MOVERS and SHAKERS: James Silver, General Manager of Peconic Bay Winery and Nautique Wines Our Coverage Sponsored by Table D'Hote
James Silver
Led by Executive Chef and Owner Bill Knapp, Table D'Hote is among the most elite and coveted culinary destinations of Manhattan's prestigious Upper East side. Reminiscent of a French countryside in ambiance paired with locally sourced ingredients that entice guests to return again and again, Table D'Hote is truly an undiscovered gem to those that have not yet started to frequent this venue. Bill graduated from The Culinary Institute of America in 1994 and has worked at several established restaurants in New York City including The "21" Club, Patroon, and Bryant Park Grill, before making his way to Danny Meyers and Tom Colicchio's famed Gramercy Tavern. In the fall of 2003, Bill accepted the position of Chef de Cuisine at Tom Colicchio's Craft Restaurant and later joined the team at Taste Catering on New York's West Side. After a few years, he was sought after to take the position as Executive Banquet Chef at The Loeb Central Park Boathouse. All of this culinary expertise evolved through each of these experiences truly shines at Table D'Hote, Bill's own creation today, coming up on its one-year anniversary. On September 9th, 2011, Bill re-opened Table d'Hote in New York City, at 44 East 92nd Street, a well-respected establishment opened and operated since 1978 by two fabulous people, Vivek Bandhu and Lauri Gibson. Whether you are indulging in the crabcakes, grass-fed steak or the decadent desserts (the blueberry peach tarte is divine!), Table D'Hote boasts a menu that includes the finest delights to please everyone. By executing great dishes with a seasonally inspired menu and maintaining a subtle ambiance, Bill impresses all that travel from near and far with his extensive diverse New York experience, creative approaches, desire, and passion to sourcing only the best ingredients available to culminate in a truly unparalleled dining experience.
Whom You Know has Highly Recommended Table D'Hote:
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As a very small child, Jim Silver spent a lot of time sitting on his mother’s lap watching Julia Child cook her way through monkfish, duck, and foie gras on Channel 13. It made sense somehow that he would take his culinary training beginning at age 18 at Philadelphia’s Walnut Hill College, and follow a straight-forward path to becoming one the most influential people in the regional wine scene.
“I love to cook, but I wasn’t particularly good at it – not cooking for say, three hundred people at a time that is.”
A class trip to the Cote d’Or (Burgundy) region of France was an epiphany. Visiting the Clos de Vougeot in 1988, it clearly dawned on him that wine was a calling.
“It sounds silly, but it’s absolutely true. Like a lightning bolt through a window, this wine just pierced my heart – I knew this is what I would always do.”
By 1995, Jim Silver was the sommelier at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia, having done stints as a retail wine buyer and as the manager of the celebrated restaurant Striped Bass. At the time the Four Seasons enjoyed a Zagat rating of 29, 28, 28, making it one of the greatest restaurants in America, and rated second in the US by Gourmet magazine that year. Still only in his early twenties, Jim was given a budget in excess of $200,000 in order to chase the coveted Wine Spectator Best of Award.
“It wasn’t enough – I needed $400,000. But the experience will be with me forever.”
It was the years leading up to and including the hotel that Jim was able to craft a palate that could distinguish nuances between villages of Burgundy and note the subtle differences between the 47s and the 49s in Pauillac. Tasting approximately five thousand wines a year for eight or nine years in a row, while running the largest and most influential wine buying entity in the state helped build a reputation that Jim took with him to the wholesale trade. Desiring most of all to be closer to the production of the wines, Jim entered wholesale with the idea that one day he would run a winery himself.
After hitting the road in sales for Rémy Martin’s wine division, and a brief but enjoyable term with the great Napa producer Hess Collection, Jim found himself in Manhattan and discovered the small regional significant wines produced on Long Island.
“It was 2002, the region was young, so was I, and just about to get married I thought I might take the plunge onto the North Fork of Long Island. I knew I was going off the grid so to speak – no more large companies, expense accounts and extensive travel, but here I thought I might grow, and make myself useful.”
As National Sales Director for Pindar Vineyards, Jim grew sales from under fifty thousand cases to nearly eighty thousand, launching new products, and injecting life and new quality initiatives into an older brand. Recognized as a growing influence on the region, Jim was recruited by Bedell Cellars. Already a powerful player (Bedell is owned by New Line Cinema movie mogul Michael Lynne) Jim helped establish strategies that would put Bedell into new markets including Miami and LA – highly unusual for regional wines. Refocusing brands and their price points and downplaying weaker ones helped expand Bedell’s ability to reach new markets.
Always looking for the winery that he would run one day, the opportunity came when Peconic Bay Winery came looking for a new General Manager. Peconic Bay had been suffering a slowdown of sales and had become distracted. The owners, Ursula and Paul Lowerre of Manhattan had ordered a significant investment in the renovation of the tasting room, the vineyards, and new graphic designs. While the winemaking was always strong, the branding and marketing needed a boost. Beginning in 2009, Jim brought a fresh approach to Peconic Bay including the dismantling of certain products, and the creation of new ones. New distribution, new (and higher) pricing and an all-out effort to improve the reputation of the winery began and has been truly effective.
Jim’s efforts to bring attention to Peconic Bay includes the launch of new brands like NAUTIQUE, casual but modern styled table wines, SONO RINATA, the first brandy produced on Long Island, and TRUE BELIEVER, a sparkling hard apple cider – so popular it’s hard to keep on the shelf. In addition Jim has produced multiple large scale concert events at the winery featuring Jorma Kaukonen, Leslie West, Elvin Bishop, John Pizzarelli, and Johnny Winter among others.
In November, Jim opened a second location for Peconic Bay, under the name “Empire State Cellars.” ESC, as it’s known, is a satellite tasting room of the winery, but also retails five hundred other New York wines, beers and spirits. “The Best of Bottled New York” is the motto of this large scale wine shop, located at the gateway to wine country in the Tanger Outlet Mall in Riverhead. It is already one of the largest sources for New York wines anywhere.
Now 44, married with two children and living on Long Island’s south shore, Jim’s beloved Peconic Bay Winery is just about to release the wines from the soon-to-be-legendary 2010 vintage. With quality and quantity goals being addressed daily, Jim Silver is doing exactly what he wants to be doing.
“I hope I’m a positive influence on this region – I believe in upping the ante – upping the quality, and maybe testing the limits a bit frankly.”
Presently Jim has been commissioned to bring together a dozen of the state’s greatest wineries into a coalition of ultra premium producers that will be exported to China later this year, under the name Empire State Cellars Exports. This is a new chapter for Jim and a new chapter for New York’s wineries both. Concerned mostly that the state should put its best foot forward in a new market, Jim is only representing the highest quality and highest priced New York wines.
“We really can’t compete for volume with the likes of Australia, Chile and France – but we can compete in the quality arena and for the high dollars. I want to position New York wine as a luxury selection for the emerging wine consumers of China. They love the idea of New York, and all that it represents. This is a great opportunity to brand ourselves.”
“You know, We’re finally going to step onto the world stage – we had better be dressed appropriately.” Whom You Know is absolutely thrilled to present Jim Silver as our latest Mover and Shaker! We have highly recommended his wines:
and we even celebrated our milestone 400th post in Champagne Wishes with one:
Peachy Deegan interviewed Jim for Whom You Know.
Peachy Deegan: What is your first memory of wine?
Jim Silver: Because it was a favorite of my Uncle’s, the family Easter parties used to feature Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, usually vintages around 1980 or so. I remember admiring the handsome label as a kid, and if I tasted it I can’t really recall – but it seems indelible all the same.
What should most people know about wine that they don't know?
People should know who or what really made that wine – maybe it was a mechanical harvester followed by a computer-controlled fermentation process and automated bottling – maybe it was a person, with a name, with a farm and a family, with aging equipment and the integrity and experience to make an authentic, unique and remarkably soulful wine. In short, people need to know the human elements behind the wine they are drinking.
What do you think the best "diamond in the rough" wines are and why?
I’m biased. Of course I’m going to say New York wines. These are wines and wineries still finding their way. They are still discovering the best growing sites, and the terroir of their places. So let me open it up to the whole east coast then – the diamonds in the rough are the east coast vineyards. It’s our time to rise up and be recognized.
Has your career evolved the way you expected it to? Why or why not?
It has indeed. What I didn’t expect was to be so happy and so pleased with the results. I wouldn’t change a thing.
What should the world know about wines from New York?
Just a couple of things: The wines of New York are very similar to the wines produced in Europe – a little more rustic, a little lower alcohol, a little more food friendly than say California. Also, that the value is there. Rieslings (for one example) are superior to any other region of North American, and can still be had for well under $20 a bottle. I’m disappointed when someone tells me they can find better California wines than New York wines for less money, and then go on to demonstrate their point with a mass-production machine-made factory Merlot with little to no character, but plenty of gloppy and sticky, low acid fruit. New York wines are made by real people, with their own hands, and a frighteningly low level of pretention. Your local wines are higher in acid, lighter in body and have twice the integrity – for goodness sakes, try them!
What is the process to create a new product like?
Often the product makes itself. When one day we found a terrific bit of artwork that we thought would make a great wine label, the conversation drifted to how cool it would be if that were actually on a hard cider bottle – and why don’t we make a hard cider? Suddenly we had hard cider program that in two years has grown from 600 bottles to 8,000 bottles and is hard to keep on the shelf. The artwork was abandoned but the idea it generated lives on. On the other hand, if we want to create a product from scratch it will be for a set of purposes like addressing a style, or addressing a particular price point. We work backwards from what we want the wine to be, and decide what it should look and taste like. Then our winemaker either says “Sure” that can be done or we don’t have that sort of material.
What does luxury mean to you?
Well, I can tell you it has little to do with money! For me luxury is the relief of setting cares aside, at least for a time and satisfying the need to be catered to. A chilled langoustine, and a carafe of fizzy white wine in a café in Genoa isn’t expensive, but for an hour or two, who is living better than you? For me, just knowing I don’t have any place to go for the rest of the day is luxury. Perhaps that’s in the backyard, with a grilled steak, the kids playing, and a glass of almost anything is an extreme level of luxury I would say.
What would surprise most people about your occupation if they lived your life?
The sheer amount of time taken up by legal, financial, bureaucratic, and personnel issues. I spend seven hours on that, and one hour on wine.
We are thrilled to hear that you are exporting to China and think they as a country ought to catch up and achieve a trade balance with us on a national basis. What are they ordering and what should they be ordering?
The emerging middle class of China is discovering wine at a pace I think few people understand. They already import more French wine than the US. What they want and what they expect for their money might be different than what you may expect. They prize authenticity and excellence about all. Branded items, especially the fuzzy critter labels and cartoonish type of brands are eschewed in favor of real producers of genuine quality. Hand-crafted will outsell mass production, at least for now. Later, as their palates mature, and as wine enters into their routine on a more regular basis, who knows? But for now, this is New York’s bailiwick. We are small producers of quality products, and we are hard to come by – and so we are desirable. Also, “brand” New York is more powerful an American image as anyone can muster. What’s extremely critical now is not to present ourselves as cheap – that is, enter that market at the luxury price points and establish a supremacy over the more commonplace US imports with high prices, limited availabilities and allocations, and celebrated qualities.
What or who has had the most influence on your pursuit of excellence?
Early in my career, very early in fact, a sage Maitre d’hotel who was a teacher at my school instilled in me the purpose of great service. He taught me that service was both honorable and rewarding, and that the pursuit of great service skills is the pursuit of success. Naturally, he was correct. The higher you climb the more people you serve.
What are you proudest of and why?
I am proudest of providing a living and a home for my wife and my two children that is comfortable and happy. Nothing I ever create or produce or sell at work will overshadow that – nothing.
What would you like to do professionally that you have not yet had the opportunity to do?
I would personally own and control a small wine brand of ultra-premium quality that produces wines that I love. Perhaps I’ll do that someday soon. It wouldn’t have to be my day job, it could be a side project, but that is what I want. That, and a book, but everyone says that right?
What honors and awards have you received in your profession?
I don’t care too much for prizes in this business, especially because of the subjective nature of wine. Just because the Wine Advocatae gives a product like Marcassin Chardonnay a 97 point rating, some (like me) find it undrinkable, though truthfully I haven’t had it in years. Awards and recognition (like the James Beard awards) seem to be reserved for the most high profile of the industry’s figures – all of whom seem to know each other personally. I’m not particularly high profile. Would I accept the award? You bet I would! But honestly, the title on my business card is the greatest honor I’ve gotten so far.
What is your favorite place to be in Manhattan?
I love the Boathouse in Central Park. I know it’s a little touristy, or a lot touristy, but I don’t care. Even when I lived on 96th Street, my wife and I would frequently hang out there.
What is your favorite shop in Manhattan?
A wine shop you might guess! I don’t think I’ve ever been in a store with a greater selection of absurdly high quality products at fair prices than Astor Wines. I could live in there.
What is your favorite drink?
I drink rye Manhattans. Gramercy Tavern produced the best one I’ve had in a while. You know, even their ice is awesome!
What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you at a cocktail party?
I was given a blind taste of a “champagne” and asked to identify it. Of course I rummaged around in my brain for the obvious and the obscure, and after ruminating on it for a while I proclaimed it a “sparkling vouvray” of excellent quality. Of course it was “André” at $2.99 a bottle, and everyone had a great laugh at my expense, including myself.
What is your favorite restaurant in Manhattan?
Sparks. I love a steakhouse, and I’ve always loved Sparks, and Wolfgang’s on Park Ave too... Or almost any of the thousands of French Bistros. I like Chat Noir very much, and L’Express, and Brasserie Ruhlmann too. But if money were no object, I would spend it in Le Bernardin.
What is your favorite Manhattan book?
Bright Lights, Big City.
Who would you like to be for a day and why?
Fiscally worry-free. Why not?
If you could have anything in Manhattan named after you what would it be and why?
I think an architecturally significant skyscraper. Why? Because I probably had it built. That would be plenty, and probably more reasonable than my first thought which was “Sixth Avenue.”
What has been your best Manhattan athletic experience?
This is too typical I’m sure, but running around the reservoir was favorite pastime for my wife and I when we lived here.
What is your favorite thing to do in Manhattan that you can do nowhere else?
My building at 96th and Lexington had the 6 train stop in the basement. I once went from my apartment to JFK in a driving rainstorm without an umbrella and without getting wet, which means I could have gone anywhere in the world. I still think that’s remarkable. But my favorite thing is merely catching a cab from any great restaurant and watching the city fly by in the windows.
If you could have dinner with any person living or passed, who would it be and why?
Hugh Johnson (English wine writer). Mr. Johnson wrote five of the ten greatest books on the subject of wine including three I find indispensible. He is a purist, and he writes from a deep love of the subject, respect for the craft, and with a charming and disarming wit. I am in his debt for all the words of his I still regurgitate as if they were my own.
What has been your best Manhattan art or music experience?
I’m not particularly well versed – I could easily say seeing Chuck Close’s studio downtown, or any number of exhibitions at the Met, just as easily as I could say seeing Pink Floyd at Madison Square Garden twenty five years ago.
What do you personally do or what have you done to give back to the world?
I have personally converted hundreds and hundreds of people to the beauty and the healthful benefits of regular wine drinking over any other type of beverage. In that, I think I’ve elevated their time on this earth ever so slightly. Is that too arrogant? I hope not because I believe it.
What do you think is most underrated and overrated here?
Overrated? The outer boroughs. I know they are coming up, but getting around is such a hassle! Underrated? Dining in the outer boroughs. Wow, what a smorgasbord of fascinating restaurants, bars, and destinations that are appearing everywhere. I mean, Astoria and Williamsburg alone….
Other than Movers and Shakers of course, what is your favorite Whom You Know column and what do you like about it?
I like the Brilliant Businesspeople and the Big Apple Business sections – I’m always inspired by the success and hard work of others.
Have you drank The Peachy Deegan yet and if not, why not?
I’m afraid I don’t have the ingredients here, but I wish I did. I’ll have to stop by Swifty’s immediately.
What else should Whom You Know readers know about you?
If they’ve gotten this far in the article, they know even more than I do about me. Other than that, I am the guy who put a WINE BAR in the Tanger Outlet Mall. I think I should get a statue or something for that. (Empirestatecellars.com)
How would you like to be contacted by Whom You Know readers?
jim@peconicbaywinery.com I love email.
