{"id":244612,"date":"2011-10-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-14T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/close-encounters-of-the-wine-kind\/"},"modified":"2011-10-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-14T07:00:00","slug":"close-encounters-of-the-wine-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/close-encounters-of-the-wine-kind\/","title":{"rendered":"Close Encounters of the Wine Kind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Come On
\nGet Happy!
\nBeber<\/strong>

\"Close<\/a>
Wine and noshes at The Wine Encounter (Photo by Dr. Ink)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

At last, a happy hour menu in a wine bar that doesn\u2019t 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. <\/p>\n

In addition, printouts of discounted wine flights are quickly dispensed in the form of placemats. It\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

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\u2019d the bottle before re-corking it for us. The gas injection adds a protective layer over the remaining \u201cjuice,\u201d thus safeguarding it from oxidizing and turning flat. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s spoiled, which this wasn\u2019t, you\u2019re stuck with it. <\/p>\n

Had we splurged and spent an extra couple of bucks, we could have \u201cencountered\u201d 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\u2019s always a next time. <\/p>\n

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 \u201cenjoys them mildly,\u201d as he kindly stated. The menu also includes meat and cheese boards, salmon caprese, pizzas and paninis. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

CALIFICACIONES:<\/p>\n

Drinks: 5\/5
\nThe wine selection is nicely varied
\nand ever-changing, with most winegrowing
\nregions from around the world
\nduly represented in labels that are
\noften hard to find elsewhere. A few
\nchampagnes and beers are also in
\nthe offing during happy hour, although
\nwe\u2019re not sure how or why Corona
\nmade the list.<\/p>\n

Food: 4\/5
\nThe menu obliges with simple, winefriendly
\nfoods such as meat and
\ncheese boards, breads and dips,
\nbuschetta, pizzas and paninis.<\/p>\n

Value: 5\/5
\nYou won\u2019t pay an arm and a leg for
\na good bottle of wine and adequate
\nnibbles. A twosome can essentially
\ncome away splitting a $25 bill.<\/p>\n

Service: 5\/5
\nThe bartenders work fast. And so does
\nthe kitchen. Customers are greeted
\npromptly upon arrival and the daily
\ndeals are clearly spelled out.<\/p>\n

Duration: 3\/5
\nBecause wine-drinking is a slower
\nprocess compared to slamming down
\ngin and tonics elsewhere, we wouldn\u2019t
\nmind seeing an extra hour added to
\nthe two-hour time window.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Come On Get Happy! Dr. Ink At last, a happy hour menu in a wine bar that doesn\u2019t 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. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":244613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Close Encounters of the Wine Kind","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}