(4 / 5)
Chef Chris Hastings, a repeated James Beard winner, is making some of the nation’s best food happen off Birmingham’s Highland Avenue. His inventive new Southern cuisine is taking critics by storm, and he’s deservedly proud of his food and way of doing business. It’s quite likely that Hastings will walk over during your meal and chat you up.
For me, the winner on his wine list is Black Tears by Tapiz. This is the trophy wine from a longtime Mendoza winery where I had the privilege of eating lunch a couple of years ago. Most of the Tapiz wines are just okay – but Black Tears is a big, bold, classic New World red. You’ll like it; and as I remember the wine was relatively well priced. It’s about $40 in stores and it seems like it was less than 2X on this menu.
On my wine lists feature, I don’t attempt to rate the food; only whether Argentine wine is well-represented and well-priced.