I met a friend for drinks yesterday evening at Paul Greico’s new’ish wine bar, Terroir. Most remarkably, the establishment is located at 413 East 12th Street, New York, NY. So what? you might ask. Well, back in the day, I used to live at 417 East 12th Street. At the time, a girlfriend refused to attend our house-warming party because she felt the neighborhood was unsafe. Fast forward nearly 15 years and now the East Village is not only trendy, but fairly gentrified. My former roommate might not recognize the old ‘hood.
But, enough strolling down memory lane, back to the real reason for the visit. I had briefly met Paul, who serves as owner and sommelier of Terroir, at the Long Island Wine Symposium last week, which reminded me that I had wanted to try his place. Accordingly, when my friend suggested that we meet there, it was perfect timing.
From 5:00-6:00 PM, they offer their version of Happy Hour, with a select group of wines available for $6.00, instead of the post-6:00 PM price of $9.00. A glass of wine for $6.00 in Manhattan is quite rare these days, so we planned to arrive around 5:00 and take advantage of this opportunity. There were 5 or 6 wines in this group and we both chose to start with a Kabinett Riesling from Germany. The server brought over two glasses (Riedel) and the bottle of wine and proceeded to pour each of us a small amount to taste before filling the glass. The wine was without faults and actually quite nice, so we let her finish serving it to us and continued to enjoy the wine.
At its conclusion, we decided to switch to red wine and move past page 2 of the lengthy wine menu, housed in old-fashioned loose-leaf binders with wine-related terms doodled all over them. Wines by the glass are listed by whites and by reds and are available in either a 6 oz. "glass" or 3 oz. "taste." As we preferred to taste more than drink more, we ordered "taste" sizes of our next wines. For my friend, a taste of the Blaufrankisch and, for me, a Morgon from 2003, both of which were ~ $6.25. Depending upon the selection, tastes ranged from $6-$13, with glasses ranging from $8.00 to $25.00.
About half-way through our visit, the skies opened up and the beautiful sunny day gave way to a torrential downpour. It was still raining heavily as we sipped our red wines, prompting us to make a third selection to avoid heading out in the inclement weather. The wines were a Bourgueil and a Crozes-Hermitage. As we were perusing the list, I overheard someone speaking amongst another set of patrons, describing the aromas, flavors and mouthfeel of a particular wine, much as I might do for class. I turned to see our server speaking with the group adjacent to us and was very impressed with her knowledge and vocabulary. While such expertise is to be expected in a wine bar, it is not always delivered.
As we drained the last drops of wine from our glasses, we looked over to the window and saw that the sun had returned once more, making it much easier to consider our respective departures. And with that, we paid our tab and headed off into the sunset.