Whether you are just visiting or you&rsquo;re a local to New York City, you know how difficult it can be to choose a new restaurant, but we can help. We&rsquo;ve reviewed the best and brightest restaurants in New York City and we review the wine list, too. It&rsquo;s a one-stop shop where you can find wine reviews and restaurant reviews.

In this article, we visit&nbsp; ABC Kitchen on 35 East 18th Street.

ABC<a href="https://www.abckitchens.nyc/dine/abc-kitchen"> Kitchen&rsquo;s</a> tagline is &lsquo;local, organic, home&rsquo;, but while the atmosphere of this restaurant is comfortable and welcoming, and dare we say, wholesome, the menu is far beyond the meals your mother made.

This farm-to-table restaurant is wholly organic, focusing on fresh herbs, vegetables, and dedication to planet earth is clear in their use of recycled materials.

But what about their wine list?&nbsp; <a href="https://uat.corkrules.com/sommeliers/maria-valetta/78">Maria Valetta, wine educator and certified sommelier</a> offers her advice on the one-page menu.

Although it is only one page, this wine list offers a carefully curated selection of wines from all over Europe.

Maria first noted&nbsp; ABC Kitchen&rsquo;s variety of skin-contact wines on the list. Skin-contact wines, or as they are more commonly known, <a href="https://www.winemag.com/2019/07/10/skin-contact-white-wines-orange-wine-beginners/">orange wines,</a> are white wines that have been made like a red, meaning that the wine has been allowed to stay in contact with the skins longer than normal for a white wine. This can be as little as a few days to as long as a year.

The result is a deeper color that ranges from pale gold to deep bronze, orange wines are full-bodied, and more tannic in nature. On this wine list, there are skin-contact wines from Spain, Austria, and Germany. Try the Muller Thurgau, Weinhaus Schlossmuhlenhof for $76 a bottle or &lsquo;Das Ist Keine Orange&rsquo; 2020 from Germany at $70 a bottle. These wines are also offered by the glass which gives you the opportunity to try them without committing to a bottle.

Moving over to whites, Maria recommends one of her favorite Italian wines, a vermentino from Tuscany, the 2017 Vermentino, Tenuta Pietramora &lsquo;Limite&rsquo;. Tuscany is in Central Italy. Wine producers in this area are known for clean, light, and refreshing white wines. Perfect for summer days in the Italian sunshine, or sunshine anywhere.

This hand-harvested wine is slow-pressed with short skin contact. It&rsquo;s light and dry with moderate acidity and notes of citrus, green apple and pear. It pairs well with the charcuterie plate or one of the market table salads, but given its light nature, it would also pair well with pastas and lean fish.

Maria also highlights an excellent pinot noir at a great price, an Argentinean malbec from a historic winery in Mendoza, and sparkling wines and champagne if your trip to ABC Kitchen is a special occasion, or you just want to celebrate life, because, well, why not?

Cheers.

&nbsp;

Whether you are just visiting or you’re a local to New York City, you know how difficult it can be to choose a new restaurant, but we can help. We’ve reviewed the best and brightest restaurants in New York City and we review the wine list, too. It’s a one-stop shop where you can find wine reviews and restaurant reviews.

Best Restaurants New York City and Wine Review

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

Terra Wood Fired Kitchen

Grace Hood, wine educator and certified sommelier, and Robert Tas review the wine list at Terra in Los Angeles

Wine List Review of Terra, Los Angeles

Grace Hood

Terra

Terra

RT: Hello and welcome to CorkRules!&nbsp;

A podcast where, in each episode,&nbsp;we will review a winelist from your favorite restaurants. I&rsquo;m your host Robert Tas along with Grace Hood, wine educator and certified sommelier. Hello Grace,&nbsp;it&rsquo;s great to have you!

GH: Hey hey Robert!

RT : Before we jump in, let&rsquo;s talk about CorkRules. We created CorkRules to demystify wine list&rsquo;s because we know from experience, that sometimes when we get that list handed to us, well&hellip; it can be intimidating, and even a little daunting.

Our aim is to help prepare you to navigate that list, find those hidden gems, or value wines or that special bottle that will take your dining experience over the top.

RT:&nbsp;So, sit back and listen as we review your favorite wine list. So, Grace you&rsquo;ve been spending more time eating and drinking all over Los Angeles, is that correct?

GH: That it is indeed Robert! I&rsquo;ve loved being able to have these firsthand experiences to be able to bring to the podcast.

RT: We love that for you Grace. Appreciate your time, mind and liver ha-ha so what are we reviewing today?

GH: Today we will be chatting about Terra, which is the beautiful rooftop restaurant that is inside the Eataly marketplace! I had lunch there the other day and it was a lovely way to spend an afternoon &nbsp;

RT: The life you lead Grace. Where would you like to start us?

GH: So as many industry insiders know, Eataly is part of the Batali and Bastianich restaurant group. And I note this b/c for every restaurant wine list in this company, it will match the cuisine. So for instance, I was a sommelier at the Batali and Bastinach Spanish restaurant Casa Mono in New York City. And since it was a Spanish menu, it had an Spanish wine list. The same goes at Terra, except it&rsquo;s an all-Italian menu with all Italian wine list.

RT: Bellisima! I love it. So where would you start us on this all-Italian list?

GH: Well, it&rsquo;s a pretty reasonable 3 pages, and I love that not only have they broken it down by the usual red White sparkling rose, but they also have subcategories for the aromatics in the wine. So, for the sparkling they have &ldquo;fizzy and stimulating&rdquo; as well as &ldquo;Complex and elegant&rdquo;&nbsp; &nbsp;

RT: Which are definitely descriptors for this podcast hahaha

GH: hahaha absolutely Robert! Under the fizzy and stimulating, I would go with this Bollicinie rose from Serafini and Vidotto, and under the complex and elegant I would pick the Trento Doc Brut from Ferrari vineyards &nbsp;

RT: Oh yum those sound really unique and interesting. Can&rsquo;t wait to hear from they have for the white categories. &nbsp;

GH: So, starting with &ldquo;light Bright and floral&rdquo; I would choose this gruner veltliner from Alto Adige, mainly b/c you don&rsquo;t see a lot of gruner veltliner production outside of Austria. Or if you wanted a more classic light bright floral Italian white &ndash; can&rsquo;t go wrong with vermentino 

RT: Oh, Italian Gruner sounds amazing. Def interested in trying that. &nbsp;&nbsp;

GH: And then we move into their next category for whites which is &ldquo;rich and lavish&rdquo; aka what I aim to be hahaha and under that I would pick the Etna Bianco from Sicily 

RT: We&rsquo;ll all be rich and lavish once this podcast takes off Grace! &nbsp;

GH: Love that for us Robert! I think next category describes my current state &ldquo;complex and m&eacute;dium bodied&rdquo; hahaha and for my wine pick I would go with this Fruiliano from the House of Bastianich

RT: I see the last category is &ldquo;unusual and esoteric&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;

GH: Color me intrigued in this category for sure! They&rsquo;re skin contact whites aka Orange wines! I think this Verdiccio Reserva would be an interesting choice.

RT: Awesome. Does that bring us to reds?

GH: It sure does Robert. Starting off we have &ldquo;soft and medium bodied&rdquo; and I would go with the 2013 Dolcetto from Piedmont. Moving right along into the next category which is &ldquo;elegant full and sophisticated&rdquo; they have a Bollicinie rose from Serafini and Vidotto which def caught my eye.

RT: Very cool. Those are two I haven&rsquo;t heard of in a while. Always fun to revisit some styles we haven&rsquo;t tried in a while. Is the last red category something like &ldquo;full bodied and rich?

GH: Very close! It&rsquo;s &ldquo;full and luscious&rdquo; which sounds like a hair care advertisement hahah but also def describes the wines in this category. My pick would be the 2013 Brunello di Montalcino. And that&rsquo;s amore!

RT: hahahah grazie mille &ndash; Grace, thank you so much for helping us navigate the wine list at Terra. &nbsp;To our audience, thank you all for joining us here on CorkRules.&nbsp; If you would like us to review one of your favorite restaurants, please send us email to: <a href="mailto:Info@corkrules.Com">Info@CorkRules.Com</a> 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. Follow us on social media @CorkRules and @wineswithgrace

&nbsp;

And finally, drink what you love and please make sure you drink responsibly.

&nbsp;

Thank you.

&nbsp;

End

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

BRAT

Bocca di Lupe

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Alba Restaurant

Alba

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Matteos Ristorante Italiano

Matteo's

Sycamore Lane is a popular wine brand that offers a range of varietals, including Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and others. The wines are known for their consistent quality and affordability.

This dimly-lit bar with a basement dance floor specializes in craft beer and wines by the glass.

28-50 Wine Workshop & Kitchen

28-50

Bleu Provence

KOCHINYC

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Wally's

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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

Von

Domaine des Chezelles

Sauvignon Blanc 2020

Sauvignon Blanc

Loire, France

Domaine de la

Potine Touraine Sauvignon Blanc, Loire 2020

Loire, France

Santa Margherita

Pinot Grigio Valdadige NV

Pinot Grigio

Valdadige, Italy

Famiglie

Merlot Umbria 2018

Merlot

Umbria, Italy

Lua Cheia, Toucas Alvarinho, Vinho Verde NV

Vinho Verde, Portugal

Quivira Vineyards

Montepulciano - Sangiovese 2019

Blend

Dry Creek Valley, USA

Cerasulo Abruzzo, Italy, Abruzzi, Abruzzo 2019

Montepulciano

Abruzzi, Italy

Naveran

Cava Vintage Brut NV

Parellada

Cava, Spain

Clos Amador

Cava Reserva Brut Delicat NV

Blend

Cava, Spain

Castello di Stefanago - Baruffaldi

Piedilupo Barbera Provincia di Pavia 2018

Barbera

Provincia di Pavia, Italy

Weingut Bründlmayer

Gruner Veltliner Kamptal Terrassen 2017

Gruner Veltliner

Kamptal

Broadside

Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon 2017

Cabernet Sauvignon

California, USA

Scarpetta

Prosecco NV

Glera

Prosecco, Italy

Scarpetta

, 'Frico' Sparkling Lambrusco, Emilia-Romagna NV

Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Cavaliere d'Oro

Gabbiano Chianti 2018

Sangiovese

Chianti, Italy