Fresh Eats: Deciphering the Wine List at Bar Tartine

A A A Comments By W. Blake Gray Wednesday, Jul 20 2011

SF Weekly has decided to occasionally write about the wine lists of restaurants Jonathan Kauffman reviews, when appropriate. (Burger Joint: Probably not appropriate. Michael Mina: Yeah, we're on it.) Because we like to make things difficult, we're starting out at Bar Tartine, whose general manager and wine director Alex Fox previously worked at Gary Danko and Myth.

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Bar Tartine

561 Valencia (at 16th St.)
San Francisco, CA 94110

Category: Restaurant > California

Region: Mission/ Bernal Heights

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Fox has assembled an exciting list for wine geeks that is bound to perplex people who aren't regular readers of Palate Press: a Napa Valley Tocai Friulano/Ribolla Gialla/Chardonnay blend, a Saperavi from Georgia (not the one next to Florida), and other obscurities.

"The emphasis is on lighter, lower-tannin reds," Fox says. "There's a lot of spice in the food, but it's not hot. We're looking for aromatic wines that have a little sweet and sour, playing off the cabbage. I don't care what the [grape] variety is."

Not one of the 66 wines could be called a major brand. Calera is the most familiar name, and we like the 2008 Ryan Vineyard Pinot Noir ($79). But who goes to a Cal-Hungarian restaurant for the familiar? By the glass, we'd try that Massican "Annia" 2010 Tocai/Ribolla/Chard blend ($12) or the Abbazia di Novacella Alto Adige Müller-Thurgau 2009 ($10), because with the rich food, we'd look for something light and aromatic to refresh the palate.

With the goat meatballs, Fox suggests a glass of the Tami Sicilia Nero d'Avola 2009 ($9). But with the sour-cherry soup, he recommends one of his 16 beers by the bottle, the Rodenbach Flanders Red from Belgium ($7).

Markup on bottles is generally about double retail, but we found a steal: Wittmann Westhofener S Rheinhessen Trocken Riesling 2007 ($55), which is over $40 in many stores. For a red, we have our eye on Charles Joguet Clos du Chêne Vert Chinon 2005 ($59), from a very good Loire Cabernet Franc producer in a very good vintage. We'd be perfectly happy with the cheapest wine on the list, Domaine de la Pepière Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur Lie 2009 ($36), which typifies the small-producer, hand-harvested aesthetic Fox is shooting for.

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