'New York Jew' wine. Photo: Eric Scheffer

Didja hear the one about the wine called "New York Jew"?

We're not making this up: Although the punchlines practically write themselves -- "this bottle's got three varietals and four opinions, folks" -- the North Carolina restaurateur behind this new vino swears he's serious.

Eric Scheffer, who worked with Pat Roney and Leslie Rudd of the North Coast's Windsor Vineyards to create the new-this-month red blend of Cabernet and Petit Syrah grapes that comprise his New York Jew label, says sales have been tremendous.

"I can't keep cases of it in the restaurant," says Scheffer, a Brooklyn native who opened Savoy in Asheville, N.C., more than a decade ago. "I have people in Detroit and Chicago asking how they can get the wine. I have people driving up from Florida for it."
The Southeast is home to plenty of transplanted restaurateurs who persist in upholding their edible Northern traditions, from the homesick Philadelphian who peddles cheese steaks on a country road in western North Carolina to the deli owners in upstate South Carolina who stubbornly sell chopped liver sandwiches. But for pure Yankee braggadocio, few can match Scheffer.

"I was born and raised in New York," says Scheffer, who was working as a movie producer in California when a friend clued him in to the burgeoning Asheville scene.

"He told me 'you have to go there,'" Scheffer recalls. "And I said 'Are there any Jews around there?'"

Enough, apparently, that he hasn't had to footnote the scene-setting stories printed on the back of each bottle of New York Jew, which recount Scheffer's youthful adventures swiping wine from the table while his family argued about the best route to Bensonhurst and everyone ate too much kugel.

"I love self-deprecating humor, so why not poke fun at myself?" Scheffer says.

But Scheffer doesn't consider New York Jew a novelty act: He's proud of the jammy vino, which tastes like it might make a better match than Dr. Brown's Black Cherry for a corned beef sandwich.

Whether the wine's namesake drinkers will agree remains a matter for debate.