New York Riesling Diary: Day 58

Here’s Vincent Bründlmayer of the Bründlmayer estate in Langenlois/Austria being interviewed on camera by Brooklyn-based documentary filmmaker Marcarthur Baralla for Watch Your Back (a Riesling movie). My party at American Flatbread TriBeCa (205 Hudson Street at Canal Street) was a blast, also because it was the first day of shooting for my feature-length movie. Marcarthur and his assistant interviewed dozens of our guests, including Paul Grieco of Hearth & Terroir, Harmon Skurnik of Michael Skurnik Wines who generously provided a slew of exciting wines from their program, and winemakers like Bründlmayer and Johannes Selbach from Selbach-Oster in the Mosel/Germany. Towards the end it got pretty wild, but that gave us some spectacular material for one of the opening scenes of the movie. Thanks to everyone who stepped up in front of our green screen! In the finished product that green will be replaced by the Manhattan skyline by night. Sadly, you will have to wait some months for the finished product, but I guess something will go up on You Tube much sooner. Watch this space!

On a serious note a number of guests spoke to me about the New York Riesling Diary Story ‘ What is in the Feiring Line’. I had worries that this story which explored the role of sulfur in winemaking and in our own bodies was too science-heavy, but everyone who spoke to me yesterday evening felt that the science had been not only easily comprehensible, but also necessary to break through the emotionalism which so often colors the treatment of this issue is usually handled in the wine media. As somebody said to me, “opinions are not the same thing as scientific arguments and you showed very clearly the difference between the two when it comes to sulfur in wine.” Thank you New York Wine City for taking me so seriously!