(A)ll’Acqua + (B)arbrix + (C)laudio = WINE
If you’ve ever wondered how wine in a restaurant list is chosen watch Claudio Botta of Barbrix and All’Acqua. He has an impeccable palate and chooses his wine list carefully. When wine reps come out with open samples - glasses are splashed with a short pour and Claudio swirls, smells, sips, and spits it back out into large white paper cups. No one for the record actually drinks the wine in restaurant wine tasting.
Claudio Botta goes through the mechanics of professional and prodigious wine tasting, and it is hard core. While he contemplates wine on his palate, the reps talk him through, tell the story, break it down, answer questions, and hopefully at the end of it all — get an order.
Blotta is not effusive but he is polite - an efficient elegance. He’ll give you his attention, but don’t waste his time. If your wine is good, the order is given. Sometimes there’s a hole in his list that he knows he has to fill, but he also seems to improvise; to see what’s out there, who brings something good, how a new wine might fit, and where. He knows what he needs, but he’s also looking for what he doesn’t (yet) know he wants. That’s when wine reps come in.
Through out the tasting, if all goes well, Claudio gives an order and ship date, then calls – Next. How he keeps two wine lists that are constantly rotating with artisinal well-made and interesting wines and then maintains the right supply for an uncertain demand is pretty impressive.
Wine lists are always in progress, they change up and sell out, and buyers like Claudio are willing to try something new within some of the steady more long term labels. He approaches wine the way a chef faces a market, with an eye for what is good, and a trust in his palate. I asked if there was anything he didn’t taste or need, and he was quick to say, “Bordeaux.”
The afternoon I was there, it was all about Rosé. Summer is rosé season and it’s everywhere. It’s juicy with alluring bright layers of strawberry and watermelon, and sometimes floral and spice. Every region varies of course.
On wine tasting days there are so many wines put in front of Claudio it’s difficult to believe he keeps them memorized and straight, but he does. At the end of the afternoon, cases of wine were sold and bought, for two hour straight, by ten-plus reps coming through, all done to furnish two different restaurants by one man - Claudio.
Some of the varietals tasted.... GRUNERVETLINER, TINTA RORIZ, BLAUFRANKISCH, MALVASIA, SABLET, AGLIANICO, ANJOU, NEBBIOLO, COSTIERE DE NIMES-ROSE, SANCERRE, RIESLING, COTE DU RHONE, BEAUJOLAIS, SYRAH – BIEN NACIDO, ROUSSANNE, CENTRAL COAST- PINOT, CHIANTI, SAPERAVI, TSINANDALI, SANGIOVESE, PECORINO, GRENACH, VERDEJO, SPATBUGUNDER, ROLLE, SAVENNIERE ...
Reservations: barbrix.com ; allacquarestaurant.com
