Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/688647
122 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } JUNE/JULY 2016 closing time A QUICKLY EVOLVING AND INCREASINGLY EXPERIMENTAL neighborhood outside her door keeps Vinateria Wine Director Karina Mackow on her toes. "It's not the Harlem of five years ago," she says, from the bar on the corner of Frederick Douglass Boulevard and 119th Street, in the heart of one of Uptown's fast-growing quality dining districts. When she came on board last year—the second wine director in this four-year-old wine bar and tapas-oriented kitchen—Mackow said she had inherited a "big and really beautiful list." But with 16 reds in the BTG program and a lack of staff knowledge on how to move them, there was a lot of spoilage. "We had too much great wine and we had staff that was serving at a volume and pace where they couldn't keep up with all the amazing things we had to offer," she said. She cut the BTG program in half (no one was any the wiser) and is focused on introducing "exciting new wines from all around the world, wherever they are being produced with care, passion and balance." While Mackow remains region-agnostic, she is partisan about her producers: small growers working close to the land and cultivating indig - enous grapes, or reviving their region's unique varietals and terroir. She sa ys she likes her wine to taste like "what it is and where it comes from," preferring producers whose vineyards range from four to 11 hectares. Her "small is beautiful" philosophy allows her to bring in a diversity of bottles—from as traditional as Italian Barolo to emerging like the Balearic Islands off the east coast of Spain. She has more than 200 labels—"the equivalent of a 600-square-food boutique wine shop"—and cites the perks of working in an international wine-focused city. "We're incredibly lucky to be in New York City, with an unprecedented level of access to wine being made in the minutest of quantities, the most unexpected of regions. A Bar Grows in Harlem by Lana Bortolot / photo by Doug Young Mackow says because the list carries few examples of international varietals, it's organized intuitively to help people find something they're interested in trying. The by-the-glass program is organized by body profile: light, medium and full; the list is by region. The BTG program offers the most adventure. "Obviously, there is a lot more leeway with that than with the bottle list—oddball gems like Dario Princic's skin contact Tocai, or a uniquely fresh stainless steel Sagrantino. We like to take classic flavor profiles or popular requests, and funnel them towards similar, but more esoteric choices." She cites the Corsican Nielluccio, which is genetically related to Sangiovese, as an example of "taking the demand for something recognizable and turning it into an opportunity to try something unique yet related." She adds, "There's no reason to drink boring or overpriced wine in New York right now. There's wine coming in from all over the world at an awesome price/quality ratio." THE SIDE BAR AT VINATERIA, WINE DIRECTOR KARINA MACKOW KEEPS IT "SMALL BUT BEAUTIFUL"