Stocked with over 200 bottles of wine, the best of Russian artisanal cheese and a crack wait staff, Wine Time has arrived for the sunny season — if you can find it, that is. Tucked into a concrete courtyard in the giant Legenda Tsvetnova business center across from Trubnaya Ploshchad, this winery-style gem remains all but invisible to passers-by — but it’s well worth the hunt.
Wine Time’s menu captures the fragrant essence of a wine and cheese tasting at a vineyard restaurant in the verdant hills of Burgundy or the Napa Valley. Wine Time’s young chef Andrei Mamontov, who cut his chops in the kitchens of White Rabbit and Savva, has put together a menu dominated by cheeses and cheese-based appetizers, an invitation to treat Saturday-evening dinner like a tasting menu.
The bar’s sommelier, Dmitry Nezhivov, has gathered wines from Germany, Austria, France, Italy, America, Spain, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Russia for his wine list. Prices range from 2000-25,000 rubles ($35-440) per bottle.
Nezhivov’s by-the-glass list proved exquisite. The Vermentino Vigne Basse (490 rubles) by the Italian producer Terenzuola was a light white wine with the crispiness of a prosecco, but none of its astringent sparkle. An oaky chardonnay from Joseph Drouhin Macon-Villages (630 rubles), meanwhile, had a bouquet so complex it needed to be savored without a pairing. The pinot noir by the same winemaker (690 rubles) lacked the unique aroma of the whites, but its studied dryness set off a “Russian Roquefort” perfectly.
Wine Time sources cheese and ice cream from the Maria Koval Dairy, run by an artisanal cheesemaker who has been gaining skill and market share since her humble beginnings in 2012. Koval, the dairy’s namesake and owner, adapted Western European cheesemaking techniques to fit her cottage industry in the Yaroslavl region just in time for Russia to impose an embargo on Western food imports in 2014.