Grape Wine Journey

IWM @ Manhattan

New York City, that’s a place I use to spend a lot of time in. The museums, the shows, the yellow cabs, the bagels ….. visiting the Big Apple again brought back many fond memories of the good old days.  But then there was one thing I didn’t get to do back then – wine tasting!

So when the invitation came for wine tasting at Italian Wine Merchant in the heart of Manhattan, there could be only one response – SURE!

It was on a Saturday afternoon, the weather was sunny and warm.   I always believe NYC is a sleeping giant in the waking, and strolling down Park Avenue on the weekend gave one a sense of calmness.  The shop was on a quiet street off Park Avenue South.  It was on the ground floor of a 5-storey cobble stone building.

I was greeted warmly by John, one of their Portfolio Managers. He gave a tour of the shop – the wines were displayed on one of the walls with wooden shelves.  At the back of the shop, there was an open kitchen with a dining table that could sit around 20 people.  The tasting was in this dining hall.

Tasting @ IWM

The theme of the tasting? “A Study of Sangiovese”  The classic region for producing Sangiovese is Chianti in Tuscany.  We tasted 6 wines with 2 wines from Umbria and the rest from Tuscany.  The acidity of the wines was quite high, as with most of Italian wines.  Italian wines are made for food, so there were cheese, ham and bread for us to enjoy with the wines.

Wine brings people together, and the 2-hours wine tasting lasted almost 4 hours.   The one thing I remember from the tasting – Umbria’s red is worth a try.  It was the surprise of the day!