It’s not as rare as it used to be, but it’s still uncommon to dine in a New York City restaurant that offers New York state wines. Maybe you’ll see a Finger Lakes Riesling. If you’re in a wine bar, you may see another bottle or two. Even establishments that tout a local “farm to fork” ethos frequently overlook the fact that local vineyards are farms.
There are a few restaurants that do it right. But it’s not often that diners are treated to an entire page of local wines on the menu. Contento in East Harlem treats diners to just that—a page dedicated to East Coast Terroir. New York wines comprise the bulk of the offerings on the page, accompanied by a few bottles from Virginia and North Carolina.
Yannick Benjamin, sommelier and founder of Contento, is the one who put those wines on the menu. He took a deep dive into New York wine about five years ago, and his interest ramped up considerably once the COVID-19 pandemic happened and he couldn’t travel out of the country.
“It dawned on me,” he says. “Shame on me that I can tell you where every single vineyard is in Burgundy, but I can’t talk in depth about what’s happening in my own backyard.”
So he set out to discover his backyard—the East Coast. He visited wine producers in places such as Vermont, the Finger Lakes, Long Island’s North Fork, and Virginia. His travels introduced him to how special the wines on the East Coast are and helped him realize they should have a place in a restaurant that sources locally.
“We can’t talk about being local, we can’t talk about sustainability, and then not have representation of vineyards that are in a 100-mile radius,” he says. “It seems so insane.”
Benjamin doesn’t put wines on his menu that are local just so he can say they’re on there. He chooses wines from producers he’s created relationships with. And, of course, the wines have to be “just dynamite.”
Educating Contento’s Diners
Many of Contento’s customers don’t know about New York wine, and Benjamin gets joy out of introducing them to the great winemaking happening in the state.
“It’s really interesting because certainly, people don’t flinch as much when they see wines from Oregon or California,” he says. But he’s realized that when they see local wines on the menu, they often need some education. He tells customers who are curious that just an hour north of New York City, there’s some of the purest granite in the soil and some of the best water resources—conditions that create incredible terroir.
“I think people will listen if you provide them with the intel, the educated information, the research that you’ve done, and translate that,” he says. Having enthusiasm and passion for the local wines, too, helps pique his customers’ interests.
As for the staff at Contento, they receive some formal training and get to taste the wines, but Benjamin believes the best training they get is seeing how he interacts with customers when introducing them to local wines.
If they see him selling and standing by the wines, and they also see the positive reaction from customers, it gives the staff the confidence to recommend local wines, too.
Benjamin believes it’s an exciting time for the New York wine industry, and he’s excited to be a part of it. He thinks other restaurateurs should be a part of it, too.
“Any restaurant or wine bar that prides themselves on their selections should have some sort of selections from New York,” he says. “To me, it’s crazy when there’s not even at least a couple of local producers.”
Earning the Restaurant Award
For his restaurant’s support of New York wine, Yannick Benjamin earned the Restaurant Award in the New York Wine and Grape Foundation’s 2024 Unity Awards. The award recognizes excellence in promoting New York wines in a fine dining experience.
“I’m a very proud New Yorker,” says Benjamin, “To be able to help in any way possible and to facilitate a limelight to the great work that all these farmers are doing, it’s a privilege to be able to work with these wonderful human beings.”
Images courtesy of Contento.
