Comments (0) Best Wines by the Glass - 2012
Lukshon
When Eduardo Porto Carreiro left Los Angeles for New York City last May, he neglected to tell Sang Yoon, his boss at Lukshon. OK, that's not exactly true — with the help of Marisa Brown, Carreiro's still overseeing the wine list from afar, flying in about every other month to train the staff and keep his hand on the reins of one of the most innovative by-the-glass programs in the country. Wine disorientation sort of comes with the territory at Lukshon, a list mostly given to the deft, high-acid whites and light-tannin reds that best complement Yoon's precise, at times fiery pan-Asian plates. Carreiro's by-the-glass program, on the other hand, is almost an act of trickery: All of the selections are white, save one (a rosé). All are off-the-path varieties like Grüner Veltliner, verdelho, roussanne, arneis and riesling — varieties more common in places like Austria, Spain, France and Italy. But the kicker is that all of them are from California, mostly from the Central Coast, and they're stored in environmentally friendly Sanke kegs — so no glass, less waste and a locavore cred that few by-the-glass programs in the country can match. 3239 Helms Ave., Culver City. (310) 202-6808, lukshon.com.
—Patrick Comiskey
