Wine has been around humans from the moment homosapinas were able to ferment and realize the full potential of what small little grapes can do with a little bit of help.As the decades come about we see not only fine dining establishments accompany their exquisite food with wine , but also casual dining restaurants.One very known Michelin star location is the River Cafe where we have a sommelier who even teaches at Citytech. On the other hand we have Blue Ribbon as a casual restaurant.

  The River Cafe is located near the riverside of the Brooklyn Bridge. It is known for its wonderful view of the sky-liners, boats passing by and the sunset as the day goes on.Open in 1977, the elegant location with a strict dress code has lived up to its reputation of having a  Michelin star.The wine selection that they have is extensive and is quite renowned for having some of the most sought after wine around the world. Blue Ribbon has been open for over 26 years and allows their location to contribute with their aesthetics.If you were to Google Blue Ribbon you would see that they are known for being wide awake at 3am for a bite which helped its reputation. 

    The wine list is not as extensive as The River Cafe but does come with a nice list for people to choose from.Unlike the River Cafe that has a list that runs over 10 pages , Blue Ribbon has a nice little selection of 4 pages.Both of the wine lists tells the consumer the location where the wine was from, the year that it was created and what type of grape that was used. The River Cafe listing has a higher price range which as little as $25 but can go as high as 9,000.Comparing that  to Blue Ribbon which goes from $8 dollars for a glass up to $100 the price difference can speak up for the rarity or quality of the wine.Something else that I noticed was that they separated the type of wines that they have from white,red,spirit, and sparkling.These wine list makes sure to compliment what both restaurants seems to be mainly serving.This makes it easier for the guest to make a choice that accommodates what they are ordering to eat also. These restaurant have different standards but makes sure that they are equipped with wine that can help better their restaurant.

New York has a variety of different restaurants throughout the five boroughs. I’ve always been interested in visiting a restaurant and trying the “perfect” wine to pair with my meal, but have yet to have had that experience. Coming into City Tech’s Hospitality Program, I was interested in learning so many different things this field has to offer, especially the wines. With that being said I chose to base my wine analysis on one fine dining and one casual restaurant. The restaurants are called Gramercy Tavern and Blue Ribbon. 

Last semester I had the honor to visit and analyze the famous, Gramercy Tavern. It was filled with many options and the beverage list is filled with a variety of alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks. Gramercy also offers a wine pairing with your 3-4 course meal. They offer it for around $79-$100 per person.  With that being said the wine list was huge! Going on their online site to get a recap of how it looked and it was beyond my expectations . The wine list is 34 pages long. They have a variety of different selections of wine in which, is very organized and categorized. In this wine list they also have the different wine prices and how much each specific ounce will cost. Different wines from red, white, sparkling , etc. They offer a variety of wines that come from places like Italy, France , California, to even the city of New York. When dining at Gramercy, I noticed that many people had different options to have their wines. Gramercy offers half bottles, full bottles, and wine glasses in different ounces. 

Although I have never been to Blue Ribbon I found it interesting with the variety of locations they have from New York City all the way to Los Angeles. The beverage/ wine list had the different wines and “spirits” list. This list was 4 pages long. They had it very organized and had the prices of each beverage. The wines differ from countries and states like France, Chile, Spain, and even Long Island, New York. I do like how specific and detailed the beverage list is. For example, they have listed a wine as “A & P De Villaine, “Les Clous AimÉ,” CôTE Chalonnaise 2015”, and Cote Chalonnaise is a subregion of the burgundy wine of France. 

As I analyzed both wine lists, The difference in the two restaurants was that one beverage list was 10x larger than the other. That is very understandable, due to one being a fine dining restaurant and would demand more than a casual restaurant. I noticed the difference in pricing as well. The similarities was the very detailed descriptions on the wine and the organization each restaurant had. When analyzing both these restaurants, I learned that a wine list can go beyond 35 pages. It is incredible how many wines we have around the whole world. I also learned that having the opportunity to compare both these restaurants and wine list, gives me a different perspective on how to look into more wine list for every restaurant I visit.

Reference:

https://media-cdn.getbento.com/accounts/06eddfdb5447c253b35abe48f22bfb2d/media/PRaScYJ0QiSmabBrfWDe_GT_WineList%203.11.20.pdf

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52fd7162e4b0d3e64dc29631/t/5d9cfacaff43b44336b79ec8/1570568906303/BR-BK+Wine+List_10.08.2019.pdf

Robin Singh

Wine Analysis

New York is world widely known for one of the most tourist visited places in the whole world. One of the reason being is because of its hospitality industry. When it comes to restaurants, New York has a reputation of having one of the best fine dine in restaurants in the world. Not only do these luxurious restaurants serve the best food, but they’re also popular for their alcoholic beverages.

Wine is one of the most popular alcoholic beverages in the world, not just New York. People drink wine for several reasons. One of the reasons is because they enjoy the wine pairing with specific foods. Other reasons are because of the history and traditions of wine, to enhance special moments with wine or they drink it for several health benefits.

Two restaurants that I picked to compare are Gabriel Kreuther and 21 Club. Chef Gabriel has a reputation of one of the top chefs in NYC for running his restaurant. Gabriel Kreuther offers a variety of wines. Although the prices are slightly high, the wine however is affordable. On the other hand, 21 Club is known for serving top notch wines.

Gabriel Kreuther offers a list of red and white wines. The wine list includes the producer, grape variety, country, year and the price. The wine prices listed on the menu were for a glass each. The price of each glass of white wine ranged from $17 to $40. The price of the red wines ranged from $17 to $36. The restaurant also offers a rose wine and an orange wine. The prices for those were about $18-$19 a glass. The menu for the wines is not extremely big but it is displayed nicely.

21 Club offers lots of wines. The wine menu is extremely big. The wines listed in the menu are offered by half bottle and full bottle prices. The wine list also displays the year, grape variety country. There were many types of white wines listed in the menu. The white and red wines were shown differently by the name of the region. Some wines listed in the menu were extremely expensive and some wines were sold for $60 and under for the full bottle prices.

After comparing the wine menu for both restaurants, it is known that both fine dine-in restaurants offer great wines. Although the prices of the wines are bit expensive, the quality and the display of serving the wine covers that up.