February at STJ

WELCOME TO THE FIRST EDITION OF THE STJ NEWSLETTER.

January is over and we’re still reeling from New Years.

WINE THAT WE’RE EXCITED ABOUT / ON PALMBERG

Ulrich Stein was undoubtedly the first wine superstar cool guy I ever fell in love with. His lore is really just too on the nose for a producer that a wine bar server may deem “the sickest ever;” he reveres tradition while eschewing tradition while rewriting tradition with an old-vine manifesto and a fight against the EU to bring back Strohwein and plant Cab Sauv vines in the Mosel.

Some of Stein’s oldest vines are planted on Palmberg-Terrassen. Here we have blue-gray slate, 40 to 100 year old vines protected from winds (see: southerly aspect), a hilltop punctuated by boxwood shrubs (namesake) and water running below. Before 1971, this site was smaller.

In the words of Ulli Stein himself, the 1971 Wine Law “destroyed both the diversity of single vineyards and their historic individuality, cultivated for centuries” in favor of consumerism. Bulk producers could now use the names of now-enlarged prized sites for shittier flat vineyards (german wine experts pls reach out).

As Palmberg-Terrassen was not immune to the events of 1971, two adjecent sites, Hotlay (east-facing, not many vines here today) and Rosenberg (south facing knoll) were incorporated.

Of the original Palmberg, 1 hectare is planted and is solely owned by the Steins.

It’s 2017 and Philip Lardot, from Amsterdam, starts working with Stein. And now it’s 4 years later and Philip Lardot buys a 0.3 hectare plot in Palmberg of vines planted in the 50s and 60s. But what? What’s that? Lardot is making wines with long lees contact and malo? Holy shit! (We don’t often see these winemaking techniques in the Mosel).

Enter Stein’s 2024 Palmberg and Philip Lardot’s 2022 ‘Die Winzerin’ Rieslings, both from Palmberg. I’m super excited to write about these wines side by side. Sue me but this is such a clear masculine/feminine duo.

Stein: Drinking this right now actually. Obvious green apple Zing but elegant powderyness coming from classic spritziness (dried pineapple, corn starch on candy) alongside deep power coming from just enough ripeness and a pure church bell tone. AT HOME, PAIR WITH a buffalo chicken slice (me right now). AT STJ, PAIR WITH: beets with winter citrus and pistachio, shrimp rice with mushrooms and bacon, hake with little neck clams.

Lardot: lemon curd in every way. Unfurls in the glass to reveal white blossom tea and pear skin with milk. STJ, PAIR WITH: cured fluke with soba broth, stracciatella with cucumbers, celery root with brown butter.

NATURALE ORANGE VERMOUTH

Vibe shift! Now we’re in Sicily and the grape is Muscat. Somehow it makes sense in this lineup: just as our Riesling story is a story of Stein and Lardot, Naturale is a story of collaborators Occhipinti of beloved COS and Simone Sabaini (a chocolate maker). It’s also the story of me (at the time just a guest) and our bar director Ben, new friends over a generous splash of this vermouth in 2022. Tasting note: fresh concentrated grapiness, candied orange zest and rose - drinks closer to a juicy orange wine rather than a vermouth. AT STJ, PAIR WITH: moonshoal oysters with leche de tigre.

WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO

Tony Algo- Bindle

We don’t posit ourselves as a listening bar, but sometimes I think that we try to be one. Out of our ever growing library of records this is our favorite this month. We’ve been trying out techno Tuesdays and we ended up here: an ode to music discovery made without algorithms, only 100 copies made this year. At once ethereal and quietly … industrial, Brooklyn-based Tony Algo has created a spacious techno record we love. I love the last track, Sunburn. We hear crumpling paper and trance synths washing over - they begin to oscillate and suddenly the record is done and it has invited us to put on another techno album.

ADVICE COLUMN

I cried at the Fedora bar eating a banana split. When you’re a kid the “Banana Split” is the most decadeqnt most celebratory edible thing someone can award you. Mommy issues aside, awarding a banana split to myself because I deserved one was a therapy session. I advise you, reader, to try it.