Sommelier’s pick
Who: Shannon Noelle Crow, wine director and sommelier at Poitín
Background: Crow started a community garden when she was in high school, “cultivating a love for dirt, chemistry and growing things,” but then went on to attended St. Edwards University in Austin for global studies and economics. After starting an agriculture-tech company — AquaSprouts — with a successful Kickstarter campaign while in college, she began to build a career in bioengineering. But Crow says she soon realized “the pursuit lacked the artistic soul and community she loved with food and wine,
(so she) reacquainted herself with her bohemian roots by managing a peach orchard in Austin” before moving to Houston. Wine-tending stops at 13 Celsius and Pondicheri preceded her launching the wine program for Poitín.
What: 2014 Davide Bentivegna “Anatema”
Why: The Anatema, from Etna in Sicily and a blend of nerello mascalese and nerello cappuccio, is “an organic, natural, unfiltered beauty,” Crow says. “It’s like drinking pinot noir with an Italian accent. I want to show people that they can get away from commercially recognized regions and grape types from big-name brands and drink good wine at a great value.” Also, she helped crush the first domestically grown nerello mascalese in the U.S., giving her “a soft spot for the grape. It tastes like the sharp metallic tang of skinning your knees or climbing a volcanic cliff face while attempting to pick the last of summer’s berries between the scrub brush and herbs of the Italian countryside.” She suggests trying it with Poitín’s lamb neck hummus, heirloom polenta or the skillet-based cauliflower steak. Price: $64 for a bottle at Poitín, 2313 Edwards, Suite 100