I had no idea
Although I guess my idea of reasonably priced wine lists is different than his
But how else does one fly their own Cessna Citation to Europe to taste???
I had dinner with Eli some years ago. Fascinating man and we had a great discussion regarding Piedmont wines. He is very knowledgeable.
Castell’in Villa Chianti Classico Riserva 1995 @ $250 certainly caught my eye.
It looks like good pricing to me. Maybe not every bottle but for example he’s selling Selosse for a high retail price (like a NYC corkage above a good sale price) , 2000 Rayas around retail, etc. etc. There are lots of very interesting wines with age that aren’t super cheap but not outrageous. The BTG list is pretty interesting too… no great bargains but not crap for $15 like many places.
I just looked at what the article highlighted. I would think a reasonably priced wine list would have both good bottles in an absolute price level sense (nice selections at $50 or whatever) and some relative value ones, higher end stuff where the markup isn’t extreme, and the rarity/aging justify what the markup. (Although I’ve not been in some years, the Bastianich/Batali places actually seemed to have some of those attributes IIRC)
Maybe Zabar’s actual list has some of the above.
Brovia Barolo Castiglione Falletto bin 1901 s 2009
$85
sounds very reasonable
The list is so heavy in red and white Burgundy that it’s inevitably a bit thin in < $50 wines, but everything looks well selected so I wouldn’t hesitate to trust their recommendations. In whites they have Roulot and De Villaine Aligoté in that range.