SAUCE MAGAZINE
Posted On: 04/01/2010
What happens if you take one of the deepest wine collections of any St. Louis restaurant, move it to West County and put it in the hands of a restaurateur with decades of dining management experience? You get Chesterfield’s Balaban’s Wine and Tapas Bar, run by co-owner Steve McIntyre, former owner of the legendary and now shuttered Café Balaban in the Central West End. In a great stroke of luck for wine collectors, geeks and fanatics, McIntyre has made the wine cellar of the old Balaban’s available at retail prices to all of his new fans in Chesterfield.
At Balaban’s, the wine selection is presented retail-style, with the wines displayed in rows of wooden wine racks. Not only are the prices of these amazing older wines from around the world priced nearly the same as current releases, but all bottles, regardless of price, can be served in the restaurant with or without food for an $8 corkage fee.
I love to scrutinize wine lists for great values or secret bargains. I locked onto a Château Clerc Milon 1996 from Pauillac. In the world of Bordeaux, Château Mouton Rothschild is without a doubt one of the finest producers in the world. Clerc Milon is a Mouton-owned property located just “down the street” from Rothschild; I would have expected to see this wine priced at about $200. Here, it was $70 plus corkage – an amazing value.
By-the-glass selections included seven whites and 11 reds, the latter reflecting the market and probably McIntyre’s love of great reds. Selections were thoughtfully selected and spanned the globe, with options from South Africa, Burgundy, Chile, Germany, Italy, Alsace, Provence, Argentina, Oregon and Australia as well as several from California. The Laetitia Pinot Noir from Arroyo Grande, near San Luis Obispo in California, is an old favorite and, at $10 a glass, was a stunning complement to the morel mushroom pasta made famous at the original Balaban’s many years ago and now on the Chesterfield restaurant’s menu.
Wine dinners are a significant part of the new Balaban’s marketing plan, and they offer the consumer a great opportunity to sample some older vintages of great reds. Recent dinners included Nuits-Saint-Georges (Burgundy) from 2002, Château Léoville-Poyferré 1996 (Saint Julien, Bordeaux) and Durand Cornas 1999 (Rhône) paired with some of the older and most popular dishes from the days on Euclid Avenue.
To have mature wines from significant vintages and famed growers available at very fair retail prices is a spectacular treat. At some point, the well will run dry and the glory days of having such a superior stash of older wines will run out. But for the moment, thanks Steve, for making St. Louis sipping more fun and affordable.
To read Michael Renner's take on the cuisine at Balaban’s Wine and Tapas Bar, visit Gourmet Guru in the reviews section.
