Photo courtesy Siege Food Photo
Chef Kyle Knall
Chef Kyle Knall
Sponsored by Discount Liquor
Sponsored by Discount Liquor
Great wine lists read like great poetry. Their styles and meters may vary. And they may measure many pages or just a few lines. But between their lines and behind their pages, you hear a voice. You feel an energy. You see a mind.
One of the city’s great wine lists is at one of the city’s great restaurants. What makes this restaurant’s wine list extraordinary is the mind behind its lines, which isn’t the mind of a manager, or a wine director, or a sommelier. The restaurant is Birch, and behind its wine list is the mind of the restaurant’s celebrated chef and co-owner, Kyle Knall.
Knall was a James Beard Award semi-finalist for the Midwest’s best chef of 2024, as well as a James Beard semi-finalist for the country’s best chef of 2022. Last year, the New York Times named Birch one of the country’s 50 best restaurants, describing its food as “worldly Midwestern cuisine free of cliches.”
The genius of Knall’s wine list is that it’s true to the ideals of his cuisine. Just as Knall creates his menus with honest produce from small farms, he curates his beverage lists with honest wines from small estates. It’s a perfect match of styles. It’s poetry.
An Interview with Chef Kyle Knall, Co-owner of Birch
Gaetano Marangelli: You have a profound knowledge of wine. Why and how did you develop your knowledge?
Kyle Knall: My knowledge is all based on taste and experience. I make it a point to be involved in tastings with our distributors. When our staff is tasting, I join in and participate with them. We open bottles we're curious about and taste them with our food. I’ve found it's important to constantly try things to increase that knowledge and build on those flavors.
GM: Some chefs know a lot about wine, some chefs don't. How important is your knowledge to why and how you create food?
KK: In the kitchen, I don’t necessarily try to create a dish to match a specific wine. But we do have a style in the kitchen that revolves around fresh and bright flavors, and it's not a surprise that dishes like this pair with our favorite styles of wines—those that are bright and fresh.
GM: As a wine savvy chef, you think about food and wine in ways a sommelier cannot. Would you offer an insight into how you think about food and wine?
KK: Each month as we come up with wine pairings for our Seasonal Tasting Menu, I make sure we don’t settle for “good enough.” I won’t say that every single pairing is something that is going to blow you away, but I make sure things really work together. Sometimes I keep trying after we find something that works to make sure there isn't something better. Our guests trust us to put this work in, and I think the feedback we get from this menu every month proves that it’s worth it.
GM: How does the way you select wines for your list differ from the way a sommelier might?
KK: For me, it’s very simple. To make the cut, a wine has to be delicious (which is also how I feel about a dish that leaves the kitchen). For me, nothing else matters. Maybe there are rules that some like to follow, but I don't think it's fair to our guests or hospitable even to not stick to things that are delicious.
GM: Your spouse, Meghan, co-owner of Birch, was the general manager of Smith & Vine, a great New York wine shop. How was she part of the development of your wine knowledge?
KK: I would say that the impact of Meghan on my wine knowledge would be that we often share wine together. Through discussions of our likes and dislikes, enjoying it with food we prepare at home, as well as enjoying it when we go out to eat, I’m enjoying wine in the same way that guests would enjoy it in our restaurant. I’d say this is one of the biggest ways that I’ve added to my wine knowledge. Of course, there was often the benefit of being able to enjoy wine that she was able to bring home—not a bad perk!
Four Dishes from the Birch Seasonal Tasting Menu with Chef Kyle Knall’s Wine Recommendations
Grilled Sweet Carmen Peppers | Charred Beef Tartare | Wisconsin Parmesan | Sourdough
Merlot | Closerie Saint Roc | 2015 | Bordeaux | France
Ricotta-Filled Pasta | Black Lime | Cilantro | Autumn Frost Squash | Jalapeño
Chardonnay | Sandhi | 2021 | Central Coast | California
Ember-Roasted Walleye | Red Zeppelin Onion | Dill | Cucamelon | Chilled Cucumber Broth
Vermentino | Clos Sainte Magdeleine | 2022 | Méditerranée | France
Wood-Roasted Pork Chop | Toasted Hazelnut | Red Cabbage | Jimmy Nardello Peppers | Honeycrisp Apples
Corvina | Tenuta Sant’Antonio | Nanfrè | 2019 | Valpolicella | Italy
