Sunday, February 01, 2009
Food, Wine, Beer & Spirits, "Behind the Bar"

Grape expectations

The new Wine Loft Atlanta raises the bar on vino offerings

By Hope S. Philbrick

As general manager of the Wine Loft Atlanta, Harry Constantinescu is determined to establish the city’s most extensive wine list.

Q What launched your career in wine?
A I’m originally from Romania (I have also lived in France and Portugal), and my family made wine. Since I was very young, it just came naturally for me to know the chemical composition of wine and pairing wine with food. While I was in Europe, I was recruited to come and work in the hospitality industry in the United States. I thought it would be a good idea to follow up my wine background with sommelier certifications. I got my certification in less than three years and am certified by the Master Court of Sommeliers and am also a certified member of the Society of Wine Educators in Washington, D.C., at a professional level.

What makes the Wine Loft Atlanta unique?
We’ve tried to bring a new experience to Atlanta. It’s more like a lounge where people can come to relax. We have small little coffee tables, couches and love seats, so it really looks like a lounge. We have a very wide wine list; my goal is to represent as much as possible from the wine world. Currently, we have 22 countries represented in 234 different wine varietals available by the bottle and another 94 by the glass. Any wine drinker, from student to master, will find something on the list no matter the level of wine knowledge. The goal here is social interaction—just to encourage a free conversation about wine. If you have a wine question, there is somebody to answer it here. Some people shy away from wine, but this is a back door into the wine world. It’s an easy way in.
   
By the time we opened in Atlanta, it was the 10th Wine Loft location in the country. This one is 7,100 square feet and by far the biggest. It’s like the flagship for the Wine Loft, which started in New Orleans but after Katrina moved to Baton Rouge and now has locations in many places including Colorado, Alabama, Florida, and North Carolina.

How do you choose which wines to offer?
There is a core wine list of more than 100 wines that has to be respected at all locations. Beyond that, I try to select wines from as many countries as I can get in order to have the most extensive list. But when I pick a wine from, say, Greece, I’m not going to just get a cabernet sauvignon. I’m going to choose varietals that represent the best of what that country has to offer, and this is my main focus. Some countries are hard to get, like Luxemburg or Switzerland, which exports only 1 percent of its wine, so it’s not easy to find.
   
What’s the impact of the current economy?
With the troubled economy, I notice especially that there are two types of wine drinkers: some people just look for wines that are less than $10 a glass; others don’t care how much it costs. Our by-the-glass prices range from $6 up to $64, and by the bottle, we have wines from $28 to $1,000, so our list fits all kinds of budgets. The middle-class wine drinker is disappearing: I sell more wines by the glass less than $12, or more than $20, than in the $12-to-$20 range.

Riesling is one of the best sellers. Sometimes I’ll go through one case in just two hours on a Friday or Saturday. Being winter, a lot of people tend to go for reds, of course, and riesling is just an exception. Lately, people have discovered South American wines, and they are some of my favorites. You get a lot of quality for your money with wines from Chile or Argentina.

What else is on the menu?
Our menu is about 90 percent wine, but we also have a full bar with beer and cocktails. We also serve 14 different food dishes to enjoy with wine. SP
The Wine Loft Atlanta is located at 300 Marietta Street. For more information, visit www.thewineloft.net or call 404-255-5105.