I Skipped the Wine Pairing at Per Se. Here's What I Drank Instead.
The standard pairing at Per Se is very good, and I turned it down anyway.
The wine list arrives on an iPad, and it scrolls for a very long time. This is Per Se, where the cellar holds around 2,500 bottles and the program has won the Wine Spectator Grand Award every year since 2013, so a certain level of intimidation is understandable. I've written a full review of the dinner itself in my Per Se dining article. This one is just about what was in my glass, because what happened with the wine that night ended up being my favorite part of the whole experience.
Here's a confession. I used to freeze whenever wine talk started at a nice restaurant. The jargon would start flying, I'd nod along, and eventually I'd smile and say "let's go with what you recommend." So when I sat down at Per Se, a restaurant I'd been dreaming about since high school, I decided to do the opposite. I skipped the standard pairing, told the sommelier what I was in the mood for, and we built my four glasses together, course by course. We traded preferences back and forth. He'd suggest something, I'd react, he'd adjust. It felt less like ordering and more like a conversation, and I walked out knowing my own palate better than when I walked in.
These are the four glasses, in the order they hit the table.
Agrapart & Fils, Extra Brut, "7 Crus," Avize NV
Dinner opens with champagne, and not a famous house label. Agrapart & Fils is a family-run grower estate in Avize, in the Côte des Blancs, and the "7 Crus"is a blend of 90 percent Chardonnay and 10 percent Pinot Noir drawn from seven different villages. In the glass it's fresh and crisp with very fine bubbles, and then it turns richer than you expect, succulent, with a finish that just keeps refreshing itself.
This glass carried the first three courses, and its big moment was Oysters and Pearls, Chef Thomas Keller's signature sabayon of pearl tapioca, oysters, and caviar. Salty, creamy dish. Bright, saline wine. I've had champagne with caviar before, but this particular handshake between the two is the pairing I'm still thinking about months later.
Domaine 47°N 3°E, Chablis 2022
My second glass came from one of the newest names in Chablis. Domaine 47°N 3°E is the one-man project of Guillaume Michaut, who left his family's estate to start his own label in 2018 and named it after the map coordinates of his home village, Beines, instead of after himself. I love that. The wine is floral and lively, with crisp acidity and an elegant finish, that classic Chablis streak of minerality running underneath.
It was poured for the Pacific Hiramasa "Tataki" and the "Dégustation" of Maine Lobster, and the lobster is where it earned its spot. Butter-poached lobster with lemon beurre blanc is a rich, rounded thing, and the Chablis cut through it exactly when the dish needed lifting. Textbook, in the best way.
Château Margaux, "Margaux du Château Margaux," Margaux 2015
The glass I chose for the meat courses, and the wine of the night. Margaux du Château Margaux is the third wine of the legendary First Growth estate in Bordeaux, which sounds like a consolation prize until you taste it, especially from 2015, a celebrated vintage in Margaux. This was one of the best vintage Bordeaux I've had in a long while. Silky smooth on the palate, with surprisingly fresh acidity, fine minerality, and a long, long finish.
It ran alongside both the "Suprême" of Wolfe Ranch Quail and the Snake River Farms "Calotte de Bœuf", and it flattered them differently. With the quail, it played against the fig preserves and the jus. With the ribeye cap, it brought the structure the dish's gentle sauce didn't. If you only splurge on one glass at Per Se, make it something like this for the meat stretch of the menu.
Cascinetta Vietti, Moscato d'Asti, Piedmont 2023
I chose my last glass for exactly one reason: it's Chef Keller's favorite dessert wine, and I wanted to taste what he tastes. Vietti is a historic Piedmont producer better known for serious Barolo, and the Cascinetta is their Moscato d'Asti, gently sparkling and delicately sweet, with a finish of fresh apricots. Nothing about it is trying to impress you. It's just delicious.
It arrived with the finale, seven desserts served all at once, plus the box of house-made bonbons, and it floated through every one of them, from the Brooklyn Blackout Cake to a matcha and yuzu white chocolate. With that much sugar on the table, a light, low-alcohol sparkler is the smartest possible call, and now I understand why it's the chef's pick.
The Sommeliers
The wine program at Per Seruns deep. It's overseen by Beverage Director Michel Couvreux, a Brittany native who came up through Paris legends like L'Arpège and Guy Savoy and spent a decade running the list at Le Bernardin before joining Per Se in 2009. Under his watch the restaurant took the Wine Spectator Grand Award in 2013 and has held it every year since, and in 2018 Wine Enthusiast inducted Per Se into its Restaurant Hall of Fame. Head Sommelier John Jansma, an Advanced Sommelier who joined in 2021 by way of the Michelin-starred Del Posto, leads the floor team.
And the floor team is the point. My own sommelier that night never made me feel like I was being tested. He asked questions, listened to the answers, and treated my preferences like useful information instead of obstacles. By the end of dinner I hugged him goodbye, which I have never done with restaurant staff in my life. He felt like a long-lost relative who happened to know everything about Burgundy.
My four glasses plus two zero-proof drinks came to $291.63 on top of the tasting menu, which felt fair for what was in them. But the real value was the practice. Every time I do this, describe what I want, taste against it, adjust, my palate gets a little less mysterious to me. I still don't fully know what I'll say the next time someone hands me an iPad with two thousand bottles on it. I'm starting to think that's the fun part.
Notes
Restaurant:Per Se, 10 Columbus Circle, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10019. Read my full dining review of the nine-course tasting menu for the complete experience.
Reservations:exploretock.com/perse
Wine program: Standard pairings available, plus an extensive by-the-glass list; four glasses and two zero-proof drinks came to $291.63 for our table of two
Accolades:Wine Spectator Grand Award, held annually since 2013; Wine Enthusiast Restaurant Hall of Fame, inducted 2018
Instagram: @perseny
About the Author
Kelly Gomez is a creative director who eats well, travels far, and lives with intention. She has sat at tables that required months of planning, flown routes that cross a dozen time zones, and found herself in rooms most people never find. She is precise about what she loves and honest about what falls short.
A WSET Level 2 Wine Certified writer and Advanced Open Water Diver, Kelly covers luxury travel, hotels, fine dining, wineries, diving destinations, and the trips built around them.
Her work reaches a US-based audience of travelers between 25 and 44, with a near-even gender split and a meaningful following.
