About Us
Who are we and why do we do wine events?
I’m Nich Cossey, and my husband (also a Nick) and I host Wine Nights at the Nicks at our home in Little Rock. I also run tastings for my colleagues at work at Arkana Labs.
I started collecting just a handful of years ago in Napa, and I still love a great Napa Cabernet or Bordeaux. However, these days I spend more of my time with Burgundy and Oregon. I came to Chardonnay late and I didn’t care for it until a bottle of Eyrie made me reconsider, and I'm currently learning more about white Burgundy and Chardonnay in general.
What I look for is balance and tension. I want wines where nothing is screaming for attention but there's plenty of complexity if you choose to look for it. Wines with freshness and a touch of mineral edge alongside the fruit. I can love a big, rich wine when it’s true to where it comes from and I drink quite a few of those. What I don’t like is a wine that’s not being true to it's terroir or is manufactured instead of discovered by careful work vintage after vintage.
I don’t think wine has to be expensive or intimidating. Our tastings are built around simple questions, like fruity or earthy, oak or no oak, so everyone can work out what they actually like and get better at picking bottles that sing the tune they are interested in hearing. I’m still learning, and that’s a big part of the fun.
My Story
My start in wine came from friends who knew far more than I did. They took the time to bring us along on a tasting trip to Napa, and it was the first time I tasted wines of truly exceptional quality. I didn’t know much yet, but I knew I wanted to understand what made those wines so different.
Napa is where I learned what I liked and I started to branch out from there. A 2017 Léoville Barton on a cruise gave me a lasting attachment to that château and Bordeaux. An hour-long tasting with the owner at Blankiet showed me how personal wine can be. An inexpensive bottle of 20+ year old Rioja showed me how profoundly age can transform wine.
Then my palate started to wander. A 2019 Eyrie Chardonnay changed my mind about exploring Chardonnay. A bottle of Volnay made me reassess how I felt about Pinot Noir. And, a couple relationships with importers started leading me deeper into Burgundy, Spain, and Italy. I found that I loved traditional Rioja from a 2011 bottle of López de Heredia Tondonia, and discovered that mountain Nebbiolo from AR.PE.PE just excited me.
My taste doesn’t move in a straight line. After a few weeks of Burgundy I want the depth of a Napa Cabernet, and then I swing back toward elegance and subetly. What stays the same is what I’m looking for: balance, tension and a sense of place. I think of it like architecture. I have certain stylistic preferences, but I can love any style that’s true to itself.
Wine is better shared. Someone took the time to share it with me, and I want to do the same. That’s why Nick and I host Wine Nights at the Nicks, and why I run tastings for my colleagues at work. My cellar is still young, and I’m excited to see what it becomes over the next ten years.