A Portuguese Wine You Need to Try, Our Favorite Decanter on Sale, & What Friends Are Drinking

Happy Thursday! Here are a few things we spotted on Instagram this week that we thought you should see. If SWURL had a wine bar, we’d want all of this in it, especially the dog in the headscarf lounging somewhere nearby.

• A brass doorknob with a donkey on it

• A Vizsla on a boat wearing a headscarf

• A painting by UK-based artist Jack Penny that we absolutely need

• Jacaranda wood drink trolley from the 1960s that we wish we had

• Lamps that we’re quite speechless about

This past week, we went to Entre Nous in Clinton Hill with two friends and we were reminded how much we love it there. It’s a true wine bar at heart—organized but slightly chaotic in the best possible way, with tables positioned perfectly distanced away from each other where you don’t feel on top of the other tables, and a wine list that always brings you back.

We ordered the mushroom croquettes, oysters, crab toast, scallop crudo, and opened two bottles—Domaine des Marnes Blanches Savagnin En Quatre Vis 2022 and Borgogno Rivata Barolo 2020. Both benefited from being opened up for a bit, especially the Barolo. We started with the Savagnin while we were seating inside, then moved outside when a table opened up and settled into the Barolo, which felt like the perfect progression for the night.

If you haven’t been to Entre Nous yet, move it to the top of your list. Cancel your plans this weekend and go there instead. Here’s an interview with owners Clément Besset and Allie Prater-Besset we published a few months back that offers a good glimpse into how it all came together.

Why Winemakers Are Working With Fruit Beyond Grapes

A growing number of winemakers are looking beyond grapes, using apples and other native fruits to express what grows in their regions.

Two Château Lafite Rothschild’s 1870 Forgotten in a Scottish Castle Cellar Sold for $306,250

Fierce bidding in the Sotheby's New York sale featured an intense tussle for Lafite 1870 once stowed in a Scottish castle, as wealthy collectors turned out in force for Bordeaux's rarest wines and drove total sales above $2m.

Archaeologists discover 4,000-year-old beer recipe

For the first time ever, researchers deciphered cryptic glyphs, finding, among other things, a 4,000-year-old record of beer that was used as payment in the ancient city of Umma, in what is now Southern Iraq.

Previously Mentioned Articles & Videos

• An Italian Winemaker Is Taking Over France’s Most Prestigious Hermitage Estate

• A $29 Billion Restaurant Supply Deal Could Change How Independent Restaurants Buy Food

• A New York Vintner Raids US Wine Cellars to Skirt Trump's Tariffs

• Acker Makes History with Sale of World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine Ever Sold at Auction

• How to Spend a Day Eating & Drinking Wine in the East Village

• Nine Producers From Piedmont We Keep Coming Back To

A wine product we love & think you’ll love: This $48 decanter from Riedel that’s currently 20% off, doesn’t take up much space, and looks great on the table. We were at a friend’s for dinner the other night and they pulled one out. We bought one for ourselves almost immediately after.

What friends of SWURL have been drinking lately: From a 1988 Ganevat Chardonnay to a dessert wine from Occteau in Santa Barbara, California, take a look at what our friends have been drinking.

Wine recommendation of the week: From a young winemaker in Colares, Portugal, this Malvasia from Quinta de San Michel is one we’ll be excited to spot on a wine list (hopefully soon). It just kept getting better the longer it opened up. Three hours in, it felt almost unrecognizable from the first pour. It was salty, complex and elegant. We couldn’t quite find a bottle of it available online, but here’s a photo of it in case you spot it yourself.

In terms of where Quinta is located, Colares sits along the Atlantic coast, just a 40-minute drive from Lisbon. The region is known for its deep sandy soils, which famously allowed its vines to survive phylloxera by preventing the root-feeding pest from spreading. Astonishingly beautiful from the photos we’ve seen.

Admittedly, we should be drinking more wine from Portugal, and this felt like a perfect place to start. If you’re a wine writer well-versed in Portuguese wine, email us at [email protected]. We’d love to run more stories exploring the country’s wines and regions.

Upcoming portfolio tastings for industry professionals: On Monday, April 27th, AP Wine Imports is hosting its NYC spring portfolio tasting at Freemans on the Lower East Side, pouring a special selection from its portfolio alongside rarely sampled Bordeaux, non-alcoholic sparkling teas, and more. RSVP here.

The following day, Camille Rivière Selection will host its portfolio tasting at Ops in the East Village on Tuesday, April 28 from 11am—3pm. RSVP to [email protected] if you’re interested in attending, and see their original Instagram post for more details. 

Restaurant openings and updates: On April 15th, Sal Lamboglia, the restaurateur behind Cafe Spaghetti, Swoony’s, and Sal Tang’s, officially opened Bar Ferdinando in the former home of the 121-year-old Ferdinando’s Focacceria. According to Eater, Ferdinando’s owner Francesco “Frank” Buffa chose Lamboglia to take over the space after deciding to close the restaurant in February 2025.

Borgo, the Italian restaurant from Marlow Collective (the team behind Diner, Roman's, Achilles Heel, and She Wolf Bakery), just announced that its backyard patio is now open for lunch, with outdoor dinner service set to launch in the coming weeks. Long live warm weather.

Cellar 36 has a new neighbor on Market Street: Bar Chucho officially opened earlier this month from the team behind Corima and Vato. Just a five-minute walk from Corima and directly across the street from Cellar 36, it’s positioned as Corima’s sister bar, pouring cocktails from beverage director Edward Hardebeck alongside micheladas and nonalcoholic options.