Thursday Tastings

Four wines. One grape. Four addresses. Everything on the table tonight is Chardonnay, and nothing tastes the same, because in Burgundy the address does the talking. We start seventy miles north of everywhere else, in Chablis, where Droin's premier cru Vaillons grows in fossilized oyster shell and stays almost entirely out of oak: white flowers, lemon pith, and a chalky...

Eight bubbles. Three ways to make them. Not one of them Champagne. Harvest starts in a few weeks and the cellar gets serious, so this is the calm before the crush: the last easy Thursday of summer, poured cold. Every wine on the table started still, and where the second fermentation happens is the whole story. We open with a...

Twelve wines. One peninsula. The day Italy closes shop and heads to the beach. Ferragosto is August 15, the day the whole of Italy stops working and heads for the coast. Offices close, cities empty, and lunch runs until it turns into dinner. We are getting there two days early, and since there is no single Ferragosto wine, because there...

Seven wines. One grape. Four names. Grenache answers to four of them: Garnacha in Spain, Garnatxa across the line in Catalonia, Cannonau on Sardinia, and the same vine in every case. Where it started is still argued — the traditional account has it spreading out of Aragón with the medieval Crown of Aragon, and Sardinian researchers have made a serious...

Six wines. Four countries. Nowhere to hide. Say Riesling and most people hear sweet — so the first four pours are bone dry. We open in the Pfalz with Von Winning, jump hemispheres to Henschke's Eden Valley, taste all three rows of Pierre Sparr's Alsace grand cru holding, and hit full dry power on Prager's Roman-cut terraces above the Danube....

Six barrels. One weekend. Gone. Every bottle in this flight exists exactly once — one-off barrel lots from the Basalt Bash, the Rocks District's charity auction, numbered by hand and available nowhere else. Most are grown on the Milton-Freewater cobblestones the labels legally can't name: Gramercy's Holy Roller Syrah opens with the prettiest face of the Rocks, Delmas and Devison...

Seven wines. One grape. Seven accents. This Thursday is all Cabernet Franc — one grape wearing seven different accents. We open pink with Chanteleuserie's Bourgueil rosé, take a natural detour through Bordeaux with Château de Fontenille's La Coucoute, then go deep into the Loire: Catherine & Pierre Breton's Franc de Pied, Antoine Sanzay's La Paterne, and Yannick Amirault's Côte 50....

Six whites. Six grapes. From Friuli to the slopes of Etna. This Thursday we're doing Italian whites the long way around — six wines, six different grapes, not a repeat in the bunch. Serious Pinot Grigio from Terlato in Friuli, coastal Vermentino from ColleMassari in the Maremma, a Langhe Sauvignon from Barolo's own G.B. Burlotto, volcanic Carricante grown on Mount...

Five Champagnes. Four corners of the region. One holiday weekend. This Thursday we're pouring the real thing for the holiday weekend — five Champagnes that cover the region corner to corner. We start in the Côte des Bar with Chassenay d'Arce's Sélection Blanche, climb the Côte des Blancs with Gimonnet's Cuis 1er Cru and Billecart-Salmon's Grand Cru blanc de blancs,...

Six light reds. Six grapes. All better with a chill. This Thursday we're pouring crunchy reds — low-tannin, high-fun bottles that actually want a chill. A Cinsault from the south of France, an Argentine Criolla, Burlotto's Pelaverga from Piedmont, an Oregon Pinot, a volcanic Listán Negro from Tenerife, and a cru Beaujolais to close. Six light reds, all chill, zero...

Seven wines. One color. From a New Zealand bay to a Bandol hillside. This Thursday we're pouring rosé — and proving it's far more than poolside pink. We start light and bright in New Zealand's Marlborough, swing through Long Island and a California field blend, then dig into the serious end: a volcanic Listán Negro from the Canary Islands, the...

Seven wines. The whole continent. Fifteen bucks. This Thursday we're pouring South America — well beyond the usual Malbec. A Mendoza Blanc de Blancs, a canned Chilean Sauvignon, an Uco Valley Chenin, high-altitude Pinot, a Garnacha-Monastrell-Syrah blend, a Uruguayan Tannat, and a serious PerSe Malbec to close. Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay in seven glasses. No reservation needed. Just show up....

Six bottles of bubbles. Zero Champagne. All easy on the wallet. This Thursday we're pouring sparkling — proof you don't need Champagne to have a great time. A French Blanc de Blancs, an Italian Sorbara, a Loire Crémant, Austrian and Jura bottles with real depth, and a Cava rosé to close. Bubbles from all over the map, none of them...

Six wines. Two grapes. One famous hillside. This Thursday we're pouring Burgundy — the whole Côte in six glasses. We open with Chablis and a Chassagne-Montrachet for the Chardonnay side, then cross into Pinot Noir: a humble Passe-Tout-Grains, a Côte d'Or villages, a Pommard, and — because why not — a Nuits-Saint-Georges premier cru from Jean Grivot. Two grapes, one...

Six Malbecs. Two countries. One very misunderstood grape. This Thursday we're pouring Malbec — and making the case that it's far more than supermarket steak wine. Five from Argentina, from an everyday Zuccardi up to Tapiz's single-vineyard Black Tears, plus El Enemigo's brooding take — and one ringer from Cahors, Malbec's French birthplace, where they still call it Côt. Same...

Eight wines. All under thirty. All begging for a porch. This Thursday we're pouring porch pounders — eight bright, easy, criminally drinkable bottles for the months that earn them. Gascon blend, Alto Adige Pinot Grigio, Cretan Assyrtiko, Austrian Grüner, a white Rioja, Argentine Torrontés, Barossa Semillon, and a chillable Gamay to close. Crushable, affordable, porchable. No reservation needed. Just show...

Five grower Champagnes. One step up the ladder. This Thursday we're back in grower Champagne — and going deeper. Five small-farmer cuvées, from A. Margaine's premier cru and Rémi Georgeton's four-terroir blend to a Blanc de Meuniers from Mousse Fils, Frédéric Savart's Écueil Pinot, and a saignée rosé from Dehours. Every bottle grown and made by the same hands. No...

Seven wines. Sea to mountain. All of Spain in one flight. This Thursday we're pouring Spain — coast to coast and back up into the hills. We open with a long-aged Cava and a saline Basque Txakolina, head west for Galician Godello and Bierzo Mencía, then climb into the warm reds of Almansa, Borja, and Rioja. Seven regions, seven grapes,...