm, minerally core and a bit of pucker. It wasn't so much a food wine as a wine to make you want food. But what were its grapes? Mr. Siegfried explained that the wine's firmness came mainly from a dollop of French colombard. Imported from Cognac, France, in the 19th century, it was once California's most planted white grape, but has gone out of fashion. Energy was supplied by sauvignon blanc, making up around two-thirds of the blend, and that lemony top note came from verdelho, a grape found on the volcanic slopes of the island of Madeira. In sum, Feliz White is just the sort of offbeat wine that a sommelier turned wine merchant — and ultimately, winemaker — loves to recommend. "For the Feliz Red, I wanted a wine to appeal to cabernet sauvignon and merlot drinkers," Mr. Siegfried said. Curiously, they'll get neither grape in this bottle, since the wine is a blend of of zinfandel, barbera, and syrah. But it's cannily concocted for broad appeal. The zinfandel supplies bright red berry notes, the barbera zips up the acidic tang, and the syrah provides fleshiness. "My palate leans to the Old World, and I usually drink European wines," Mr. Siegfried said, but he admitted that Feliz Red is more New World: "That doesn't mean it has to be a fruit bomb, or rude and in your face. I think of this wine as a Californian wearing a tweed jacket." If the Feliz wines are for weekdays, Grand Army Plaza Meritage 2005 "is for Sunday dinner," Mr. Siegfried explained. It's a deep-flavored and velvety wine, blended from cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc, not yet giving its all. "In adolescence, a wine like this is like a girl who's all knees and bones, but after a few more years, you'll suddenly say, 'Wow, what a beauty.'" Mr. Siegfried, 55, grew up in Newburgh, N.Y., son of a family in the printing business, and first learned about wine from an aunt who lived on Sutton Place. His formal wine training began at Windows on the World atop the World Trade Center. He went on to do a stint as sommelier at Claude Troisgros's restaurant, C.T., which closed in 1996. In the late 1990s, he was wine director and manager of the much-lauded, and since closed, Cucina in Park Slope, when the urge to open a wine bar bit. That didn't work out, but with financial partner Adam Goldstein, Mr. Siegfried took a lease on a former hardware store situated amid a developing network of boutiques, bakeries, and restaurants on Fifth Avenue. As a wine counselor, Mr. Siegfried soon developed a devoted neighborhood following. "I made it a point to keep the aisles wide, so that strollers would have no trouble fitting through," he said. Red White & Bubbly stresses affordable wines, including a featured selection of four wines under $10 picked each month by Mr. Siegfried. Despite his training as a sommelier, Mr. Siegfried feels he has lots to learn as a blender of wines. Working with Mr. Smith, he was especially struck by how different alcohol levels alter the impact of different lots and how difficult it is to find "the sweet spot" in a blend. "I remember reading how Sherlock Holmes could use his powers of observation and deduction to say to someone he'd just met, 'You're a surgeon, you lived in India, your wife recently died, and you're a pipe smoker.' It's that Sherlock logic you need to strive for when you put together the pieces of a wine." Red White & Bubbly (211-213 Fifth Ave. at Union Street, Brooklyn, 718-636- WINE). Drink this, Brooklyn! Adam Goldstein and partner Darrin Siegfried, co-owners of the wine store Red, White and Bubbly, at 211 Fifth Ave. in Park Slope, toasted their new Brooklyn Wine Co. by cracking open a few bottles of their “Feliz White” and “Feliz Red” varieties. The May 11 party drew the borough’s glitterati, including District Attorney Charles Hynes (pictured). The borough’s top lawman celebrated the launch of Brooklyn’s first wine label by partaking of a little red, by the way. The wine (admittedly made in California) was crafted from a recipe cooked up by Goldstein and Siegfried, who wanted their wine to be high-quality, yet affordable “everyday” vino. And though it’s bottled in the so-called Golden State, everything else — from the bold flavors to the bridge on the label to artist Ryan Seslow, who drew the logo — is pure Brooklyn. Boroughing Brooklynites, prepare your corkscrews. The owners of the Fifth Avenue spirit shop Red, White & Bubbly are about to make wine a little more local. Adam Goldstein and Darrin Siegfried, who opened the store six years ago, have created their own label, named Brooklyn Wine Co., and the first bottles — available in “Feliz White” and “Feliz Red” — will be popped on May 11 with a big opening bash. “Everybody here has that sort of love and passion for Brooklyn,” Goldstein told GO Brooklyn. “So we wanted to create something for our customers and to say we have our own wine, too.” Described as “inexpensive, everyday wines,” the Feliz Red ($14) is a combination of Zinfidel, Barbera and Syrah; and with notes of raspberries, black plums, chocolate and cinnamon, it’s a little bit earthy. Feliz White, which Goldstein called “lemony and smooth,” will cost a few dollars less and is comprised of Verdelho, Savignon Blanc and Colombard. Both wines, according to their proud papas, are meant to make locals smile. “In owning the store for [more than six years,] we can see what our customers like,” Goldstein said. “We realized if we were going to have fun with it, our customers would, too.” And having fun while creating a new wine means, of course, plenty of tasting. Goldstein and Siegfried, lacking the space for a vineyard in Park Slope, teamed up with California-based winemaker Clark Smith, whose WineSmith blends they’ve carried at the shop for years, to mix and match grapes until they developed a blend that was just right. “These wines are tremendous values,” Smith, who was in Brooklyn for a two-day trip, said. “It’s about something good in the glass and a trust that develops with a neighborhood and its wine shop. It’s because Darrin and Adam are standing behind them that people are interested.” Once they had decided what should go into the bottles, it was time to concentrate on the outside. Wanting to keep it local, Goldstein and Siegfried turned to artist Ryan Seslow, an old friend whose work had been displayed in the shop’s windows, to create a logo that would capture the spirit of the borough. “[We] wanted to work with the Brooklyn Bridge being an icon for the whole idea,” Seslow told GO Brooklyn. “It’s a central icon to anybody from Brooklyn or even to people who pass through New York.” Seslow’s shadowy image of the bridge is both strong and romantic, said Goldstein, who himself is a collector of Seslow’s work. “He just went above and beyond.” Fans of Siegfried’s wine reviews and anecdotes, which are posted throughout the store (and in these pages), are in for a treat as well, as the back label of each bottle features his description of that blend. It’s obvious that plenty of hard work, good luck and business savvy went into the venture, so whatever you do, don’t call it a publicity stunt. “I know there’s a Brooklyn gum, and it’s actually made in Italy,” lamented Goldstein. “I’ve gotten people who’ve heard of [Brooklyn Wine Co.] and think, ‘Oh, you’re just putting the name Brooklyn on the wine,’ and I’ll tell you one thing: It is not a gimmick.” The Brooklyn Wine Company line will be sold exclusively at Red, White & Bubbly, and will hopefully be served at a slew of Park Slope restaurants, including Blue Ribbon and La Villa. Even with the excitement buzzing around the launch of their wines, Goldstein and Siegfried aren’t content to just sit still. They’re already thinking about the “Grand Army Meritage,” which will be released in the fall and will retail for about $25, and are on to future projects. Goldstein said that they’ve lined up meetings with sake producers in Japan and would like to expand the brand to feature a single malt Scotch, more wines and even champagne. Until then, the men behind the Brooklyn Wine Co. will focus on selling the 600 cases of Feliz they’ve produced so far. “It’s not so much that we create a good wine, but that we create a fantastic wine,” Goldstein said. “That’s what we’re about at Red White & Bubbly. And if we’re going to put our names on a bottle of wine, we want it to knock your socks off.” Brooklyn, you’ll soon drink to that. The Brooklyn Wine Co. will celebrate the release of the Feliz Red and Feliz White at Red, White & Bubbly (211 Fifth Ave., at Union Street in Park Slope) on May 11 from 6–9 pm, on May 12 at noon and on May 13 from 2–6 pm. For information, call (718) 636-WINE or visit www.redwhiteandbubbly.com. |