[New York Peasant by Wilfrid: March 17, 2008]
To the first New York Wine Expo
...at the Javits Center, having ingeniously (I was late) neglected to eat breakfast.
Scroll down for the Uffizzi drawings at The Morgan, etc.
Maybe it takes a Robert Parker to sample the wares of some two hundred and fifty (by my count) producers and make any kind of sense of the experience. But even he would probably line his stomach with a muffin before trying.
Sure, I swilled and spat, swilled and emptied my glass into the nearest bucket, but alcohol is inevitably absorbed, and after an hour my taste receptors are closed for business. After a certain point, I can tell if it's nice or nasty, and that's about all - and one of the downsides of being handed tastes by the people who make the wine is that the inclination to say "Wow, that's really horrible" must be resisted.
Not that I didn't find some nice sips....
Generally speaking, this was a show presenting budget to medium-cost wines, selling mainly to people compiling lists for medium-priced restaurants, as well as to retailers. The main interest, I found, lay in some quirky, not to say questionable wine-related projects.
At the dubious end, I found the Wine That Loves people. As in Wine That Loves Pasta, or Roast Chicken, or Whatever's For Dinner. The concept here is to offer budget wines which not only go with specific dishes, but which tell you just that by their name. Wine That Loves Roast Chicken (I am not making this up) with a picture of the chicken on the bottle.
Ralph Hersom, formerly at Le Cirque and Windows on the World, explained to me that the wines are blended for consistency: the return customer can be confident that the Pasta wine will always go with pasta. On the reverse of the bottle, notes explain why (tannins, acidity, etc.). My question is, why seek to educate the consumer? Repeat business, in the medium-term, is only going to come from a market segment which wants to drink wine with dinner but doesn't want to understand anything about it.
I think the size of that market segment is over-estimated here. I was so intrigued by the proposition, I can't remember if I liked the wines or not.
A project with its heart in the right place was Bob's African, a series of wines made in South Africa by an wine-maker from Oregon, imported by Fat Barrel. Proportions of the profits are to benefit Africare and other relief organizations working against HIV/AIDS. At the lower end of the price range, these were full-flavored, but not ridiculous, food wines. The challenge here is distinguishing the wines, which in turn relies on the wine-store or restaurant being willing to convey the social message at point-of-sale.
Another concept I struggled with initially - and it wasn't just me - was the Layer Cake portfolio. Several different wines, all apparently made by Jayson Woodbridge and his team. But where? Apparently, each in a different country. Okay. Anyway, it was a nice, full-bodied, juice-sweet Primitivo.
And finally, City Winery. Here, membership - or "barrel ownership" - permits you to work with inhouse wine-makers and a design team to produce, bottle, and label your own wine. Basic membership - $5,000 - gets you a barrel; apparently about 250 bottles of wine. It occurs to me that this would have made a nice hobby for Eliot Spitzer.
Light-headed, I make for the exit.
To the Marlborough Gallery on 57th
...for an exhibition of the late R.B. Kitaj's work. It opens in April (read the press releases), and so...
To the Morgan for drawings from the Uffizzi collection
As I have said, albeit rarely, in the past - I know my limitations. Some sub-departments of the seven arts I can enjoy, but haven't the knowledge to criticize. The draftsmanship of Michaelangelo and his disciples is a good example: it seems awfully good, but beyond wondering at their ability to suggest volumes of flesh (the human figure is their perpetual subject) with pen and ink or a little black chalk, I can't really say why.
This show consists mainly of drawings committed by a group of Florentine artists in preparation for painting the interior of the Palazzo Vecchio, under the direction of artist, tutor and - it seems - project manager Giorgio Vasari. Vasari is remember today as the author of Lives of the Painters, but he was a practitioner too, and he is well represented here.
If anything brought me up short, amidst the usual mix of classical and religious themes, it was a few portraits which gave off a disturbing whiff of modernity. A drawing, three-quarter face, of a gentleman by Alessandro Alori captures a very contemporary expression.
The Morgan Uffizi page is here.
I also stumbled across an exhibit across the hall dedicated to Irving Penn's portraits of celebrities, primarily writers and artists. It's a very familiar set of images - the saurian profile of Somerset Maugham is unforgettable - but worth a browse.
Penn shows through April 20, the Uffizi drawings through April 13.
To the New York Society Library
...for the dedication of the Peluso Exhibition Gallery. The exhibition space at the top of the grand staircase is re-named in acknowledgement of a substantial gift from Ada Peluso and her brother Romano in honor of their parents, long-time library members, Ignazio and Assunta Peluso.
We stood around with glasses of wine while anecdotes about the august institution, which celebrated its 250th Anniversary in 2004, were duly aired. I had forgotten the one about George Washington. He'd borrowed a volume from the library while passing through town, and had yet to return it. Executive privilege, perhaps?
And so to bed.
