This month’s Stay Hydrate is covering some god tier wines out of the Loire, a bake sale and wine tasting you won’t want to miss, and highlights from a few days in Toronto.
Wine
Wines worth appreciating
Sylvain Dittiere, La Porte Saint Jean
Although impressive, Sylvain Dittiere’s resume follows somewhat of a common path. After attending oenology school and interning at some legendary wineries (Thierry Germain and Charly Foucault of Clos Rougeard, to name a couple), he started his own winery, La Porte Saint Jean, in 2010..a route that many winemakers take.
What is not so common is the care and meticulous nature that Sylvain brings to his vineyards and the equal attention to detail and patience that shines through his winemaking. The key takeaways from his time spent with the Foucault's were that precision and patience are what brings true quality to the wine. A long aging process along with his strict vineyard work and sorting are what produce what I would consider magic. The wines contain far too much expression and detail to ever convey in a newsletter..
In addition to working with Charly Foucault, Sylvain also spent time working with Charly’s son, Antoine at Domaine du Collier (a legend in his own right) and is married to Antoine’s sister, Pauline Foucault. After Charly Foucault’s passing and the sale of Clos Rougeard, it seems the spirit of the estate is living through La Porte Saint Jean.
We have two amazing Cab Francs and two Chenin Blancs from La Porte Saint Jean currently on the shelves in small quantities.
Local things
If you’re near Boston, here are some things to keep on your radar.
A week ago, I went to an industry night gathering at Zusammen in North Cambridge. Zusammen (@zusammen_cambridge) is a cool new bar that just opened a couple doors down from its sister, Momma’s; it’s got a great eclectic wine list and a few things on draft..and maybe some spirits (don’t quote me on that, I was focused on the wine!). It’s not often that I get the chance to hang with so many other folks in the food and beverage scene. It was really cool to catch up and hear about new projects that people are working on. The Boston scene has a lot to look forward to in the near future! Thanks to Daniel and Erica for hosting.
Upcoming events/happenings at Neighborhood Wines:
Currently on display are a handful of photographs taken by a friend of the shop, Coleman Lukas (@cglpics). All of the beautiful photos on our website were taken by Coleman (and the not so beautiful ones were probably taken by me). Come check them out the next time you’re in the shop, they’re for sale (prices range from $50-100)
Thursday June 26th 5:30-7:30, Shannon West of East West Wines (@eastwestwines) will be here pouring a cool lineup of wines that she is importing from Central and Eastern Europe.
Wednesday July 9th (7pm) will be the next wine class where we will focus on the wines of La Porte Saint Jean (see above). As always, we will deep dive into the producer and get the chance to taste these rare wines; Mark your calendars now, limited tickets will be available soon on Instagram and the website.
Sunday July 13th we are again being graced with the amazing pastries and bread of Mackenzie Innis of Ceres (@ceres__bakes). We’ve been lucky to be on about a once a quarter program with these pop ups, so here’s to our summer bake sale! I can’t say enough about the talent and delicious factor of Mackenzie’s pastry. Come through between 1pm and 5pm and see for yourself what kind of magic she will bring us next month.
Travel
Some spots to save if you’re going North.
I was recently back in Toronto to visit friends which was good timing for this month’s travel recs. Toronto has a great food scene, and like Boston, a growing wine scene. I also love visiting places like this that come alive in the summer time after so many months of the cold. You can feel the excitement of being outdoors in a way that says we’ve earned this…and I know we feel that here in Boston. I definitely don’t know Toronto as well as some other cities, but here are some of the places we went that are worth your time.
Sandwiches at Vilda’s, Dinner at Bernhardt’s. Owned by the same group, and across the street from each other. They make a great one-two punch for unique sandwiches and a great dinner spot (with excellent wine no doubt)
Grape Witches is a great wine shop and wine bar with a beautiful patio in the back; We found ourselves here multiple times for an afternoon or evening glass/bottle
Sonndr Cafe (@thesonndr) stands out in a city with an unreasonable amount of coffee shops. A great, unpretentious vibe with tasty coffee, friendly staff, and a fresh pastry is all I really need and exactly what Sonndr offers.
Across the street from Sonndr is Trinity Bellwoods Park. A great spot to people watch and eat your sandwiches from Vilda’s or Lambo’s which is also just a few blocks away and has some great subs. When we were there, we saw a parade of naked bicyclists who were either protesting something or just enjoying the breeze..
Our AirBnB was right down the block from Badiali’s, a pizza spot that garners lots of attention. We took our proximity to it for granted, and by the time we were ready for a slice, the line was way longer than we were willing to wait in. I take it from someone I trust that this is the best pizza around, for whatever that is worth.
A few favorite clothing stores were Lost and Found and Park and Province for some great menswear brands and Shopcoat for that perfect pair of vintage Levi’s.
Music
A few songs that have been on repeat recently..
Music & Me by Nate Dogg
Knucklehead by Grover Washington Jr.
Deep Blue by EARTHGANG ft. Little Dragon