In this episode, Robert Tas, CorkRules founder, and Maria Valetta, certified sommelier, review the wine list wines of the <a href="https://www.oysterbarny.com/">Grand Central Oyster Bar</a>, a historic restaurant that originally opened in 1913 in NY&rsquo;s Grand Central Station. &nbsp;They identify the perfect oyster wine, whites from the Loire Valley, and wines from the list that will take your dining experience to the next level here.

To understand what to pair with oysters or any other meal for that matter, it&rsquo;s good to understand the basic tasting notes and how they work with certain foods. So here&rsquo;s a quick review of the most popular varietals&rsquo; tasting notes and the foods that pair well.

Chardonnay has notes of yellow citrus, pear, green apple and maybe a touch of vanilla. It&rsquo;s a medium to full-bodied white and pairs well with rich seafood, cream sauces, and soft cheeses.

Sauvignon blanc is a little more bitter and tart than chardonnay. The notes include grapefruit pith sweeter notes of honeydew melon, passion fruit, and kiwi with a little herbaceous quality. It is a light- to medium-bodied wine that pairs well with fish, chicken, pork, Mexican, Vietnamese, and goat&#39;s cheese.

Pinot gris is light-bodied with delicate citrus and white floral notes. Light and easy to drink, these wines pair well with light fare such as salad, delicate fish dishes, and light, mild cheeses.

Riesling has notes of citrus and stone fruit these wines are usually floral with sweet herbal elements. They are high in acid when dry but they can also be sweet. These wines work well with Indian, Thai, Moroccan, and German fare.

Cabernet sauvignon is a full-bodied red with bold tannins, a long finish, and also generally has a higher alcohol content. The tasting notes are black cherry, black currant, and cedar. This varietal pairs well with heavier, fattier meats such as lamb and beef, and hard cheeses like Pecorino.

Syrah is also a full-bodied red but these wines are fruitier with medium-weight tannins. Syrah is often used ot create the Rhone blend. It also pairs well with strong meat flavors of lamb or smoked meats and hard cheeses. The tasting notes are blueberry, plum, black pepper, so this wine is a little spicier and lighter than the cabernet, while still holding the weight.

Zinfandel is on the lighter side. It&rsquo;s a medium-bodied wine that&rsquo;s fruity and spicy. It pairs well with lighter meats like chicken and pork but also works well with full-flavor cheeses such as Manchego, or Tommes de Sauvignon.

The Grand Central Oyster Bar lives up to its name, but for more information on their wine list, and other tips for wine and seafood pairings check out the CorkRules <a href="https://uat.corkrules.com/oyster-bar/episodes/11">wine review podcast.</a>&nbsp;

Cheers!

&nbsp;

About the CorkRules Podcast:&nbsp;Each week we pour a glass and share top restaurant wine list picks, providing you with the knowledge to confidently navigate the wine list through sommelier recommendations, suggested food pairings and expert insights

About CorkRules:&nbsp;CorkRules, the first digital wine app experience makes it easier for you to navigate the restaurant wine list, and provides you with personalized wine recommendations from your favorite restaurants. &nbsp;CorkRules helps you find the perfect wine for every occasion based on your preferences. Connect with friends and wine experts to discover new wines to try and learn about wine. CorkRules makes it easier to discover and drink what you love. &nbsp;

To understand what to pair with oysters or any other meal for that matter, it’s good to understand the basic tasting notes and how they work with certain foods. So here’s a quick review of the most popular varietals’ tasting notes and the foods that pair well.

Pairing Wine with Oysters at the Grand Central Oyster Bar

Wines from grapes grown in higher altitude areas with cooler climate has become quite the trend recently. This specific growing environment gives intense flavor but elegance and freshness to the final wines. To highlight and champion these conditions more and more winemakers are starting to use alto as a marketing and labelling term to show their grapes were grown in high altitude vineyards.

Decoding the wine label: Alto

Brut is a word often seen on labels for different kinds of sparkling wine. As you may have discovered when drinking these wines, it indicates that the wine is dry, meaning there is no perceived sweetness in the wine. But how about Extra Brut or Dry, what do they mean and are they the same as Brut?

Decoding the wine label: Brut

Semi-sweet Riesling, a type of wine falling out of style. It’s a shame, since these wines are perfect to pair with flavorful cuisines like Asian or Mexican, or simply drink as they come under the summer sun. The higher level of sugar left in the wine also means that the alcoholic fermentation was stopped before finishing, providing a wine with lower alcohol level and therefor easier grabbing a second glass of.

Decoding the wine label: Spätlese

Have you ever heard the word Xinomavro? Most have not. It is however a word on many sommeliers’ lips today, as it happens to be considered the grape variety with the highest quality in Greece, and one that is trending at the moment. The fact that Greece have been making wine for a long time comes as no surprise, but they have never exported an amount to make sure wine lovers around the globe tried it. With the growing wine tourism many have discovered these wines and are serving them in wine bars and restaurants in many countries today.

Decoding the wine label: Xinomavro

Chianti Classico, Valpolicella Classico, Soave Classico… Why do all these Italian wine regions have the Classico addendum and what does it mean? What is the difference for wines labeled as Classico?

Classico is a wine term in Italy seen on a few wine labels and it indicates that the wine’s from the historic center of the region, the heart. Using Chianti and Chianti Classico and their Sangiovese-based red wines as an example, Chianti is a rather large wine district within the Tuscany region. Chianti Classico is located withing Chianti as the central part and the one that originally existed. Back then this smaller region was actually called Chianti, but as the region grew the quality of the wine plummeted and the well-known characteristics of these red wines were watered down. The reputation took a hit and sales diminished. Eventually this led to the creation of Chianti Classico, which would be drawn from the original Chianti borders to recover the typicity of these wines. Today the quality of both Chianti and Chianti Classico have risen a lot due to modern techniques and knowledge about pruning, planting and temperature control in the winery.

Decoding the wine label: Classico

In the rarefied world of fine wine, where bottles can command prices equivalent to luxury cars, authenticity is everything. Laurent Ponsot's gripping memoir "FBI: Fake Bottle Investigation" reads more like a high-stakes thriller than a traditional wine book, chronicling his relentless pursuit of one of the wine world's most infamous counterfeiters, Rudy Kurniawan.

From Burgundy's Vineyards to the FBI's Most Wanted: A Winemaker's Quest for Justice

Chablis – one of the more popular styles of wine today and a region known by many. Most are familiar with the word Chablis and the light, fresh white wine with a touch of minerality it brings. Even though it’s a renowned wine, few knows what it really is.

Decoding the wine label: Chablis

Many grape varieties around the world of wine have names local to the region or country they’re grown in, even though they’re exactly the same. The most famous example would be Syrah in France where the same grape is named Shiraz in Australia. Another variety with two names is Pinot Grigio, or Pinot Gris.

Decoding the wine label: Pinot Grigio

Have you ever seen the term sur lie on a wine label? It’s not a grape and not a wine region, but a winemaking method used to give certain styles of white wine a rounder texture and a more complex flavor profile.

Decoding the wine label: Sur lie

Ai Fiori

Alexis Rogers

Ai Fiori

Music Intro:

RT: Hello and Welcome to CorkRules! A podcast where (in each episode) we will review a wine list from your favorite restaurants. I&rsquo;m your

host Robert Tas along with Alexis Rogers, Wine Educator and Restuarant Sommelier. Hello Alexis, Welcome back!

AR: Thanks Robert!. I&rsquo;m really stoked to be combing through the gargantuan wine list at Ai Fiorii with you today!

RT: This list is a perfect example of why we created CorkRules, to demystify the wine lists of your favorite restauranst. Being handed a wine list can be very intimidating - especially if it&rsquo;s 60 pages long!

Our aim is to help prepare you to navigate that list, find those hidden gems, value wines, bottles not to be missed or that special bottle that will take your dining experience over the top.

Today we are talking about the illustrious Ai Fiori, located on the 2nd floor of the Langham Hotel on 5th Ave. &ldquo;Award- Winning&rdquo; is an understatement here - Michelin Star, Esquire Magazine&rsquo;s Best New Restaurants in America, Zagat&rsquo;s Best Italian in NYC, Forbes Magazine 4 stars, the list goes on and on. Most pertinent to our discussion though is the Wine Spectator Grand Award. Less than 100 restaurants in the world have earned this super prestigious award which requires at least 1000 listed bottles and vigorous cellar and restaurant inspections.

So Alexis, I guess the question is, where do we start?

AR: With a list like this, it is probably best to employ the services of a sommelier. While this list is impeccably organized, the sheer amount of bottles alone is overwhelming for anyone. Even if you were able to narrow it down to a grape and a region, a sommelier would be able to help guide you to the specific bottle that&rsquo;s best for your budget and particular taste. Say you&rsquo;re looking for a French Chardonnay, they could save you flipping through over 5 pages of White Burgundy to help you differentiate between Puligny Montrachet and Mersault.

RT : I agree 100%! Their assistance is indispensable with a list like this! I do love White Burgundy though! But they sure can get expensive - hundreds of dollars a bottle can be pretty standard and thousands for Grand Crus. Is there anything close in a more affordable range?

AR: Absolutely! The 2019 Arbois Chardonnay Vielles Vignes from Vin Sans Nom. This Chardonnay hails from the lesser-known region of Jura, France, sandwiched between Burgundy and the Swiss border. The climate and soils are very similar to Burgundy so it&rsquo;s no surprise that the wines of this region are starting to gain a cult following - especially the Chardonnays! You can usually find these bottles on wine lists for less than $100 - that is when you CAN find them on wine lists.

RT: I love trying familiar grapes from unfamiliar regions, it really shows how important location is in wine!

RT: So now I&rsquo;m starting to get hungry, and I know we can&#39;t eat at Ai Fiori and NOT order the Astice entree! This butter-poached Nova Scotia lobster has been called &ldquo;The Greatest Dish in the World&rdquo; by a NY Post food critic. What are we pairing with this?

AR : With this dish in mind, I&rsquo;ve selected the 2011 Karthouserhoff GG Riesling. This is actually a half bottle so it&rsquo;s perfect to dedicate to just one course. People sometimes balk when I suggest a Riesling and definitively proclaim that they &ldquo;don&#39;t like sweet wine&rdquo;. But Riesling isn&#39;t always sweet, especially these days and especially from its ancestral home of Germany.&ldquo; G.G.&rdquo; is a classification that exists outside of German Wine Law that indicates that the grapes come from a top vineyard site agreed upon by the best producers in the country and that the wine will always be very dry. These bottlings are real stunners! Super juicy, incredibly bright and bursting with notes of fresh lime juice, lemon curd, cold pineapple, green apple, hints of tropical mango, delicate blooming white flowers and beautiful wet rock minerality. The bright acidity will cut right through all that rich butteriness and the apple notes will mirror the apple in the dish.

RT: Wow! My mouth is watering just listening to those tasting notes!&nbsp;With over 1000 bottles, what would you say is one not to be missed?

AR: It&rsquo;s hard to pick just one, with 8 pages of Barolo, 3 pages of Champagne, and 3 pages of California Cabernet but this list&#39;s most impressive offerings are definitely in its Burgundy selections.&nbsp; The 2015 Domaine Faively Chambolle-Musigny caught my eye in particular. 2015 was a beautiful vintage - not only in Burgundy - but across most of Europe and it&rsquo;s usually a good bet when it comes to selecting a bottle. While vintage is very important here, producers are just as important here and Domaine Faively is one of the best. Established in 1825, it is now in its&rsquo;s 7th generation of family ownership. The sub-region of Chambolle-Musigny is famous for the intensity and femininity of both its reds and whites and this Pinot Noir will envelop you in fragrant strawberry, raspberry and violets while a few years in the bottle are going to give it gorgeous earthy truffle, mushroom, and forest floor notes. This wine would be absolutely killer with the veal breast ravioli w/ royal trumpet mushrooms - or nearly anything on the menu really.

RT: That really sounds magical! Alexis, thank you so much for coming through this expansive list and finding us some gems! 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. And finally, drink what you love and please make sure you drink responsibly.

&nbsp;

END

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BRAT

Bocca di Lupe

Gap Weekend: A Film Shoot in Wine Country

Alba Restaurant

Alba

10 Greek Street

L'Auberge Chez Francois

Andrew Edmunds

Salt Seafood and Oyster Bar

Matteos Ristorante Italiano

Matteo's

di Montalcino is a historic winery in the heart of Tuscany, known for producing some of the finest Sangiovese-based wines in the world. The winery is dedicated to capturing the unique character of the Montalcino region in every bottle.

Pacifica Beach Hotel's eatery overlooking the ocean specializes in Peruvian fare & pisco cocktails.

Marc Forgione

homepage

CorkRules application allows you to discover wines at your favorite restaurants, learn with friends and be confident with price transparency. Order wine with confidence at restaurants and retailers. Get personalized recommendations. #DrinkWhatYouLove

Puerto 27 Peruvian Kitchen & Pisco Bar

Cellars

RouteStock, 'Route ' Chardonnay, Carneros 2017

Carneros, USA

Condes de Albarei

Albarino 2017

Albarino

Rias Baixas, Spain

Balletto Vineyards

Pinot Gris 2018

Pinot Gris

California, USA

Lieu Dit

Sauvignon Blanc 2017

Sauvignon Blanc

California, USA

Balletto

Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley 2017

California, USA

Buttonwood Winery & Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, Santa Ynez Valley 2017

Santa Ynez Valley, USA

Balletto Rose of Pinot Noir 2017

Russian River Valley, USA

Mont Marçal

Cava Brut Rosado 2017

Trepat

Cava, Spain

Baileyana

Firepeak Chardonnay 2017

Chardonnay

Edna Valley, USA

Baileyana

S-Bar Pinot Noir 2017

Pinot Noir

California, USA

Juggernaut

Hillside Cabernet Sauvignon 2016

Cabernet Sauvignon

California, USA

Canard, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 2016

California, USA

Hidalgo

Faraon Oloroso 30YO Sherry NV

Andalucia, Spain