At Apogee, wine comes with a narrative
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Simone Boone, proprietor of Apogee Wine Bar, has a narrative for you. Moderately, the earthy, fruity, flowery, and terroir notes present in each glass of wine she pours maintain the story.
“Wine is historical past, wine is geography, wine is meals and tradition,” Boone mentioned. “It tells a narrative, as a result of each wine begins out as a grape, but it surely’s a protracted journey earlier than it turns into a wine.”
Apogee, a modest wine bar on Park Avenue, is accented by a white marble bar, open Edison bulb lighting, and a row of ice chests behind the bar, every indicating the precise temperature at which every is stored. wine bottle.
Boone, an authorized sommelier, began Apogee in 2014 after a protracted profession within the restaurant trade, together with as a wine purchaser for the Strathallan Lodge. His aim was to create an area that celebrated wine, whereas being accessible to the lay particular person.
“I desire a 21-year-old who’s beginning to study and ranging from completely nothing,” Boone mentioned. “I need to have a wine for them, I do not need to flip anybody away.”
The wine record at Apogee is fastidiously curated. Prospects is not going to discover right here a e book of pages and pages itemizing previous bottles present in a dusty cellar.
What you will discover is a extremely selective record of distinctive and thrilling wines that Boone hand-selected, and bite-sized choices of cured meats, cheeses, and chocolate truffles.
She gravitates in the direction of French and Italian heritage wines. At Apogee, there’s loads of Beaujolais, Bordeaux, and Brachetto to go round.
However there are additionally off-the-beaten-path finds which were recognized to shock even probably the most seasoned oenophile.
On a current go to, the spotlight was a Bosnian Tamjanika, a grape native to the Balkan nation. The wine was utterly dry, but it surely did drip with notes of tropical fruits, peaches, plums, nectarines, and a wholesome dose of earth.
Boone, who purchased the wine on a whim for a Bosnian pal and was later contacted by the winemaker, mentioned the classic exemplifies her ardour for wine: There’s at all times one thing new to study and a brand new story to listen to.
“Each wine has a narrative,” Boone mentioned. —GINO FANELLI
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