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Wine bar's customers can try a selection before they buy it
2002 Sanford Winery Chardonnay
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Listen to "In the Wine Cellar", Dave's weekly radio show on KQV Radio on the web or your MP3 player.
To determine the availability of wines at PLCB stores near your home, go the PLCB's Product Search Page (www.lcb.state.pa.us) and type in the wine name and then your county name.
Dave DeSimone is a member of the American Wine Society. He can be heard daily on KQV Radio with the Wine Cellar reports. He can be reached via e-mail.
Recommended:
Indicates a well-made table wine ready for immediate enjoyment with everyday meals and offering good value.
Highly Recommended:
Indicates a well-made table wine ready for immediate enjoyment and offering very good value on a particularly well-made example of its type.
Cellar Selection:
Indicates a well-made table wine that requires additional bottle aging in a temperature-controlled cellar to reach peak enjoyment.
Note:
Code numbers and prices refer to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board system unless otherwise indicated.
The best wine bars reflect the proprietor's passion and style. The owner usually manages the wine bar and sets the daily menu. His focus is to lead customers to try the latest vintages of old favorites or to discover new wines and winemakers.
In the United States, where beer and soft drinks are the dominant beverages, it is rare to find wine bars in the classic sense. Even wine-savvy restaurants usually do not have a separate bar spotlighting the grape.
At some bars and restaurants, wine is an afterthought. A horrid "house pour" of nondescript plonk is highlighted. Worse yet, some establishments overprice the wines and place them on a pedestal to appeal to wine snobs. In both instances, wine sales are just another profit center.
Our region is fortunate to have a superb wine bar off the grand lobby of the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel on Sixth Street in the Downtown Cultural District. The Prelude Wine Bar is the brainchild of hotel general manager Barbara McMahon and director of operations Bassem El-Rabba. Phil Real manages the bar in classic European style.
Real's wine experiences began with sporadic tastings during college while he was working on a degree in speech and drama. His knowledge expanded exponentially after taking a job with a wine and cheese retailer in downtown Chicago.
Real moved to San Francisco and worked at the Castro Village Wine Co., where there was a little tasting bar. "It was fun, and I learned that customers like to taste to find out what they like before they buy it," he says. He specialized in California wines, but broadened his knowledge of Italian wines by working in a wine shop in San Francisco's "Little Italy" in the North Beach section.
Five years ago, Real moved to Pittsburgh and sold wines wholesale. Then he landed his "favorite position of all time" when El-Rabaa tapped him to manage Prelude.
Real plies his trade next to the main floor of the Renaissance Pittsburgh's elegant marble grand lobby. Besides seating at the wine bar itself, tables and comfortable cushioned seats for serving are spread throughout the lobby beneath a magnificent 30-foot-high glass skylight.
"I was astonished when I first saw the beauty of the lobby," Real says. "I half-jokingly say that the room does half my job. The lobby puts customers in the right frame of mind to relax and enjoy a glass of wine."
Real offers more than 60 choices by the glass. His object is to make wine appreciation fun and remove fear and intimidation. He serves familiar "comfort wines" such as white zinfandel and Mondavi Napa Chardonnay, but Real prefers to talk about the rest of the choices to customers who are feeling adventuresome.
"Customers can taste any wine on the list, so it is a no-lose proposition," he says. "By tasting first, they know they are making the right choice when they order a full glass."
As a way to encourage customers to try new wines, Real offers wine "flights" from Tuesday through Thursday. These are 2-ounce pours of four different wines for $12. Each week, there is a theme, such as California cabernets or Italian white wines. "It is a less formal way to discover new wines," Real says, "and find out what you like and do not.
"Customers learn as part of the shared process in tasting wines. They meet new people and start talking to each other about the wines. People give each other information, and I learn, too, in listening to the customers talk about places that I have never visited and wineries that are new to me."
Nearly half of Prelude's customers are business travelers staying at the hotel, while the other half are locals, in particular, people attending theater or sports events.
Patrons can order from a wide variety of cheeses -- soft and hard -- with olives, as well as crab cakes, calamari and other wine-complementary items.
Italian pinot grigio -- as well as the many styles of chardonnay from California, Australia and France -- is popular among the white wines. Real likes when customers try the Zaca Mesa Winery Viognier. "It is such a different experience from pinot grigio and chardonnay, that many people love it after one taste."
Prelude patrons particularly enjoy Stag's Leap Winery Cabernet from California -- "wonderful classic, rich fruit flavors," Real says -- but Australian shiraz and merlot in many styles also are popular.
One of Real's personal favorites is a red Burgundy made from pinot noir grapes by a cooperative called Cave de Mancey. It is a lighter-bodied red, but in the current superb vintage of 2002, it shows surprising richness of fruit and excellent, refreshing balance.
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