2015 Giovanni Almondo Arneis Vigne Sparse Roero 750 ml

Danny Meyer’s Go-To White at the New Union Square Cafe

If you’re passing through New York City anytime soon, do yourself a favor and book a table at the newly reopened Union Square Cafe (and reserve it as far in advance as you can!) The original location, a mainstay of Gotham dining since 1985 from pioneering restaurateur Danny Meyer, shuttered a little over a year ago, a victim to the city’s absurdly high — and still rising— rent costs. New York’s gourmands cried foul over the loss of yet another of their proudest and most popular culinary icons. Meyer promised to reopen if he could. At the tail of 2016, he made good on that promise, and is already wowing the critics again.

The new location is four blocks from the original and more spacious. The interior’s been updated with handsome cherry wood paneling and ivy-green wainscoting. But the important things remain untouched. The gnocchi is still ethereal; the lamb shank, braised to perfection. Head chef Carmen Quagliata has kept a steady hand at the wheel. The bad news: it’s as hard as ever, if not harder, to get a seat.

Feel free to thumb through the well-curated 24-page wine guide, but your order can be found on the wine-by-the-glass page. There, six from the top, you’ll find Meyer’s choice white: the 2015 Arneis “Vigne Sparse,” whose scintillating, bright, crisp acidity cuts through the unctuous, Italian-influenced cuisine like a honed rapier.  

For years, the Almondo brothers’ exquisitely mineral Arneis has been among the most sought-after whites of Piedmont. But this 2015 is in a class of its own, and an impossible-to-beat food pairing. Bigger, broader, and fatter than any vintage in memory, infused with white peach, lemon oil, anise, and beeswax, the 2015 “Vigne Sparse” ranks among our favorite under-$20 European whites of the year.

The Almondo family’s estate in Piedmont is less than 20 miles from Barolo, but the climate, soils, and expositions couldn’t be more different. The key to their standard-setting Arneis is the terroir’s preservation of natural acidity. While the deeper soils of Barolo measure 9 in pH, on the sandy soils of Roero the pH is just 5.5. The climate is more arid than Langhe, but the north-facing slopes are steadily refreshed by the cool winds of the Alps.

That combination of low pH, sandy soils, high elevation, cooler north-facing plantings, and those brisk gusts from the Alps proved perfect for producing Piedmont’s star white, leading to one of the most precious white grape vineyards in Italy.

As pairings for Italian cuisine go, just ask the sommeliers at Union Square Cafe, Marea, and Del Posto — you can’t top the Almondos’ Arneis, Northern Italy’s otherworldly white.

Pale green in hue, with mouthwatering aromas of ripe lemon and green apple. Bright, crisp, infused with fabulous mineral complexity, filled with lemon curd richness, a touch of anise, and white flowers, sneaky in its richness and weight, yet as always with the Almondo brothers’ world-class white, perfectly light on its feet. Finishes with bracing acidity.

100 cases. Release price: $30. At Danny Meyer’s reborn Union Square Cafe: $17, by the glass. Today on WineAccess: $19 — per bottle. Buy everything you can fit in the cellar. Regardless of the magnitude of your purchase, they’ll be gone in the blink of an eye. Shipping included on 6.