The Genuine Hospitality Group’s intrepid wine director Eric Larkee’s Uncorked column comes often (but never enough!) to TGK. Stay on ahead of the grape game curve. Listen to Larkee. You can also follow him on Twitter and Instagram @ericlarkee. In a bind figuring out what to buy at the store? Tag #dialasomm, and he’ll try to assist… store-dependent!
June 21 is almost here and that means one thing to your friendly neighborhood Sommelier. Summer of Riesling!
This is an interesting time for the James Goatee Award winning Paul Grieco-led program. Last summer was Year 2 here in Florida, and we represented — well — we held a state-wide industry focused tasting with four stops including Orlando, Tampa, Palm Beach, and of course, Miami. Results from the tasting were great; we placed third in the nation (after New York and California) in the number of participating locations and the nationally the program reached a high water mark. Here in Florida the question has been, “Did we drink more Riesling?” Hard to tell, but I will say we drank better Riesling, which is far more important.
The past two years also saw Mr. Riesling himself, Paul, traverse down here for dinners where we expended much of our Summer of Riesling energy into one night. These dinners were great and we got to see the difference in Riesling priority Paul and I have. While he gets stoked to show the ying-yang balance of the sugar and acid and how awesome it works with food, I simply like to show people how delicious straight up dry Rieslings are. See here for all the hoopla from 2011 and 2012.
This year our approach is a bit different. Home Base (Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink) is the only fully sanctioned 4 Riesling By-the-Glass pouring restaurant but you will find Riesling-centric programming at our other Design District locations. Here is a run-down of what you will find:
Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink
- Pouring a number of Rieslings BTB including sparkling, still and dessert styles.
- An available flight of the still Rieslings, sure, try them all!
- An expanded & rotating Riesling section, again, focused on some of my favorite dry-style single vineyard selections.
Harry’s Pizzeria
- Slipping a Riesling onto the wine list.
- Check out the chalk board, we’ll be opening something appropriate with the nightly dinner special. If you are lucky there might be a glass left the next day at lunch, little known fact (since it usually all gets drunk) but most Riesling is better the next day!
The Cypress Room
- Riesling Focus on the Tasting Menu.
- We’ll have a delicious Riesling open to pair with the Cheese Plate.
