Although wine has been around for hundreds of years,
it seems to just be getting HOT in the Puget Sound area. Some blame it on the movie “Sideways.” Others say it’s because Washington state wines are gaining recognition. Whatever the reason, wine is in. Wine bars have exploded on the Seattle and Eastside scene in the last year, with new businesses in Issaquah, Bellevue, Wallingford and Ballard, to name a few. Wine bars offer a different sort of experience from restaurants and full-service bars, and people are catching on.
Hallmarks of a wine bar include an extensive wine list from around the world, food that can complement wines and multiple sizes of wine pours. Most wine bars also offer flights, usually three glasses of the same type of wine from different wineries or regions.
Having multiple sizes of pours enables wine bars to offer tastings as well as glasses of wine and bottles of wine. Unlike wine tastings in wine shops, the state liquor board does not as strictly regulate wine bars. “The state liquor control board has some severe restrictions on how much wine can be poured, how many portions to each individual and the size of the portions (in wine shops),” says Tom Cottrell, the owner of La Cantina Wine Merchants in Bellevue. “A wine bar, on the other
Jeffrey Dorgan of Smash Wine Bar & Bistro
hand, can basically do anything they want. They can pour small or large portions ... and if you want to line up 10 wines by the glass and have a few friends share them, that’s perfectly legitimate. You can’t do that in a wine shop.”
Cory Duffy and Lane Scelzi (l-r) of Sip.
Dan Thiessen, owner and head chef of the 0/8 Seafood Grill and Twisted Cork Wine Bar, says in addition to flights, he will also offer verticals—“It’s the same wine over different vintages,” Dan says. One of the most important distinctions of a wine bar is the number of wines available by the glass. While restaurants might have a large wine list, because options other than wine are available, they cannot have the number of open bottles a wine bar can. At Sip., a new wine bar and restaurant in Issaquah, owner Lane Scelzi says they have close to 300 wines on the menu and almost 60 wines by the glass. “Being that the space is geared toward storage of our wine, we are able to provide that to the guests,” he says. Jeffrey Dorgan, owner and wine director at Smash Wine Bar & Bistro in Wallingford, says his wine bar also distinguishes itself because he is there every night, serving wine and talking to customers about the wine if they want to learn more. An important thing, since he says around 75 percent of their
customers are new to wine. “It’s more of a learning experience with the guests,” he says. Wine bars seemingly are popular because not only can you have a fun night out trying a bunch of different wines, but also because wine bars often have an extensive list of small plates to accompany tastes of wine. “The menu is pretty much a shareable menu,” says Jeffrey of Smash’s food. He thinks that is one reason Smash is doing well. A group of girlfriends can stop in and order a bunch of appetizers and glasses of wine, with everyone trying everything. “The concept really worked for us,” he says.
Dan says he also sees the trend toward smaller plates of food. “They want to go out—just the two of them, maybe join another couple—and have three or four small plates, maybe with two different glasses of wine as opposed to having to order a bottle and stick with that bottle through the entire experience.” Tom warns of a potential downfall to having a large number of wines sold by the glass: “You can get the tired bottle from time to time,” he says. Although some wine bars will always check the wine before it is served—“I do check every bottle before I pour it,” says Jeffrey—flaws might not show up until
Eric and Karen Larson enjoy trying a new wine in Polaris
the wine has had time to breathe. And unless you have a very discerning palate, you might not recognize tired wine. In any case, if you do detect a tired, corked or otherwise off bottle, says Tom, a good wine bar should be willing to open a fresh bottle.
Dan Thiessen of 0/8 Seafood Grill & Twisted Cork Wine Bar
No matter what, the wine bar owners agree that going to a wine bar is a great place to have a good time with family and friends, and try new wine. Even the most seasoned wine tasters can get stuck in a rut. A wine bar is a great place to sample wines you might not otherwise try. Wine bars are also a great place to try a lot of hard-to-find wines. “We have the more common, known wines,” says Lane, “but we also have wines people have never heard of. We can suggest wines from a different region and ... expand their taste buds a little bit.” Says Dan, “We hope that their experience is educational as well as exciting, they want to come back. And that when they come back there is always something different to explore.”
IT'S NOT A WINE BAR...
… but Polaris at the Bellevue Club is a great place to relax and enjoy a glass of wine. The restaurant has wines and champagne by the glass and bottle. On Tuesday and Saturday nights, Polaris
offers a selection of their bottles at half-price. The restaurant also hosts winemaker dinners, a chance to experience professional food and wine pairings, and learn about wine from the creator. To stay up-to-date on events in Polaris, you can sign up for e-mail alerts at https://members.bellevueclub.com. The Members Only site requires a password. Please contact Membership Services at 688-3221 if you have not yet received your password.
LABELING THE TASTE
“You need to remember that your ability to taste is 80 to 90 percent your ability to smell. If you can’t smell, you can’t taste properly,” says Tom. That is the reason for swirling wine in
a glass before tasting it—letting more wine contact air helps release its full “bouquet” of flavors, so that tasters smell all the different components of the wine before and during tasting. From that, however, it can still be a mystery trying to put a name to what you smell especially if you’re new to tasting. That is where the Aroma Wheel comes in. Invented by Ann Noble, a professor of viticulture at the University
of California, Davis, the wheel lets wine tasters start in the middle, with the most generic terms, and move outward, creating
a more specific description of wine as they go.
If you are unable to distinquish different aromas in wine, try creating samples of different
aromas: Using neurtral white or red wine, pour two ounces of the wine into glasses. Then, to each glass, add a small amount of the product described by the different aromas on the wheel. For example, adding some orange or grapefruit juice to white wine will help you pick out the citrus flavors, as would adding vanilla extract for vanilla aromas, asparagus brine for asparagus aromas
or a bit of bell peppers for that aroma. Going back and forth be-tween these flavors and the neutral white or various other whites can help you identify the different flavors when tasting. For more information about both the Aroma Wheel and how to create aroma examples, visit www.winearomawheel.com.
