It was a chilly wintery afternoon when I received a spontaneous invitation for a private barrel wine tasting.  How could I say no?Thanks to my friend and drawing teacher, Rob Zeller, who was kind enough to invite me to tag along for a wine tasting in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

I’ve heard of his friend, Christopher Nicolson, who is assistant winemaker at The Red Hook Winery with two tour-de-force California winemakers (Abe Schoener and Robert Foley) who are making extraordinary wines using local, Long Island grapes. What a warm reception and welcome we received from Christopher who greeted us with a warm lunch of baked french onion gratin. Turns out that he, as well as Rob, are big fans of kimchi when I brought him a jar. After I asked Christopher questions about what ways to capture fermentation shelf life of kimchi, we spent much of our time talking about the grapes, local farms where they are sourced in L.I., wine making styles and why one wine maker will choose to work with certain grapes over another.

One wine maker will choose to work with botrytis riesling and another with petit verdot, both very unusual grapes to work with — unheard of it grown anywhere but even harder to believe in Long Island.  There were clone samples grapes of various kinds, a kind of lab of wine making, blending varietals to extract the essential characters of the grape’s soil/climate (terroir) or character of the wine style, like a fine sculptor chipping away at his marble.

We spent what seemed like a perfect afternoon exchanging over the craft of wines produced from the land which made me think a lot about the hand crafted nature of preserving cabbage and its fermentation phase. Christopher says so much about wine making is about patience. Waiting for kimchi to ferment doesn’t take 18 months, only a few days but I began to see the common thread between what seems like an unrelated product. He was so supportive of my kimchi-making, he promised me a new bottle of his Chardonnay which will be released in 18 months… wait, did I just get a bottle of wine for kimchi?!  Amazing.

Despite our busy schedules, it was a diversion that was much needed on this winter day… Rob said it was just like making art — a moment in time perfectly captured.

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