Bring a fine dining experience home with this wine subscription Leave a comment
There are likely various reasons you aren’t eating at a MICHELIN-starred restaurant anytime soon. From months-long waiting lists to your still-recovering bank account, whatever is preventing you from that exquisite meal by a famed chef is your business—but it doesn’t mean you’re completely out of luck.
Bring home some of that fine-dining experience with an exclusive, limited-edition subscription imagined by the teams at Wine Access and the MICHELIN Guide. I can tell you it’s got all the makings of a jacket-required night out because I got to try their summer selection and immediately felt fancier drinking in my kitchen than I did the previous weekend while sipping on my old standard.
What’s different about the Wine Access + MICHELIN Guide subscription?
There are countless wine clubs out there, but this subscription is something truly special. Though there’s no reason anyone who’s just starting their wine journey can’t sign up, the subscription feels particularly well-suited for those who are either already experts or looking to take their interest in wine to the next level.
Wine Access is the official wine provider of the MICHELIN Guide, so this subscription gives you access to wines typically only available at the actual MICHELIN-starred restaurants with the months-long waiting lists. Seasonal selections—there are five boxes each year: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Holiday, Winter—are chosen in tandem with the sommeliers and beverage directors at the establishments.
What’s in the box?
The summer box featured four bottles curated by Vanessa Conlin MW Wine Access’ Head of Wine and Don Coen, sommelier at Chicago hotspot Temporis: Château Coutet Sauternes-Barsac, Cherrier Les 7 Hommes Sancerre, 2013 Brugnon Brut Champagne, and Jean-Luc Colombo Terres Brûlées Cornas.
They came packed extremely well, including an ice pack to ensure temperatures never harmed the wine in July’s hot, hot heat. Along with the bottles, there were a handful of information cards: one for each wine with backstory and loads of essential knowledge, like decanting and aging time, plus one about the collection, its food pairings, and its origins at Temporis, an exclusive 20-seat nouveau American eatery with an in-house hydroponic garden.
Chef Troy Jorge created the rotating, seasonal tasting menu, and Coen, who’s known to focus on diversity of flavor, paired four dishes for the summer box, including matching up the Sancerre with Jorge’s Holland white asparagus with asparagus velouté and rhubarb ribbons. Coen also provides explanations of each pairing, such as, “Cornas is fantastic with game meats because Syrah-based wines are earthy and muscular—qualities that bring out the deep flavors in venison and lamb.”
For some extra “attention to detail” points, each of the individual wine information cards has a perforation, allowing you to detach the key info and hang it on the bottle for reference later.
An experience you’re in control of
If you’re feeling intimidated by the thought of recreating the chef’s meals, brush that off.
I tried three of the bottles (sorry but I’ll be saving the Champagne… maybe ‘til 2032…) both on their own and after reading the food pairings. While imagination is only a halfway decent stand-in for being there, as someone who’s done a lot of fine dining and eaten nearly all the foods mentioned on the card, it was fairly easy to imagine those flavors in real life—and it really made me want to book a flight to Chicago.
In fact, one of the bottles upon first taste seemed a bit intense, but after picturing the paired dish, additional sips came off softer and more enjoyable; the wine made more sense. I could almost feel what Wine Access is going for, which is helping you find the connection between wine and cuisine.
Of course, you could put the effort into sourcing some of the flavors from the suggested dishes before popping the corks. If you want to go all out and whip up a version of the pairings in your box? That can only enhance the tasting. You’re in control—craft the experience you want.
Your chance to secure access
Availability of these delightful, hard-to-find wines and imaginative suggested culinary pairings is typically pretty limited, but Wine Access has opened admittance for New York Post readers for a short time.
Along with four bottles of high-quality wine, temperature-controlled shipping, and expert guidance, you’ll get best-in-the-industry member services from a Napa-based team.
Take advantage of this limited-time chance to secure a Wine Access + MICHELIN Guide subscription, bring the fine-dining experience home, and savor every season.
