Curious if anyone has suggestions for NYC restaurants with very good, higher end, by the glass and/or half bottle lists. We generally order at most 1 bottle when we go out, so having the deepest wine list, best wine service, etc, really doesn’t do me much good. On the other hand having a nice list of interesting by the glass (esp older bottles, higher end Coravin-ed bottles, etc) really can make for a fun meal. A lot of the hip wine places (Racines, for example), lean towards cheap and young by the glass selections, which is not really what I’m looking for.
The two best I’ve found recently are Jungsik, which has a bunch of wines on Coravin plus a reasonable half-bottle list, and Maialino, which currently has a great selection of old Barolos by the glass. Gabriel Kreuther has a not-so-bad half bottle list too.
Hearth and Gramercy Tavern were the first two to come to mind. I know that Hearth usually has 2-3 things on coravin, GT’s list is pretty wide, but not too many “higher-end” selections.
The Modern typically has a nice BTG program, and if you eat in the front room, not too pricey (especially compared to the dining room).
EMP/Nomad have extensive older BTG but you’re going to pay for it. Similarly with Del Posto…
BTG Programs that I HATE:
Contra/Wildair…can you make your list any more aggressive? just listing producers absent region/grapetype is annoying…further almost every glass I’ve had here reminds me why I think that the “natural wine” show (at least as they are parsing it) is a sham…I BYO’d the last 2 times there and was SO much happier
Ssam bar: yes, I’d love to pay 22 bucks for a glass of wine where the bottle costs 18 bucks. Oh, and you’re going to bring me a glass of sparkling chenin and tell me that its sekt? Jordan Scalito should be ashamed at the lack of wine knowledge, markup, and lack of good pairing options at the 2nd avenue location