Otto and the wine tasting of Paolo De Marchi, Isole E Olena

Tucked away on the corner of 8th St and Fifth avenue, one block north of beautiful Washington Sq. Park, now bursting with the bloom of cherry blossoms and magnolias, yet far enough away from the hustle and bustle of NYU is Otto, Mauro and my favorite wine bar.
I can’t even explain how this bar hits our satisfaction levels on every note, it would be exhausting to try and gage. The wine list, for a start, is unbeatable and forever evolving; the antipasti and pizza/pasta menu is perfectly focused and simple with fresh high quality product; and neither the wines nor the food compete to draw attention away from the other: they are both solid.
On top of that dignified possession of a remarkable food and wine list emanates the atmosphere of a prestigious Italian enoteca, which I love. These spectacular wine bottles that someone has drank in the past, lurk in all the nooks and crannies of the restaurant (and yet are not dusty), spying on you as if they are the spiritual ancestors who have built Otto’s foundation and integrity (that acclaim should most likely be given to Mario Batali who also owns Lupa, Del Posto, Casa Mono, Bar Jamon, Esca, and Babbo – to just name the ones in NYC – which are very well-known).
Yet somehow this Italian enoteca does not lose its “essence” in its attempt “to be” an Italian wine bar. Maybe it’s due to the acceptance and embracing of the fact that it’s not in Italy. There is this amazing culmination of some of the greatest products of Italy, but they are presented with the perfect amount of reality: Otto is still smack dab in the middle of Greenwich Village – far away from Mauro, my love’s homeland. Mauro and I go there every Friday night, and yes, we are excited each time to try a new bottle of Italian wine and eat great Italian antipasti and cheese that makes Mauro say, “Babe, this reminds me of sitting with my friends in a bar in Italy!” But Otto also plays amazing music that brings together the diversity of cultures one finds in a place unlike anywhere else in the world, the village of Manhattan. Some nights at Otto the set list will be Bob Marley, Israel Vibrations, or a reggae dub vibration mix; and another night they’re blasting Kazabian, or Block Party, some of Mauro’s favorite bands – but whatever it is, there always seems to be an element of surprise when you go to Otto – and it’s not about which famous movie star or person you might see there that night.
What’s even greater about Otto is that we’ve even made friends there. It’s the perfect environment for someone like me who doesn’t go to a bar to get drunk, or to a club to do drugs, but who constantly likes to experience new wines, foods and cultures. I love to learn, eat, and enjoy. Otto attracts this great “foodie, winey,” creative individualistic, intelligent crowd of people, from young college rockers to retired professionals, which I think is wonderful. It’s not that everybody talks to everybody, but the workers at Otto are very warm and very welcoming, everyone saying hi to you every time you come, so you feel like you have something in common with all the other people there – you are their guest.
Now, I was going to just write about Bar Veloce, which Mauro and I had been to a few times before, but I had to write about Otto because the sommelier, Peter Jamros, invited us last minute to a wine tasting event with Paolo De Marchi for his production of Isole E Olena. Mauro and I could not say no, even though we had planned to go to Bar Veloce that same night to do our next write up about them.
Mauro, of course, had heard of Isole E Olena before. “I’ve tried the syrah when I was working in Le Calandre, so I knew it was very good. I was really excited to meet this guy. First because the name of the wine is different, it’s not Tenuta or Podere which means something like ‘the fields where I grow my wine.’ It’s called Isole E Olena, completely different.” I, of course, had no idea what we were going to, or who or what Isole E Olena was – but I was pleasantly surprised. After being warmly greeted by Peter who seemed to speak with just as warm body language (arms open and flailing as if he was Italian – he’s from Boston) as his words, “Great! I’m so glad you could make it. Come over here, let me introduce you to everyone, and oh, let me get you some Prosecco. Everyone, this is Mauro and Jordana,” and he even went on to tell everyone who we had never met before how wonderful our blog was. “Peter makes everyone feel at home,” Mauro turned to me and said.
Then there was Paolo De Marchi, whose gentle, proud, confident and yet humble character even further warmed the room. This wine tasting got better and better by the minute. When Mauro and I finally left we felt like we had really gone somewhere and experienced something important and effective. Paolo De Marchi was one of those noble and charming gentlemen that you just wanted to invite into your home and sit down with a bottle of wine to share stories and discuss important news. There he was, coming all the way from Italy, standing next to us in Otto flanked by bottles amongst bottles of his own wonderful wines and he wasn’t even trying to have the spotlight. He, himself, was enjoying the tasting and getting to know everyone who had joined the group that evening from about seven to ten pm. He even invited Mauro and me to visit him when we go to Italy this fall!
I couldn’t help but think all night, ‘it just doesn’t get better than this!” And of course it did, how could it not with all the wine and the food. . . .the most perfect degustation. We started with a Chardonnay 2005 and I must say that right from the start I noticed that the wines of Paolo De Marchi were very unique and memorable. I’m the type of wine drinker that when I order a Chardonnay, or Chianti, I don’t want the stereotypical taste of that wine; I want something different. I want something to catch my attention and carry me away from the expected characteristics of the grape . . . . something that sends me searching – ‘ooh, a touch of vanilla; oh, perfect acidity; ah, nice bite; um, green apple; yeah, some mineral; yes, great body!’ – and yet somehow when I’m done I’ve come right back to the root of the grape and think – ‘wow this is an amazing Chardonnay!’
All of Paolo De Marchi’s wines had this crazy balance of intensity and concentration, which is something I noted Peter and Paolo talking about. There was so much character almost bursting at the seams within his wines and yet it was all perfectly contained and not overwhelming to your senses. After taking a sip of the Chianti Classico 2004, which brought me right back to sitting in Italy with my mom drinking bottles of red Italian wine during lunch because it was so good, I looked up at Paolo De Marchi who seemed so saturated with knowledge and wisdom, and very balanced himself and thought, ‘this man is in this wine!’ He has a secret; you could see it in his eyes and in his character and concentration. He was a happy man.
I once heard someone say, ‘you can tell how sexy a woman was not by the way she dressed and how she showed her body, but by how happy her partner was walking down the street with her.’ A woman did not have to flaunt herself; her sexiness was her secret. Well, Paolo De Marchi has a secret, and I don’t know what it is, but his wines are sexy and original and I would only dream of going to visit him and see his vineyards or tenuta in Italy.
To further mention some of his wine, we tasted a Cepparello 2003, which neither Mauro nor I had ever heard of before, but for which Mauro said was one of his favorites of the night. We also had a Syrah 2003, which was the most amazing syrah I’d ever tried. I’m not big on syrah because, well, they were usually too ‘big’ and fruit forward for me, but again to mention this balance of concentration that I feel was at least characteristic in this particular batch of wines we tried from Isole E Olena; the syrah had everything a syrah should have had and yet there was enough room in your mouth and taste buds to dance and play more, with maybe even some food, which let me not fail to mention was superb. Have you ever tried Otto’s sliced meats? Prosciutto, pancetta, coppa, salame, testa!
“Testa, wow!” Mauro shook his hand with approval. “Testa is a head, all of the head and you take out the bones and roll it up!”
“Roll up what?” I asked Mauro; it sounded gross.
“The head without the bones,” Mauro looked at me like I was stupid. But I was just messing with him. I had tried the testa and it was really good. Then Peter brought out a selection of antipasti – asparagus and pecorino, cauliflower ‘alla siciliana’, eggplant caponatina, lentils ‘toscana’, roasted beets and saba, house cured olives, funghi misti – and something to die for which I have sadly realized they only serve on Mondays – bruschetta with eggplant, mint and red pepper (it sounds simple but I tried to make it at home and it’s not; and it’s so good it’s worth going there on a Monday just to try). That’s what I absolutely love about Otto; the notion that you take a sip of the wine and think, ‘wow, this is just beautiful!’ then you take a bite of food and think, ‘shit, this is fantastic too!’ You don’t really know which one to spend more time with that you just get lost within the confusion of being stimulated on all different levels and instead sink into the enjoyment of satisfaction. I mean, what’s better than being comatosed by good food, good wine, good music, and good company?
And it wasn’t even over yet. Peter then poured another wine, the Costa Delle Seisa 2004 which is not of Isole E Olena, but Sperino (I’m sorry, but I was lost at this point and cannot explain why the last wine was not Isole E Olena, but I assume it was still made by Paolo De Marchi). Whatever it was, it was phenomenal – nebbiolo – and went perfect with the “off the hook” cheese plate: a little ricotta, taleggio, pecorino, gorgonzola, and parmigiano reggiano . . . and of course the trademark accouterments that Mauro and I ate every Friday night with our weekly cheese plate – fresh bread, sweet cherries, spiced sweet apricots, and truffle honey.
Let me just say that Mauro and I were practically crying having to leave in order to still have room in our stomachs and integrity in our taste buds to go to Bar Veloce in Chelsea (which will have to wait to be written up because it just couldn’t beat Otto). We really didn’t want to leave, there was more food and wine left over, and we had even made friends, this great couple, Amanda and Mike, who have been going to Otto every Sunday since it’s opened. The sommelier from Babbo, Colum Sheehan, also showed up in the middle of the event and we all had so much to talk about . . . a shared passion . . . and we felt like we belonged . . . people who loved what we loved, and we had to leave! Mauro said, “I was actually a little drunk, remember? I loved the atmosphere. The wine seller of Paolo De Marchi, I don’t think he understood everything I was saying, it was difficult to talk in English after five or six glasses of wine!” And Mauro and I are definitely not alone. After the wine tasting, still dreaming of such a spectacular event, I emailed Amanda and Mike and asked them for some reflections about their feelings on Otto; I thought I should end this appraise with what they had to say: “When Otto first opened we lived around the corner. We would wade through feet of snow just to get there in the early days. The consistent quality of the food was a real draw, but the honest lure was the sense of innovation that accompanied each dish. As the years have gone by, many of those innovations became menu staples. And yet Otto keeps on dreaming and finding new and fresh ways to optimize the season's bounty in excellent fare. The environment is warm and welcoming, all of the staff have an infectious passion for the wine and the food and the value it should hold in one's life. It quicklybecame home.