The barroom at Union League Cafe is an intimate little escape with its own little escape hatch—a side door you can enter when feeling too bashful for the pomp famously lavished by the restaurant’s front of house. Feeling shy indeed one evening, I did opt for the hatch, located up some stairs off Sherman’s Alley, then claimed one of eight snug seats at the small marbled bar. A large painting of sailboats under a mountain of glowing clouds echoed subtler maritime elements: muted shades of ocean, sand, coral and seafoam in the painted walls, the stone bar top, the medal ribbon drapes and a long banquette.
But I had come not for water but for wine, which I had guessed must be well-curated at this esteemed French dining spot. And the menu guided me right to it via the “sommelier’s selection,” a small list of two whites and two reds as well as a third, off-menu red later disclosed by my friendly bartender, Allison Moniello.
The first wine on the list, a 2022 sauvignon blanc from Sancerre, France ($20.75 glass, $60 bottle), was fragrant enough that I sensed it from across the bar. Suddenly I was thinking of the family dinner table growing up; my dad liked to drink this varietal, and its aroma must have reached me then, too. Returning to the present, I stuck my nose into the glass—too eagerly, getting a rush of boozy tart lemon. Letting it breathe, I found a great note of lychee fruit dusted with confectioner’s sugar. But the wine really blossomed on the palate: juicier up front and drier in back, with flashes of melon and citrus and a long, soft linger of fresh ripe pear with a dollop of vanilla cream.
The next choice, a 2018 chardonnay from Chablis ($22.75, $80), nosed like a baked stone fruit tart with its own dollop of cream drizzled in bourbon caramel sauce. A note of roasted meat soon emerged, then a mild florality. It was bold and delicious, and I hadn’t even tasted it yet. Then I did, and the nosing notes carried through beautifully, with the wine drinking surprisingly smoothly given how much was going on.
Then it was red time, starting with a 2020 pinot noir from Bourgogne ($21.75, $96). The journey here was wild, and not always pleasant. First nosing: house paint. Second, after a swirl: inky, overripe blackberry. Third: fleshy Concord grape and ripe plum. Fourth: same, but with a dash of… nectarine? Yes. Now my hopes were up. But the tasting was a letdown: thin and tannic from first sip to last, with none of the nose’s fruity complexity.
Like the sauvignon blanc, my next wine, a 2015 cabernet sauvignon from the Haut-Médoc region of Bordeaux ($20.75, $87), had a nose that crossed the bar. It was rich and musky like blueberry compote on raspberry pie, with a grape soda note in back. Sadly, to taste, the profile was just too unremarkable to leave much of an impression.
The final red, however—the one not listed on the menu—turned out to be a treat. And unlike the others, it wasn’t bottled in France but rather the good old US of A. Produced in California’s Napa Valley, this 2011 cabernet sauvignon ($19.75, ~$60) had a crystal-clear nose of ripe dark cherries cooked down with sugar and rhubarb. The palate offered more of the same, keeping the nose’s with clarity and confidence. It wasn’t the most complicated of the night. That title goes to the chardonnay, which, since I was in a mood to be astonished, was probably my favorite pour. But I could see the Napa cab winning out under different circumstances—for example, when ordering a bottle with a group of friends, where a crowd-pleaser that can also excite pickier palates is the holy grail.
Everybody’s tastes are different, of course, but I’m as confident as that wine that it’s a winner.
Union League Cafe
1032 Chapel St, New Haven (map)
Tues-Sat 5-10:30pm; Fri-Sat 11:30am-2:30pm
(203) 562-4299
www.unionleaguecafe.com
Written and photographed by Dan Mims.
