Come On
Get Happy!
Dr. Ink
At last, a happy hour menu in a wine bar that doesn’t strain your cornea with sinewy chalkboard scrawls. The Wine Encounter puts it out there more efficiently with a legible page devoted exclusively to the specials, which extend also to a few beer options and various food plates. The staff guides you to the deals practically the moment your caboose comes in for a landing either at the bar or in the general area filled with wooden tables.
In addition, printouts of discounted wine flights are quickly dispensed in the form of placemats. It’s a Friday night deal that gives you four whites for $13 or four reds for $15. The selections change often, though on any given week you can essentially hopscotch the vineyards from California and the Northwest to Europe and South America within 15 minutes, depending on how rapidly you sip.
Wines by the glass during happy hour drop in price by 10 to 15 percent. Nothing exceeded $8 when a friend and I visited last week on conservative budgets. Similar discounts apply if you order by the bottle, as we ended up doing with a 2007 Maddalena Cabernet from Paso Robles. Outside of happy hour it sells for about $23. We paid $17, reserving some of it for a later stop. How nice, we thought, when the bartender CO2’d the bottle before re-corking it for us. The gas injection adds a protective layer over the remaining “juice,” thus safeguarding it from oxidizing and turning flat.
The wine itself offered weaker tannins that we preferred. And the intensity of the fruit fell below our expectations as well. But therein lies the gamble of ordering wine by the bottle. Unless it’s spoiled, which this wasn’t, you’re stuck with it.
Had we splurged and spent an extra couple of bucks, we could have “encountered” a Diseno Malbec from Argentina, a Kris Merlot from Sicily or a cultish zinfandel called Zen of Zins from up north, to name a few. Dr. Ink is a wino at heart, so there’s always a next time.
With a whole Friday night of merrymaking ahead of us, we ate light as to not tumble into a food coma. Bruschetta hit the spot. For $4.75 you get a trio of long croistini painted with hummus and topped with tomatoes, basil and olive oil. On the side was a ramekin of black olives, the pitted, canned kind that I actually like compared to my friend who “enjoys them mildly,” as he kindly stated. The menu also includes meat and cheese boards, salmon caprese, pizzas and paninis.
Situated in a strip plaza and with a parking lot view, The Wine Encounter nonetheless feels sophisticated; sleek rather than rustic, intimate rather than roomy, and basically a fine place to start exposing your palate to new and unique varietals.
RATINGS:
Drinks: 5/5
The wine selection is nicely varied
and ever-changing, with most winegrowing
regions from around the world
duly represented in labels that are
often hard to find elsewhere. A few
champagnes and beers are also in
the offing during happy hour, although
we’re not sure how or why Corona
made the list.
Food: 4/5
The menu obliges with simple, winefriendly
foods such as meat and
cheese boards, breads and dips,
buschetta, pizzas and paninis.
Value: 5/5
You won’t pay an arm and a leg for
a good bottle of wine and adequate
nibbles. A twosome can essentially
come away splitting a $25 bill.
Service: 5/5
The bartenders work fast. And so does
the kitchen. Customers are greeted
promptly upon arrival and the daily
deals are clearly spelled out.
Duration: 3/5
Because wine-drinking is a slower
process compared to slamming down
gin and tonics elsewhere, we wouldn’t
mind seeing an extra hour added to
the two-hour time window.
