Decoding Buvette's Wine Storybook

Buvette's wine list is a book with maps and illustrations depicting tiny farmers with hoes and horse-drawn carriages. Inspired by vintage almanacs and other old, twee things, chef Jody Williams has assembled an adorable "Petit Répertoire Illustré" or, "An Illustrated Guide" to wine.

She describes herself as a wine novice, and the book as an ever-evolving snapshot of what interests her at the moment. What makes it so appealing, though, is Williams' wide-eyed enthusiasm and ability to communicate the allure of wine—the places, movements, and histories that draw people to it—through the wine list. It's the sort of thing that will make anyone who has come to know wine well wish they could start all over from the beginning again. (...)

It's the sort of place that isn't about high-end wine, or fancy glassware—it's a place you go to drink Beaujolais, or Bugey-Cerdon on ice, maybe talk a bit too loud, and eat rillettes. It's perpetually packed and there's an authenticity to the clank of glassware and conviviality of the place that reminds you, as you look out on to a tree-lined Grove Street, that the West Village can often rival the best of what Western Europe has to offer. (...) 

But the list's great achievement isn't really about the selections or the adorableness of book (which, by the way, comes courtesy of designer Max Poglia), but how it proves, confidently, that a wine list can be much more than just a list.


From Eater by Talia Baiocchi.