Do you ever read a wine list and think: “Jesus Christ, I could be anywhere?” Boundary-pushing sushi omakase? Family-owned trattoria? Steakhouse? Small plates? Here’s a bottle of Prosecco, Pinot Grigio, a Sauvy-B, a single rosé and – for a reason that remains anomalous to me – more than one varietal of Merlot.
In truth, a lot of average wine lists are a compromise between what the somm is able to buy and what the average consumer wants. But the best wine lists don’t give you what you want, they tell you what you want. They give you what you don’t yet know you want. They possess the opportunity to tell us something about the restaurant, which is why it’s such a pleasure to visit somewhere with a wine list that could only be there. One such place is July, an Alsace-inspired restaurant which stands out auspiciously as instantly identifiable and undeniably itself.
