Thank you Steve for sharing this article as seen in the Wall Street Journal and featuring one of our favorites, Pluckemin Inn...
by Lettie Teague
Great wine and the suburbs aren't words commonly found in the same sentence, but there are a few (admittedly, a very few) places in the greater New York area where it is actually an advantage to be a suburban oenophile.
New Jersey wine lovers, for example, are twice blessed. They have great BYO options (many restaurants lack liquor licenses due to arcane state laws and diners are allowed to bring their own bottles) and they also have the Pluckemin Inn in Bedminster.
Situated some 34 miles west of Manhattan, the Pluckemin Inn is home to a chef who studied under Alain Ducasse and has a wine list with 5,450 options, including a prodigious selection of white Burgundies, California Cabernets, Barolos, Brunellos and grower Champagnes. All the best names are represented -- often in multiple vintages.
"We have pretty good allocations," acknowledged wine director Brian Hider, in a modest understatement. (Great wines are allocated to a limited number of restaurants -- usually those with significant buying power).
Unlike any restaurant in Manhattan, about 2,300 of the wines on the restaurant's list are also for sale in Pluckemin's "virtual" wine store, thanks to another arcane New Jersey law.
"When the LaGrassas bought the restaurant in 2003 it came with a rare 'double license' for a restaurant and package store," explained Mr. Hider. "We thought, 'Why not sell wines at retail too?'"
Mr. Hider, a 42-year-old who was born in Edison, N.J., has been the wine director of Pluckemin Inn since the restaurant opened in 2005. Mr. Hider was "discovered" by the Inn's late proprietor, Carl LaGrassa, and his wife Gloria during their frequent visits to the Tewksbury Inn in nearby Oldwick, N.J., where Mr. Hider was a sommelier. He and Mr. LaGrassa struck up a friendship based on a mutual love of wine. Mr. LaGrassa's ambitions went far beyond the accumulation of great bottles: He wanted to have his own restaurant as well.
When Mr. LaGrassa passed away in 2009, his dream became his wife Gloria's, though her wine knowledge was comparatively limited. And so Mr. Hider became Mrs. LaGrassa's tutor -- tasting wines with her and taking her on trips to wine regions in California and France. He even color-coded the bottles in her cellar.
"Brian puts green stickers on the wine bottles that I can open without thinking. Yellow meant to pause and red meant 'Call Brian,'" said Mrs. LaGrassa, a gregarious woman in her 70s.
Mrs. LaGrassa is listed as Host on the menu along with the names of Executive Chef Jose Cuevas and Pastry Chef Joseph Gabriel. But Mr. Hider's name isn't on the wine list at all. Usually, such a large list (actually two books -- for red and white) would have a wine director credit somewhere. Mr. Hider seemed genuinely surprised when this was pointed out to him. "I never thought about that," he replied.
Another missing element was a selection of older wines. Although there were a few great old bottles, including a 1934 Domaine de la Romanee Conti Romanee Conti at $25,000, they were surprisingly limited for such a list. That's due to yet another arcane New Jersey liquor law: Restaurateurs in New Jersey can't buy wines directly at auction like they can in New York. (Auctions are the primary source of most older bottles.) "In New Jersey you have to clear everything through a wholesaler, which makes it a lot more difficult," explained Mr. Hider, who is holding some wines in reserve, building up a cellar of older wines gradually.
Pluckemin patrons are allowed to bring their own wines to the restaurant ($35 corkage fee), but there is a limit of one bottle per couple. My wine-collector friend had brought two bottles of California Cabernet (Colgin Cellars and Peter Michael), but we wanted to order a white wine, preferably Burgundy. I asked Mr. Hider to choose between two Meursaults we were considering -- the 2006 Domaine Fichet Les Tessons ($145) and the 2006 Domain Remi Jobard Les Genevrieres ($160). He chose the less expensive Fichet, enthusing over its elegant profile. "Fichet is a real up-and-coming producer," he said.
The wine, a judicious balance of mineral tones and rich fruit, was a fine match with appetizers that included octopus carpaccio with tomato confit and a tuna crudo with coriander, mussels, peach, mustard sprouts and lobster vinaigrette. The Pluckemin menu is wide-ranging, including simple "Plucky Classics" like Burgers and Fish and Chips, and five- and six-ingredient items like a Wild Alaskan Halibut, Cayuga freekeh, clams, mussels, calamari and saffron jus. (Chef Cuevas worked with Dan Barber at Blue Hill and Alain Ducasse in New York before moving to New Jersey in 2009.)
A few days after the dinner, I was looking over the Pluckemin wine shop website and noticed that the 2006 Fichet Meursault we'd chosen was $82. Could we have purchased the bottle, paid the $35 corkage and brought it to the restaurant -- thereby saving $28? I called Mr. Hider to propose the scenario. "If you had gone to all the trouble, I would honor that," he replied pleasantly, adding that a couple of diners had suggested doing the same. No doubt they were New Yorkers like me.
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One for the List
There are more than 40 wineries in New Jersey but no New Jersey wines on the Pluckemin Inn list—at least not yet.
Pluckemin Inn's wine director, Brian Hider, said he might considering adding a few if he could find quality wines. I suggested he try the Heritage Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc, a wine made in southern New Jersey. The winery had sent me a few samples of their reds and whites and I'd been particularly impressed by their 2010 Sauvignon Blanc ($19). It was bright and lively with a citrusy nose—and if the label didn't state that it was made in "the Outer Coastal Plain" of New Jersey, I would have believed it came from the Golden, not the Garden, State.
The bad news is that there's not much around: Only 46 cases or so were made. But according to Richard Heritage, the winery's marketing director, there's more to come. They're looking to practically quadruple production (175 cases) in 2011.
The wine is currently available online at hopsandgrapesonline.com and at the Heritage Vineyard tasting room in Mullica Hill, N.J. (about two hours south of New York and fairly close to Philadelphia). And just perhaps it'll soon be at Pluckemin Inn, too.
--Lettie Teague
