Posted: Saturday, July 17, 2000
By Ryan Isaac
New York wines, long
overshadowed by their West Coast brethren, are getting
new respect, at least in the retail world. Today,
Vintage New York, a SoHo shop selling only wines and
food products from New York state, is opening its doors
to the public.
The project is the brainchild of Robert Ransom,
founder of Rivendell Winery in New York's Hudson Valley,
and Susan Wine, former co-owner of The Quilted Giraffe,
a Manhattan restaurant that closed in 1992.
Few wine shops, even in New York
City, carry more than a handful of New York state
bottlings, so how do Wine and Ransom think they are
going to succeed with a New York-only store? A major
reason is that all 150 wines sold there are available to
taste. "The wine business has learned that if you put
the wine in peopleÿs mouths, they get to make their own
decisions," said Wine.
Wine added that they already
tested the idea in 1998 by putting 40 other New York
state wines on sale at Rivendell's tasting room in the
Hudson Valley. There, the bottles sold easily, she said.
With two tasting bars, one on
the main floor and one downstairs, Vintage New York's
patrons will have plenty of room to sample. Flight
tastings cost $5, which is refunded with a purchase of
more than $45.
Following a recent trend in wine
marketing, the bottles in the store are arranged not by
varietal but by style. More than 50 wineries throughout
Long Island, the Finger Lakes and the Hudson Valley are
represented, including W˜lffer Estate Sagpond Vineyards,
Ospreyÿs Dominion and Wagner. Most of the wines are
priced from $7 to $25.
The shop also sells artisanal
specialty foods from New York, such as Hudson Valley
foie gras, Coach Farm cheeses and Catsmo smoked fish. As
Vintage New York is legally an auxiliary of Rivendell
Winery, it is free to sell wine and food together and to
stay open on Sundays, unlike other Manhattan wine shops.
The store, at the corner of
Broome and Wooster streets, also has a room for private
parties or group tastings. In addition, Ransom and Wine
are creating a Web site (www.vintagenewyork.com) from
which New York state residents can order any of the
wines sold at the shop. They also have plans to publish
a related book.
"Our limitation is our niche,"
Wine says. "We can only sell New York wines, and we
canÿt ship outside of New York state. Those are my
boundaries."
# # #
Vintage New York
482 Broome St.
New York NY 10013
Telephone: (212) 226-9463
Fax: (212) 226-8812
Hours: Monday through Saturday, 11
a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 9 p.m. (From July 17
through July 21, 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.)
BAR
