There is a great little restaurant in San Antonio just south of downtown called The Monterey. (http://www.themontereysa.com) When I am there, I always try to visit and have never been disappointed. It’s in a 40’s era gas station so most of the seating is outside but don’t let that dissuade you. The food is great and the wine list is perfect for Berserkers. Last visit I had a 2007 Jean Foillard Morgon Cuvee 3.14 for $69 that was a steal.
They turn over the menu every few weeks so I wanted to see what might be on the menu when I’m there and found this:
Expensive wines by-the-glass?!?
Because we’re degenerates for wines that outpace our budget, we, ahem, “invested” in a device called the Coravin. We’ll spare you the boring tech talk, but it allows us to pour wine without pulling the cork. That allows us to serve you foolishly expensive wines by-the-glass. Magic! Magic that you can drink! Cult California? Sure! White burgundy? No problem! Hermitage? You bet your ass!
07 latour meursault goutte d’or (burgundy) $19/$74
11 j. christopher pinot noir ‘Willamette valley’ (oregon) $15/$60
10 chateau de beaucastel chateauneuf-du-pape (france) $35/$159
10 Saxum ‘heart stone’ (paso robles) $35/$159
10 p.jaboulet aine ‘la chapelle’ hermitage (france) $45/$195
10 dominus napa valley (ca, usa) $55/$255
11 sine qua non ’dark blossom’ grenache (ca, usa) $60/$285
This is the first time I’ve seen a restaurant using a Coravin to pour wines of this level. The prices seem pretty good as well based on Wine Searcher.
What do you think? Is this a lone ranger that is catering to the tastes of folks like us or will this possibly be a trend?
I was friends with the owner when I lived in SA (as are a couple other board members). The list has always been a wine geeks dream, with very fair prices. They keep pretty thin stock so the list turns over frequently. I think those prices are pretty fair, especially when you factor in the wholesale cost of wines in TX and the chance that the bottle won’t be correctly preserved after multiple taps. Also knowing Chad, I doubt they are measuring the pours–they would probably be ~6oz based on their normal glass program, but I haven’t been in town in a year to check for myself.
If you’re ever in SA, this really the only must visit place for wine, the rest of the town is playing catch up. (the beer list is pretty damn good too)
It’s been making its way into NYC wine lists for a while now. I know most of the Michael White restaurants are doing it, albeit at a markup which makes it unattractive for me.
Yeah, I’ve also seen this at del Posto (where I think they partially do it to look cool, since they did it for us with wines that are part of their pairings with the tasting menu) and also at places like the NoMad in NYC. In some cases it’s a great idea - the NoMad was doing it for glasses of the’04 Mascarello Barolo, for @$30 a glass. After letting it sit for over an hour, it was pretty nice
My Coravin should arrive today. I will start using it next week. First wine will be 2003 Il Poggione Brunello Riserva Vigna Paganelli for $18 glass. I will let you know how it works out.
lots of places using coravin for more interesting wines in DC. I think Kapnos has a bunch of different years of Chat. Musar it offers under Coravin (among other things).
J is much correct. Chad keeps the best combo wine & beer list in town and at fair prices. This and his other sports Barbaro & Hot Joy are musts for beer/wine lovers.
This is awesome to see in Texas! I go to San Antonio frequently but haven’t tried The Monterey before, looks like it’s time to check it out. Thanks for sharing this Monte.
