As expected, I found the rebuilt and reopened Copia to be a beautiful facility with a huge menu and an interesting wine list. What I did not expect was a winery with no wine. Obviously there are no vines growing in the vicinity of downtown St. Louis, but a long relationship with the Les Bourgeois Winery near Columbia has enabled Copia to become a “winery” by having barrels or tanks of wine aging on the property. Currently, though, the tanks sit empty with none of the wine available to purchase.
The wine list offers selections from a broad range of countries, regions, varieties and styles, but with one major common thread: amazingly inexpensive prices even on limited, rare and collectable wines. The menu lists each wine’s retail price, which is what would be charged if someone were to buy a bottle in Copia’s retail market and take it home; for consumption with dinner or at the bar, a very fair $8 corkage charge is added to the retail price when the wine is served to you.
There were very few wines by the glass offered, which is disappointing, but there are a few hits among those. The Sbragia “Home Ranch” Sauvignon Blanc 2008 from the Dry Creek area of Sonoma was deliciously crisp and a bit weighty with no noticeable oakiness from aging in used “neutral” barrels, which adds texture without oak flavor. It was a great value at $8. A Robert Young Vineyard Chardonnay, rarely seen by the glass, is also here. This Alexander Valley property has produced world-class Chardonnays for decades, and at only $8 per glass, it is an incredible value. For those who prefer oakier wines, this is dead on.
One of the areas growing in popularity nationally but still not widely known in our area is that of the deliciously crisp and fresh Albariño whites of Spain’s Rias Baixas region. The Martin Codax, on Copia’s list at $7 per glass, is a great example of these thirst-quenching dry whites.
The bottles on the list span the globe. Seven German wines are offered, a relatively high number for a St. Louis restaurant list. White Burgundies cover the range of communes, and a superb choice is the Alex Gambal St. Aubin at $59. St. Aubin is the less expensive neighbor to both Chassagne and Puligny-Montrachet, and Gambal is an extremely talented American producing very classy wines in a region where high prices can easily dominate. Spain, Argentina and Chile are represented, as is Italy, with about 10 selections.
The list’s 17 sparkling and Champagnes is a sizable commitment to the world of bubbles, with five offered by the glass. The Chardonnay selections included some big-time wines with relatively bargain prices. The Chardonnays from Peter Michael were all priced in the $80 range, dramatically lower than I have ever seen for these collector whites from Sonoma. Similarly, the three vintages of Pinot Noir from Paul Hobbs range from $78 to $95, which are bargain prices. Chateau Latour 2007, the famed first growth Bordeaux from Pauillac, is $508 – not inexpensive, but, relatively speaking, an outstanding value, given the four-figure pricing on many top Bordeaux.
Copia certainly has the wine thing going strong, but without any Missouri wines on the list and not having any of their own wine available, it is hardly correct to be described as an “urban winery.”
To read Michael Renner’s take on the menu at Copia Urban Winery, visit Gourmet Guru in the reviews section.
This article appears in Oct 1-31, 2010.
