Karakterre, Orange Glou, Serial Killers and more
a little of Paris and where to eat and drink as well
Let’s get the announcements out of the way: This week’s NYC wine events. There are two big ones. Karakterre and Orange Glou.
The former is billed as a satellite fair for Eastern European winemakers and their friends. (The majority though, are Austrian). Held on top of Rockefeller Center, it’s a stunning setting. The line up is kind of excellent, though it’s unclear how many winemakers will be there to pour their own wines. For example, Christian Tschida is listed, but he is currently in Japan.
One winemaker from Italy just caught my eye — Claudio Plessi. I’m looking forward to tasting his Lambruscos—and I hope he himself is behind the table.
Head here for your tickets.
Glasses
Zalto is a sponsor— a company that I adore (along with Glasvin.) My fave is their water glass which is a mini universal. But here they are —with the $20 deposit—allowing you to test drive their new glass. “Balance.”
This model reminds me of a more elegant version of the glass conceived by Gianfranco Soldera—which frankly I was never sold on even though I did once spend an afternoon in Montalcino drinking a lot of his beautiful wine out of them.
I admit that drinking out of the “Balance” is fun and elegant, in the way drinking out of a coupe is. It also feels too breakable.
By the way, there is a debate inside the world of natural that the best glass is a glass with no pretension, sort of like the little tasting glass that Jules Chauvet helped to design, although one needs a lot of neck flexibility to drink from it.
Or a squat tumbler.
It’s an interesting argument. I know some who are completely vociferous about the best glass for natural wine. Meanwhile, I don’t care as long as it has a thin lip—and I feel the same about my coffee cup. But! I digress.
My main complaint with the Balance glass is that if you have the swirling tic as I do, it just doesn’t work. You’ll lose a lot of wine with a good solid glass rotation. One can argue that because of the wide mouth, with so much aeration—wine doesn’t need swirling but I can’t stop. And for being called “Balance” the glass is very top-heavy.
But I’m still experimenting —I might change my mind because I am oddly attracted to it. But come to Karakterre and try it. I expect many people will lose their $20 deposit for breakage. And so I’m bringing my glass from home. I’m really interested to know what you think!
Now on Sunday you’ll be thirsty once more so head on down to the Union Square area for Orange Glou. Doreen Winkler has worked hard to grow this festival focusing on skin contact wines, and I’ll be headed there for the first time. I’m finally around! The lineup looks great.
New to natural? (Are you?) On Tuesday evening I’m giving a class on Natural 101 over at Community Wine and Sprits. So there’s that too. We’ll have glasses so you can leave yours at home.
Back from France. I needed a mental health break and I got it. I included a visit with Marc Soyard in the Northern Rhone and my overall impression is that he is a genius.