25 Best Wines for Summer, According to Sommeliers thekitchn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thekitchn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Despite a regional history of viniculture that reaches back more than 5,000 years, wines that come from Eastern Mediterranean countries like Lebanon, Palestine, and Turkey don’t carry the same cache on the U.S. market as their mainstream European counterparts. In D.C., a hit new wood-burning Middle Eastern restaurant is on a mission to improve their reputation among American drinkers.
At Albi, some of the city’s most accomplished sommeliers pitch customers bottles that are often difficult to find stateside. By working with small importers and distributors and sometimes even sliding into vintners’ Instagram DMs to request tasting samples Albi’s wine experts are steadily expanding an inventory from the Levant region that represents exciting developments over the past three decades. The overarching goal, according to co-owner and high-profile D.C. sommelier Brent Kroll, is to prove there’s demand for Middle Eastern wines in the world of American fine dining. Kroll and oth