Most wine bars in New York are built around a short, rotating list of things the owner is currently excited about. La Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels, on Centre Street in Nolita, is built on the opposite premise: more than four hundred and fifty wines, close to seventy percent of them French, assembled by a sommelier with a specific and slightly obsessive point of view. That is a lot of list to walk into cold. It is also the reason this is one of the few places in the city where a wine tasting can genuinely mean tasting your way through a region rather than sampling four glasses someone else chose. Here is how to use it.
Four hundred and fifty wines is a library, not a menu. Ask Karpo how to approach the list at Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels for what you actually like drinking.
What is actually on the list
The list runs to over four hundred and fifty wines from around the world, with dozens available by the glass and a long section of genuinely affordable pours alongside the serious bottles.
Roughly seventy percent of it is French. That is a deliberate editorial position rather than an accident of sourcing, and it means the depth here is in Burgundy, the Loire, the Rhône, Champagne and the regions around them rather than spread thinly across the world.
The list was compiled by sommelier Caleb Ganzer from producers he works with directly, with an emphasis on small growers in less-heralded regions. That is the part that makes it interesting — the famous appellations are represented, but the discoveries are in the places nobody puts on a wine list to impress you.
How to order when the list is this long
Do not read all of it. Pick a region, a grape or a price band and hand the rest of the decision to the staff — this is a room set up for that conversation and the by-the-glass selection is wide enough to support it.
Tell them what you actually like rather than what sounds knowledgeable. A list with this much small-grower French wine on it has an answer for almost any preference, but only if the preference is stated honestly.
The affordable-by-the-glass section is the right starting point on a first visit. Work out what direction you are heading in there, then commit to a bottle.
It is a wine bar, not a restaurant
The food exists to support the drinking rather than the other way round — small plates, charcuterie, cheese, the sort of thing that makes a second bottle sensible.
Do not come hungry expecting dinner. Come having eaten, or plan to eat afterwards, and treat what arrives at the table as ballast.
The room is dim, cellar-like and small, which is the correct atmosphere for this and the wrong atmosphere for a group of eight. It is a two-to-four-people room.
Where it sits
249 Centre Street sits on the seam between Nolita, SoHo and Chinatown, which is one of the better-served corners of Manhattan for the rest of the evening. Canal Street and Spring Street stations are both close.
The neighbourhood context matters for the visit: this is a quiet, low-lit room on a busy street, and stepping in from Centre Street is meant to feel like a change of register.
It has been in Nolita long enough to be an institution rather than an opening, which in a New York wine bar is worth something.
When to go
Early evening is the calmest and the best time for a conversation with the staff about the list. Later on it fills, and a four-hundred-and-fifty-bottle list is harder to navigate when the room is three deep.
Weeknights are quieter and are when the by-the-glass exploration works best. Weekends are for arriving with a bottle already in mind.
Reservations are worth making for a weekend, and the bar is the better seat on a weeknight if there are two of you.
Practical notes
Address: 249 Centre Street, Nolita, Manhattan. Phone (212) 343-3660.
Over 450 wines, close to 70% French, with dozens by the glass including a long affordable section. List compiled by sommelier Caleb Ganzer with an emphasis on small growers.
Small plates and charcuterie rather than a full dinner menu. The room is small and best suited to two to four people.
Tags: #NYC #Nolita #WineTastingNearMe #WineBar #FrenchWine #Sommelier #CentreStreet #Manhattan #ByTheGlass #WineList #CreativeWorkshops #NYCBars
Please drink responsibly. Must be of legal drinking age.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Ask Karpo first
Ask Karpo what to drink at Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels based on what you usually order, whether to book for the night you are going, and where to eat properly nearby afterwards.
