Amelie

Last Friday I visited Amelie, a primarily French wine bar located at 22 W 8^th St in Greenwich Village. Its sister wine bar is located in San Francisco. I had heard some buzz about this place, which opened this year, and knew that I needed to check it out before it gets wildly popular. I guess that makes me a hipster.

This wine bar definitely has some modern flair to it. The ceiling was draped with fabric and made it look a little bit like a circus tent. The whole place was decked out with a wide variety of funky light fixtures, the bright red, glossy bar was shaped like a surfboard and there were thin oblong tables jutting out from the opposite wall. It was very Euro and a little futuristic. If Star Trek had been produced by the French, this is what the set would have looked like. It was a fun and very unique environment for a wine bar.

Since it’s a French wine bar, I was expecting it to serve strictly French wines. However, they had a wide selection from many different countries, including a couple of wines from Greece. I thought it was an impressive wine list. Glasses started at $9 and were no more than $17, bottles were in the $27 to $280 range, and they offered a flight of any 3 by the glass wines for $10. The flight sounded like a great deal, so I ordered that and I constructed a flight of all $12+ wines to make the most of it. I chose a Burgundy, a Rioja Castillo, and a Beaucanon Cabernet Franc. They weren’t small pours either, I would say they were right around 3oz each, which makes this particular flight a bargain. I mentally high-fived my thrifty side.

First up was the Rioja Castillo, which is made with the Tempranillo grape. It smelled like vanilla and cedar, signs that it was oak aged. It had a slightly tart flavor, like cranberry and some blueberry. It had a good backbone of acidity and was pleasant.

The Burgundy was next. The region of Burgundy, France produces wines made with the Pinot Noir grape, so I had a general idea of what to expect of this wine. It smelled a little metallic and was not very aromatic, which surprised me. Hoping that it wasn’t out of condition, I boldly took a sip. Perhaps it should have been served before the Tempranillo because this wine was too delicate to taste after a wine that had a fuller body than this one. All I could gather were faint notes of cocoa and a little sour strawberry. For a Burgundy that is $16 a glass, I thought it could be better. I decided to let it open up for a while and I moved on to the next wine; the Cabernet Franc.

The first word that came to mind when I smelled this wine was “legit”. It was a stark and decidedly lovely contrast to the previous wine. It smelled sharply of herbs and wet leaves as well as some vegetal notes. It was full bodied and had a rich, meaty flavor with a good balance of dried fruit character. t’s not often that I seek out a wine that I’ve had at a wine bar, but I will be purchasing a dozen cases bottles of this one. At this time, I returned to the Burgundy and discovered that it didn’t taste so lively because it was lacking acidity. Maybe it was because I drank it along with the wrong wines or maybe it was just the particular bottle that my wine was poured from, but I found it to be a little dull.

Overall, Amelie is as legit as that Cabernet Franc. The energy of this place is terrific and it draws a fun crowd. It has a great European character to it (and not just because the staff all have delightful French accents), the service is very good, and they have a wonderful selection of well priced wines – especially if you order the flight. You definitely need to go here. I give it a rating of 4.8 out of 5 glasses.

My flight of wine

The wine bar on the starship Enterprise

The bar has a great energy during happy hour!

8th St Wine Cellar

I went to 8^th St Wine Cellar tonight. It’s located on the lower level of 28 W 8^th St, so you could definitely walk by it without even knowing a cool wine bar was lurking below. It’s dark and “cellary” inside and there is lounge and jazz music playing. I even thought I could hear some Sinatra over the chatter of the other customers in the bar. While it is a casual lounge setting, the bar has a subtly seductive atmosphere.

They have a very long list of wines, which were all priced between $27 and $98 for a bottle and $8 to $12 for a glass. Half bottles were also available starting at $21. 8^th St Wine Cellar has great happy hour specials as well – between 4 and 7pm, certain bottles are $18 and the red and white wines of the day are $5 a glass. Solid deal.

After browsing the menu and deciding that my palate was craving a well rounded fruity wine, I ordered the 2007 Ayana Pinot Noir from Sonoma County in California, which is my favorite region for Pinot Noir. Once I received the wine I immediately noticed something was wrong with the aroma. It smelled very strongly of almonds and a little oxidized, similar to what sherry smells like. Since this wine is definitely not supposed to smell like this, it most likely means that the wine was stored improperly; either in too hot a temperature or in fluctuating temperate which can actually cause the cork to shrink the tiniest bit, allowing oxygen to come into contact with the wine. I gave the wine the benefit of the doubt thinking that maybe it was just a misleading aroma, so I took a sip. Yep, definitely out of condition. It tasted very nutty and I was detecting some strong notes of vinegar. Guh-ross. I always hate to do this, but I knew I really would not be able to finish the wine, so when the waitress came to my table to check on me, I told her that the wine smelled and tasted like it was bad. She apologized and asked if I wanted a glass of a different wine. I ordered the 2009 Terra Andina Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile instead. I’m glad she was so understanding. Sometimes when I get a wine that is questionable at a restaurant I’m always hesitant to ask for another because more often than not the waiter doesn’t believe me. But the nose knows! The waitress brought my glass back to the bar to tell the bartender and a few minutes after my fresh glass of wine arrived, the bartender walked by my table and told me that I was right about the wine. She then brought two small glasses of wine over to the waitress and had her smell and taste the two different wines to show her the difference between a faulty wine and a wine that is in condition. I inspired a training session!

The Cabernet that I ordered instead was much better! It smelled like blackberries and was very rich. The wine tasted like ripe red fruits and was very delicious. It was smooth and not as tannic as some Cabernets can be. It was very easy to drink. I’m actually going to try to find a wine store that has this wine so that I can pick up a couple bottles of it – it would make a good everyday wine.

8^th St Wine Cellar was really cool and I had a good experience there. They have tasty wines, as long as you watch out for the oxidized ones (but that could happen anywhere), and while the staff was very accommodating, it wasn’t the most outstanding wine bar I’ve been to. It’s still a great place though and if you’re in the area, it’s worth a stop. I give 8^th St Wine Cellar a rating of 3.8 out of 5 glasses.

The unassuming entrance to 8th St Wine Cellar

My tasty and non-oxidized glass of Cabernet Sauvignon :)