Park Slope Reader

Rose Water

Slope Survey: John Tucker

By Filed Under: Slope Survey Tagged With: , ,

Restaurateur, devotee of local, seasonal food, and one of Edible Manhattan’s “Dads We’re Loving,” John Tucker was the perfect fit for the Slope Survey’s third installment. Here, the owner of Rose Water muses on a changing Park Slope, getting away, and the surprising qualities that make a hero.

 

What brought you to Park Slope?

I’m as Slopian as they come: my wife and I came over the bridge in 1999 with a two-year-old in tow, looking for square footage, green space, good school, and a community of like-minded tree-huggers. We checked every box, and within months many unexpected benefits appeared, like the Food Coop, and the notion that the neighborhood might support a restaurant like the one I opened in 2000.

What is your most memorable Park Slope moment?

Rose Water’s opening day was big, but not specifically a Slopey moment. My most memorable moments are about coming together as community – happy times in the park at Celebrate Brooklyn and the PopUp dinners, or Halloween and baseball parades. Even sad gatherings, such as grieving together at Beth Elohim over the tragic loss of a wonderful boy. Handing out food at Green and Healthy Night at PS 321, and watching kids perform at MS 51 with Mr. McEneny’s drama department. There’ve been many, many memorable moments for me in my village.

A good day for you is…

I own and operate a long-running Park Slope business that I’m proud of, and I help run a Brooklyn non-profit youth soccer program. A good day includes both, and also watching my sons play soccer. But, in the summer when the kids are away, my best days are spent upstate, swimming in the Plattekill Creek with my wife and our dog.

Describe your community superpower.

I’m very fortunate to have had the time and energy to be a volunteer youth sports coach, referee, and administrator for many years. And I’m proud to be considered an asset to my community as a small business owner that supports local schools, charities, and nonprofits.

If you could change one thing about the neighborhood, what would it be?

Diversity. When I moved to Park Slope in 1999 there was more racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity, which was a big draw for me. New York City is still a vibrant and wondrous place, but less interesting than when I arrived from Detroit in 1986. Particularly in this contentious election season, I’d love to be in charge of a magic wand that promotes tolerance, inclusion, and understanding.

What do you think Park Slope will look like in 10 years? in 20 years?

Wet? Hopefully it’ll be many decades before the Gowanus Canal stretches from Fourth Avenue to Hoyt Street. Meanwhile, I worry the neighborhood will continue to lose interesting mom-and-pop shops in favor of chains, and become more pricey and even less diverse. I hope I’m wrong, because I want to keep living here.

What were your childhood nicknames?

Johnny.

What is your greatest extravagance?

I raid the Rose Water wine cellar fairly frequently and drink well above my life station. Or, perhaps it’s my “country house,” which is a travel trailer that never travels—it sits on a campsite near Saugerties, New York.

If you couldn’t live in Park Slope or in Brooklyn, where would you go?

Besides Provence? A barrier island on the Gulf Coast of Florida that has no bridge, no cars, no roads, no commerce, and a beautiful, mostly unpeopled beach where I like to look for shark’s teeth. I also love the Catskills, and I could see myself in all those places, but I refuse to imagine not having a home in Brooklyn, too.

Who is your hero, real or fictional?

My dog. We never disappoint each other, he’s never told a lie, and he’s always reliably and irrationally pleased to see me. Mostly, I feel like people are too human to be heroes. That said, I think ALL educators are the bomb!

 

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The Case for Restraint

By Filed Under: Natural Selection (wine) Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

“John, Table 10 doesn’t like the half bottle of Burgundy.” Argh. For the second time this month and the third time this year, a customer isn’t thrilled with this bottle that we love so well. Wines like these from the Burgundian appellation of Mercurey are often not as easy to drink as Pinot Noir from California or Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Compared to a West Coast pinot, this bottle from Domaine Meix-Foulot is lean and dry and lacks the richness and intensely sweet fruit of many of its New World cousins.

 

What it does have in spades is restraint—an Old World earthiness and austerity, and an uncanny ability to pair with most of our food. It’s usually our only half bottle of pinot noir, so folks order it expecting (hoping?) that it’ll be more generous. Some, like the nice couple at Table 10, are disappointed.

The wine list at Rose Water has always been a reflection of our personal taste, with only minor accommodations made to popular trends, and even then it’s on our terms. Instead of a fruit bomb malbec from South America, for example, we offer a more balanced and food friendly Cahors from southwestern France: Clos Siguier, which is a blend of malbec and tannat, has rich, dark fruit that’s not overly sweet and has balancing acidity with smooth, firm tannins that enhance the flavor and cut the fat of meats like roasted duck and grilled beef. As a general rule, our US/New World selections are chosen for their relative balance and food friendliness. We seek out wines that are both natural (sustainably-raised fruit and non-interventionist cellar practices) and restrained. We define restraint as an approach to winemaking that favors nuance and a sense of place above overripe fruit, high alcohol, and a manipulated polish.

Our friends Jennifer Munro Clark and Andrew Scott at Eminence Road Farm Winery live and work on a small farm in Long Eddy, NY in the lower Catskills near the Delaware River and the PA border. They purchase sustainable grapes from excellent growers in the Finger Lakes and truck them back to their farm to make wine that is very much in the “natural” style that we favor—a low intervention, hands-off approach that produces wines of character and honesty. It’s a less equals more philosophy. Hands-off winemaking starts with fruit grown with as little chemical intervention as possible, hand harvesting before the fruit is overripe, gentle crushing (usually by foot), fermentation by wild indigenous yeast, aging in old flavor-neutral barrels, little or no additives, little or no fining or filtering, and as little sulphur as possible, usually applied in very small amounts at bottling. Their homemade labels list the ingredients in each bottle (e.g. grapes, sulfites), and feature the words, “Bottled Alive.”

Eminence Road has just released a 2014 Seneca Lake Riesling in a clear bottle with a crown cap (similar to a beer bottle cap) that epitomizes everything we love about their work—it has just a hint of sweetness, great acidity, and varietal character. It’s fresh, lively and fabulous with food. Many Finger Lakes Rieslings these days are dry, but theirs is really lean. Andrew explains, “In the field we try to pick on the early side to preserve natural acidity and to avoid overt fruitiness in flavor and aroma. For the 2014 riesling, I would like to take credit for its delicacy and drinkability, but we did the same thing we always do, save for picking extra early—some would say those grapes were under ripe—and bottling when the fermentation stopped as opposed to when it was finished.”

Andrew takes his unusual approach a step further with this wine in that he hopes that it will develop a little fizz over time, something a more conventional winemaker would go out of his way to avoid. “We decided on a crown cap for the ’14 because there is a very slight amount of unfermented sugar left in the wine which may one day lead to a continuation of the fermentation. The crown cap is there so we don’t end up with pushed, leaking corks. Bottled alive, indeed.”

So, what about that half bottle of Mercurey at Table 10?  Agnès Dewé de Launay is not your typical Burgundian winemaker. Very tall, soft-spoken and unassuming, she’s delightfully frank about her approach; her goal is to produce wine that lets the earth speak of place and time, expressing the character of the soil, climate, and especially the vintage—the growing season from spring flowering to autumn harvest. As such, her wines vary a great deal from year to year. Some vintages are light and tight, others can be more powerful, but they always have high acidity (great for food) and express a beautiful earthiness and nuance. There’s an austerity to these wines that has very little in common with their American cousins. Agnès likes to compare her holistic, non-interventionist approach to winemaking, and specifically to her vines, to that of parenting: “If your child is not sporty, you do not push them to play the sports, you know?”

We convinced the couple at Table 10 to sit with the wine a bit, let it open up in the glass and taste it with food, and if they still didn’t like it we’d happily find them something more to their taste. After ten minutes—and some gnocchi with mushrooms—they were smitten. Given a little time and reflection, restraint usually wins the day.

 

Eminence Road Farm Winery Riesling “Seneca Lake” 2014. Available at Rose Water, direct from the winery, and at Uva Wines and Spirits, 199 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn. $22

Domaine du Meix-Foulot Mercurey 1er Cru 2011. Available at RW and at Mr. Wright Fine Wine, 1593 Third Ave, NYC. Half bottle $18

 

Heirloom Wine / into the esoteric

By Filed Under: Natural Selection (wine) Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Most of us know the more common grape varietals such as sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. Those with an interest in expanding their horizons might venture into more esoteric territory, parsing the pleasures of grüner veltliner, chenin blanc, petite sirah and tempranillo. But, like the foodie that’s moved on from supermarket tomatoes and now scours greenmarket stalls for varieties they’ve never tasted, the adventurous wine drinker seeks out lesser known regions and grape varietals in pursuit of diversity and new experiences.

According to wine writer and editor Jancis Robinson, there are over ten thousand grape varietals in the world, and in her book Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties, Including Their Origins and Flavours, she catalogues most that are used to make wine across the globe. Living in NYC, we’re lucky enough to have access to a wide array of wines made from heirloom grapes. Astor Wines, for example, allows you to search for bottles made from nearly 400 different grapes. For the wine adventurer, there’s a treasure trove of new experiences out there. (You should know that the reason we are so blessed in New York is because we have state laws that encourage the proliferation of wine and spirit importers and distributors, many of whom specialize in representing small producers from off the beaten path. Have you noticed that in other parts of country the selections are much more limited? Our laws in NY, which are constantly under attack by big corporate interests, are the reason why we have such a delightfully wide array of choices.)

The most popular grape varietals are popular for good reason: they make very good wine. But there are other reasons that these wines are ubiquitous, having to do with everything from fashion/trends to the heartiness of the grape and its ability to yield a consistent crop, year in and out. Heirloom varietals might be fickle, susceptible to mildew or pests, or may only prosper in specific soils in a specific micro-climate. Sauvignon blanc generally provides a very consistent crop in a variety of conditions and soils. So, if you’re a farmer who grows grapes for a living, you’re probably tempted to rip out those ancient local grape vines that no one’s ever heard of, and plant some sauvignon blanc. If you’re a farmer that honors tradition, however, maybe you keep a few rows and make a smallish amount of wine that a smallish importer wants to bring to NYC.

[pullquote]for us, wine isn’t just a joyously diverse agricultural product, it’s a fascinating and complex expression of earth, sun and craft[/pullquote]

Some of these wines are nearly extinct, and some are still robust within their region, but rarely seen outside it. Erbaluce is a great example of a such a grape, with numerous vintners in and around the commune of Caluso in the alpine foothills of Northwest Piedmont making delicious white wine from this ancient varietal that is rarely grown outside the area. Erbaluce can be made into sparkling, dessert, and dry table wines. We love the 2013 “La Torrazza” erbaluce from Ferrando, a crisp, dry wine, with flavors of apples and citrus and a delightfully subtle minerality. It’s really great with most anything, especially seafood and chicken. (Available at Rose Water, and Slope Cellars on Seventh Ave in Park Slope, slopecellars.com, $17.99.)

In Eastern France the altesse grape is grown in the two neighboring wine regions of Savoy and Bugey. Altesse (sometimes known as Roussette) makes lovely white wine with mountain flower and herb aromas, and light to medium weight and body. Altesse is a late ripening grape and has a low crop yield compared to most grapes, but for many winemakers in these two regions it’s a beautiful expression of their land and history. Our friend Franck Peillot makes one of our favorite Altesse wines in the lovely Bugey mountain hamlet of Montagnieu. His Altesse is complex, and in addition to the characteristic minerality and acidity, in most vintages the bones of Franck’s Altesse are filled out with just enough flesh to make it a perfect accompaniment to sauteed or roasted fish, especially of the freshwater variety. Franck’s Altesse starts out fresh and linear, and after a couple years bottle-aging, it starts to turn more golden and rich. It’s a good wine to buy a few bottles to drink now, a year from now, and save one for 5 or more years to experience its development. (At RW, and Astor Wines, astorwines.com, $23.96)

A half hour drive southwest out of the mountains from the Cave Peillot, over the Rhone River and into the department of Isere, is the Domaine Nicolas Gonin. Nicolas has been described as the patron saint of orphaned grapes. He’s done extensive research into the wine history of his region, and works to revive varietals, some of which are nearly extinct. One such varietal is Persan, which was nearly wiped out after the phylloxera epidemic of the late 1800’s, and, unlike other grapes of the region, was barely replanted. Nicolas’ Persan is a joy – a midweight red with a delicious black currant fruitiness, minerality and an enjoyably tannic rusticity that pairs well with poultry and red meats. Like most heirloom grapes it’s reminiscent of other wines, in this case Syrah, but it very much has it’s own unique character. (At RW, and Flatiron Wines, flatiron-wines.com, $23.99.)

It’s that unique character that drives our passion to keep exploring the diverse world of wine, and these are just three of the heirloom varietals we love. There are so many more – far too numerous to cover in one column, but a sampling of other, lesser known varietals that we recommend that you seek out are whites including Assyrtiko from the Greek Island of Santorini, Prié Blanc from the Valle d’Aosta in Northwest Italy, the Hodarribi Zurri that goes Txokolina from Northern Spain, and reds include Frappato from Sicily, Mencia from Bierzo in Northwestern Spain, Freisa and Ruché from Piedmont in Italy, and Pineau d’Aunis from the Loire in France.

Just as we support small regional farms in the Northeast that provide us with everything from heirloom pig to heirloom corn that we grind for our polenta, it follows that at Rose Water we seek out and support small farmers of heirloom grapes (but we can and do look further afield for wine). We love to offer our customers unique wine experiences – for us, wine isn’t just a joyously diverse agricultural product, it’s a fascinating and complex expression of earth, sun and craft that we have the pleasure of sampling from across the globe, and sharing with you.