Words are like viruses. They appear in culture and may lie dormant then suddenly they are everywhere, swirling about, adapting to their hosts, mutating to survive. In the wine world, this process can happen fast. “Purity,” it turns out, is anything but pure.
Wine importer
Evan P. Spingarn has worked in wine for 30+ years as an educator, consultant, writer, retailer and wholesaler. He is currently the senior salesperson and German portfolio manager for David Bowler Wine. Evan is a fourth generation New Yorker and lives in Brooklyn with his wife Kate, their daughter Nora, and an extensive Chinese takeout menu collection.
Whether you’re dropping into town for the bacchanalia that is Rieslingfeier or you’re a native New Yorker curious to get a taste of the latest and greatest in German and Austrian wines, here’s your hit list of bars and restaurants that make NYC the country’s best (if priciest) city to drink auf Deutsch. Updated November 2025 to remove Koloman, which has closed. G = German focus A = Austrian focus Noreetuh (G) Manager and co-owner Jin Ahn has turned this decade-old Lower East Side Hawaiian spot into the city’s ultimate insider Riesling hangout. Ahn’s exceptionally well-informed list is divided into Rieslings…...
The resurrected Zach. Bergweiler-Prüm Erben wines from Weingut Dr. Loosen offer a new definition of Mosel Riesling: one where the winemaker’s role is found in surrender, not forged by control.
Much has been made of an increase in German wine exports last year. Dr. Karl Storchmann reports that the data are open to interpretation.
On the dark morning of March 26, 1827, a heavy snowstorm was falling outside the fogged window panes of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Vienna apartment. Everything was unusually quiet in this space, so customarily filled with music. Beethoven’s house servant walked into the room to announce that a long-awaited shipment of Rheingau Rieslings, wines sent at his behest by his music publisher Schott, had just arrived. Barely able to muster the energy, the composer sat up in his bed, shook his fist in anger, and muttered these very last words: “Pity, pity, it’s too late…” He sank back into his bed,…...
A new direction is taking shape at an ancient estate in the Ruwer.
March 25, 2024 Update: Schmetterling has closed. It’s owners hope to reopen in the future. Are there parallels between German and Austrian wines, small-scale farming, and the queer community? If so, the most essential may be a shared need for safe space. Schmetterling, a queer-forward natural wine and vinyl shop that opened this summer in rural Vermont, aims to offer just that. By prioritizing the needs of communities at — admittedly starkly unequal — risk, owners Danielle Pattavina and Erika Dunyak have created an unlikely outpost for low-intervention German, Austrian, and other Alpine wines. The shop is both an incubator…...
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