CorkRules - Episodes | Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels La Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels

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About this Episode

Restaurant sommelier and wine educator Alexis Rogers and Robert Tas explore the wine list at Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels. This restaurant serves French and Mediterranean small plates in a rustic-chic bar. Alexis helps find the best wines on this French-heavy wine list, and shares her expertise in blind tasting to help you understand what to look for when tasting wine, and, of course, she identifies the best wines to pair with menu items from this extensive list that hosts 450 wines from around the world.

Wines reviewed include:

Domaine Piccard Coup de Fouet Villette Grand Cru, 2018
Domaine Chapel Charbonnieres Fleurie

Transcript: La Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels

Compagnie des Vin Surnaturales

RT: Hello and Welcome to CorkRules!

I’m your host Robert Tas along with Alexis Rogers, wine educator and restaurant sommelier

Hi Alexis, thanks for being back with us on another episode of CorkRules, - a podcast where we help simplify and demystify the wine lists at some of your favorite restaurants. We talk with certified sommeliers and wine professionals who point out interesting bottles, classic food and wine pairings, hidden gems, value wines, or splurge wines that will take your dining experience over the top.

AR: Glad to be here, thanks for having me.

RT: Today we are talking about Compagnie des Vin Supernaturels Wine Bar NYC in lower Manhattan. Compagnie comes to us from the same group behind Experimental Cocktail Club. This chic wine bar is known for their bangin’ Happy Hour featuring 25 wines by the glass and another 450 wines from around the world. The list is 70% French and is lovingly compiled by Sommelier Caleb Ganzer while Chef Eric Bolyard put out beautiful seasonal small plates perfect for pairing. Alexis, I know you’ve picked out some great French wines for us….

AR: I have! But I don't actually know what the first glass is! There is an option on the glass pour list to “Guess the Glass”. Blind Tasters Rejoice! This is a great opportunity to test your abilities and win the bottle. I would be interested to know how specific they require your guess to be - just grape? Country? Region? Subregion? Vintage? Producer? Either way, it’s fun and a great way to attract serious wine lovers - aside from the 40+ page wine list that is. Wine SHOULD be fun though. Blind tasting is all about narrowing down what a wine is NOT. Such as “Finished too tart to be Napa Chard, or too minerally to be S African Chenin, a distinct rose and lychee aroma can only mean Gewurtztraminer but it’s too lean to be Alsace - must be Germany? Cherry cola taste? That’s gotta be Sonoma Pinot. It’s about using clues and ruling out grapes and regions until you land on the most likely call.

RT : That DOES sound fun, you probably have to have a pretty solid foundation of wine knowledge for that though.

AR: Yes, or have tasted a lot of wines from all over the world. Speaking of wine from all over the world, this next pick is from Switzerland. It’s the Domaine Piccard Coup de Fouet Villette Grand Cru 2018. This bottle is orange wine made from the Chasselas grape. Native to Switzerland near Lake Geneva, this grape is the classic pairing for authentic fondue. Chasselas produces wines with notes of red apple, apple blossom, melon, mint and smoke. This grape is very terroir influenced and any descriptors used to describe it can also be used to describe the country as well - crisp, clean, bright, fresh - even if they are a bit neutral. Haha… This bottle is also a skin-contact - or orange wine so we will see our varietal notes but in general, a bit more savory with added texture and funkiness. The mouthfeel on this wine is thrilling from start to finish. This unfiltered bottle has a tiny bit of cloudiness, a bit of tang, and a lil sparkle on the tongue. Well, more like a sprinkle.

RT: A Sprinkle? What do you mean? Is it a sparkling wine?

AR: No, not fully sparkling, but it does have a small amount of effervescence.

RT: That sounds like it hits all the “wine nerd” bullet points - obscure grape, non-classical region, orange wine. Sounds fun!

AR: Haha!!! For Sure - def a geeky wine. This next wine will also separate those in the know pretty distinctly - it’s from Beaujolais. New or non-explorative wine drinkers will only think of the Fruit Punch-esque Beaujolais Nouveau and think this bottle “unrefined” But those in the know will make the joke that it’s technically a Cru Burgundy. The bottle is Domaine Chapel Charbonnieres Fleurie. Made from the Gamay grape, Fleurie is one of 10 crus in the region recognized for making wines of exceptional quality and is noted for its feminine, floral characteristics. Tasting notes on this include juicy strawberry, rasp preserves, pink flowers, violets, hints of licorice, potting soil and crushed rocks. It’s fruity, earthy, minerally, AND floral. These wines are just FUN to drink. Pair this low tannin, med-bodied wine with a charcuterie board as it goes with everything on it - meats, cheeses, pickles, fruit, mustards, jams - Cru Beaujolais tackles them all. This particular bottle is made from high-quality organic grapes w/ minimal intervention and no added sulphites and is a beautiful indication of the convergence of high-quality site and talented winemaking.

RT: Wow, that could be a whole meal right there! Alexis, thank you for being with us to talk about the very cool list at Compagnie Wine Bar and giving us a little insight on blind tasting, that was cool! To our audience, thank you all for joining us here on CorkRules.

If you would like us to review one of your favorite restaurants, please send us email to:

Info@corkrules.Com or visit our web website where we have a request form available, and we will do our best to get it in the queue as quickly as possible.

We are looking forward to being with you on another CorkRules episode soon. In the meantime,

please check out our website for other episodes of your favorite restaurant wine lists or wherever you get your podcasts.

And finally, drink what you love and please make sure you drink responsibly.

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