A Master and the Atelier: Jonathan Blechman and Pipsqueak Wine

by

Eat/Drink

They follow a calling. They practice a craft. As valuable as any craft or calling to any neighborhood or any city. And like any craft and calling, theirs are predicated on a native gift.

The calling and the craft also ask for intellect. They require resolve. And day after day, for a score of years, they demand practice. The calling and craft favor those who devote themselves to a single clientele of a single shop with a single address in a single city, and those who know the palate of every true patron of their shop. They require those who don’t stock wines they wouldn’t drink, or flog wines made like commodities of industry rather than fruits of agriculture.

This calling and this craft belong to wine merchants. Bona fide wine merchants. Echt wine merchants. Old-school wine merchants. People for whom being a wine merchant is their mission and their métier. The newest of these wine merchants to the state of Wisconsin is Jonathan Blechman of Pipsqueak Wine in Wauwatosa.

Blechman didn’t receive his calling to the cult of Dionysus by way of a Damascene experience. “I didn’t travel that road, it was gradual. No lightbulb. I’d been rejected by the graduate program I wanted to attend. I’d considered law school and took the LSAT, but that sounded dismal. I’d been into wine and realized it was the only thing in my life that really excited me.

“It was a great time and place to get into wine, New York City in the aughts,” Blechman says, coloring the canvas of what his life was like then. “I had a degree but no desire to find a job-type job. I was way too into bars and restaurants to wake up in the early morning and completely unsuited for office jobs. I decided to indulge myself and take a job at a new restaurant in New York City’s Meatpacking District. It was that job that changed everything.”

“The restaurant was a multi-million-dollar disaster called Sasha. A bloated Titanic of a restaurant. For me, it was exhilarating. I was working with wines I had no business with, Gaja, Chateau Palmer.” After the Titanic sank, Jonathan made a name for himself at the celebrated Lupa Osteria Romana and the empire of the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, where, over six years, he was a sommelier, a manager, and a wine director. Subsequently, Blechman was the general manager of a West Village wine bar, the wine director of a Seattle farm-to-table restaurant, and a sommelier for the Eno Wine Room at the InterContinental Hotel in Chicago.

And after all of that, Milwaukee.

But why Milwaukee? Neither Blechman nor his wife Heather Mitchell have family in the city or the state.

“Heather and I have both put in the years in the business. She spent time working the sales and wholesale side. Working for ourselves was always the dream. We had a vision for ourselves and our family. Milwaukee was a great place to do it. Lots of interest in what we’re doing, affordable retail space, less competition than in other towns. And the cherry on top, being able to sell wine to on- and off-premises customers isn’t something most states allow.”

Blechman and Mitchell’s vision is called Pipsqueak Wine, a beautiful wine shop and wine bar at 6410 W. North Ave. Intimate and comfortable, it is nothing less than perfect. The bottles of wine on the shelves and the lists of wine by the glass speak for Jonathan’s experience and expertise. The wine bar’s cheese plates and charcuterie, tapas, and hors d'oeuvres are as seductive as they are satisfying. And the masterful way Jonathan and Heather look after you shopping at their shelves or sipping at their tables invites you to enjoy the sublime experience of a glass of wine.

After all of these years, and at the end of the path which led him and Heather to Pipsqueak, can Jonathan say what exactly attracts him to his craft? “Simple, proper wine and food. The people that slave to bring it to you are often the best.”

And the best are Jonathan and Heather.

Jonathan Blechman’s Wine Flight

Asked to curate a flight of wines from five favorite wine growers he represents on the shelves of Pipsqueak, Blechman said his response would change depending on the day he was asked. These are the five he offered me on the day I asked him.

Domaine Franck Peillot, Bugey

“Quietly eschews sulfur and cultivated yeast in his sparkling wines. Puts in the back breaking work and makes something delicious. Full of personality and unique to Bugey.”

JB Becker, Rheingau

“Makes Rieslings in the Rhinegau that can be so compelling. So contradictory in their breadth of structure and sensory overload. Tensile and muscular, filigreed and subtle, salty and savory. Third generation to farm and make wine at this address. He was doing only indigenous yeast fermentations when that was the rarity, making dry wines when everyone else was making sweet.”

4 Monos Viticultores, Vinos de Madrid

“Four friends (the 4 Monkeys) make wine together from reclaimed old Garnacha vines in the Sierra de Gredos. High altitude, aromatic, natural wine. All four are natives to the Sierra de Gredos and avid hikers. They hike the trails from vineyard to vineyard. Twenty to 30 years ago, these vineyards were being abandoned. They were too difficult to work, and there wasn’t much financial incentive. These emerging but ancient wine regions are having a renaissance, and they’re super exciting.”

Domaine Phillipe Tessier, Cheverny and Cour-Cheverny

“Has been making quiet wines of purity and clarity in Cheverny for decades. They’re natural in the best way, not showy, lovely and compelling and super fun stuff.”

Division Wines, Willamette Valley, Southern Oregon, Columbia Valley

“A wife and husband team inspired by their work in the Loire Valley. Based in Portland, they work with grapes from the Willamette Valley and wider Columbia Valley. They experiment, they try different things, blends and co-ferments, follow their curiosity with fastidious winemaking and minimal interventions. Truly thoughtful, forward-looking folks that happen to make some of the yummiest wines coming out of the Pacific Northwest.”