New York Vintners is a wine shop in lower Manhattan. For many years in addition to selling wine, they would host wine classes and wine dinners on a variety of wine topics.

The tastings were small, sit-down affairs and they were usually a lot of fun, unfortunately they stopped having those tastings a few years ago and the pandemic didn’t help matters.

They recently moved into a new shop at 63 Barclay Street right up the block from Eataly downtown and began hosting wine tastings and classes last December.

I signed up for the “Wines of the Southern Hemisphere” class on a Sunday afternoon in December. The new wine store is dark and chic and when I arrived for the class, I was given a glass of Prosecco (not southern hemisphere but close enough). It was an intimate event with me and two others and the in-house Sommelier presenting the wines. We were served five wines and some nice charcuterie.

The wines served in class:

2017 Klein Constantia Chardonnay (South Africa): Clear medium gold, ripe fruit and earth on the nose, ripe pear notes on the fruit, tight, oaky, dry.

2021 Fabre Montayou Torrontes (Argentina): Clear light gold, peach and spice on the nose, tight stone fruit ending dry and mouth watering.

2015 Casa Silva Carmeniere “Los Lingues Vineyard” (Chile): Opaque black with a purple rim, dusty, peppery, black licorice and tobacco on the nose, concentrated black fruit with oak, gun metal and dried leaf notes on the finish. Some heat.

2020 Fabre Montayou Cabernet Sauvignon (Argentina): Dark black with a purple rim, closed nose of coconut, sage and black cherry, chewy and chunky with dusty black fruit and a crisp finish.

2019 Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon (Chile): Opaque dark red with a purple rim, perfume of red bell pepper and floral red fruit, chewy with tobacco notes on the fruit, good grip at the end.