New York Riesling Diary: Day 54

A couple of hours ago I was making my way along Bleeker Street/Greenwich Village in an easterly direction – facing the lost world of Europe! – when suddenly close to the junction with Thompson Street a young guy beamed at me and said, “Hey Stuart, it’s Vincent, Vincent Bründlmayer.” Only on Tuesday the students at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park/NY had been knocked out by Vincent’s 2011 Heiligenstein Riesling. It was the way the wine was simultaneously rich and cool, smooth and minerally that made it stand out amongst the dry wines in the tasting I put together with Jim Trezise of the International Riesling Foundation (IRF). And over the holidays I’ve frequently served the elegant, creamy 2007 Brundlmäyer Brut sparkler here at the Hotel of Hope where I’m staying. Everybody enjoyed it, even those who aren’t normally keen on sparkling wine.

So I invited Vincent for a coffee at Caffe Reggio on MacDougal Street where the coffee turned into a beer. He admired my camera and just to show him how well it copes with low lighting situations like inside Caffe Reggio I took the photograph above. He told me all about the new Bründlmayer cellars which were completed just in time for the 2012 crush and how he thinks this has changed the wines in a positive way. Then I told him all about the coast to coast trip I will be taking for the German Wine Institute in June, and how I will be shooting a feature length road movie of that trip. He suggested that the vehicle I’ll be traveling  in will be a kind of bat mobile of Riesling and that, at least for the duration, I’ll therefore be a kind of Batman of Riesling. That’s something I need to chew over seriously – if I ‘m Batman, then who is Two Face and is Paul Grieco the Joker? – and I wonder if some of you have some thoughts on that subject? Either way Vincent is one of the group of Austrian and German winegrowers who will be attending my party on Tuesday night at American Flatbread TriBeCa (see the diary entry for Day 53 below for contact info to obtain an invitation). I’m  really looking forward to seeing a bunch of you there. Until then may the Riesling Force be with you!