The Tangled Vine

I visited The Tangled Vine last night at 434 Amsterdam Ave. It’s on a cute and bustling corner of 81^st St.

This bar focuses solely on European wines and you can definitely tell this from the décor. The place is made to look like a European restaurant with stone walls and pillars accenting the space. There’s a pretty little mini wine cellar display behind the bar area and maps of European wine regions on the wall.

Tangled Vine has happy hour specials each night from 5 to 7, but it’s only for two types of wine; one white and one red. This may or may not be the case, but it seemed to me like these wines were on special because the bar was trying to clear their inventory of it.

The menu had some nice touches – it’s made of cork, which I thought was cool and for the list of wines by the glass there are pictures of the wine label next to each wine. This is nice for people like myself who would be able to recognize a wine they’ve had and enjoyed by the label. The wines are very well selected and the price reflects that. Glasses start at $9 and go up to $21, with the average price being around $14. Bottles are between $34 and $109 and the separate bottle only list starts at $44 up to $220 per bottle. My favorite selection that I would like to try from the bottle list was the 1993 Rioja Reserva Bianco for $84. This is really old for a white wine and it’s from one of my favorite wine regions :)

The bar offers tasting trios of three 2 oz glasses of wine. You can choose from Sherry & Madeira, Riesling, Burgundy Blanc, Burgundy Rouge, or and Italian Trio. I chose the Italian Trio simply because one of the wines was a 1998. I would consider that a great value at $16 for the trio! This tasting consisted of a 2008 Dolcetto D’alba Roagna, the 1998 Ros di Rol Sant’Elena, and a 2007 Rosso di Montalcino il Colle.

The Dolcetto smelled like blackberry preserves and was very fruity. It was pretty tasty with some meaty characteristic along with dried strawberry flavors. The tannins were high in this wine but it was good. Next was the Ros di Rol. It smelled and tasted not at all how I was expecting it to. It smelled like a tree…and green pepper. Not cedar, not oak, but a bitter smelling tree that I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it smelled of rich mahogany and leather-bound books. The wine tasted very similar to its nose and was bitter, but smooth. It was very interesting and I’ve never had anything like it before. It was really lovely and complex. The last of the three wines was the Rossi di Montalcino. It was not very intense on the nose, but there was a waft of soft, floral notes of rose and violet. It was medium bodied and had playful fruity flavors of plum and a little blueberry. It was dry, pretty high in tannins, and was great to drink by itself. It was fantastic!

The atmosphere of the bar was very relaxing. There were lots of customers while I was there and most seemed to be in their 30s and 40s, casual, and having a good time with their friends. The music that was playing made it sound like vacation. If I closed my eyes, I was on a beach at an outdoor restaurant with a glass of fabulous wine in my hand. Back to reality, but I still had a glass of fabulous wine in my hand thanks to the Montalcino.

The Tangled Vine takes pride in their wine list and you can see that from the long descriptions they give each wine. The wine list can be very intimidating for those who aren’t wine geeks like myself and even so, I felt a little confused when I was trying to make a selection. But with some guidance from the descriptions on the menu, suggestions from the staff, and hopefully my blog, you’ll find a great wine that you’ll enjoy. I give The Tangled Vine a rating of 4.3 out of 5 glasses.

My Italian Trio

Shoulda come here on a Wednesday!

Bin 71

I sipped at Bin 71 tonight, which is on the Upper West Side at 237 Columbus Ave. The bar is very tiny and it was packed, even at pre-6pm. Yes! I wouldn’t be the weirdo that walks in first! Several people were also by themselves and looked like they came straight from work.

There were a few tables in their outdoor café area in front of the bar and upon entering the bar, I was surprised to find that it’s much smaller than I was expecting. The décor makes up for the size though! There is a beautiful marble-top bar in the center with cool hanging lamps above it, a tall wooden table with stools, and small wooden counters lining the wall that serve as tables. Extra bonus: they used unscented candles for table decoration! Thanks, Bin 71 :)

The décor brought the outdoors in; there were large vases of flowers on the tables and bar and little potted plants on the windowsills. It was a very open concept space, which makes it a good place for a glass of wine or a light meal in the summer.

The staff was pleasant and friendly and I was called “love” a few times (cute!). Not only were they very sweet, but they also knew when not to approach my table, as I was reading for a bit after I finished taking my notes for the review and probably looked like I didn’t want to be disturbed. Once I put away my book however, they quickly approached to see if I wanted anything else.

The wine list had a good selection of wines by the glass. They weren’t too expensive at $9 to $14 and bottles of these same wines were $30 to $60 with just a handful over $100. The bottle list offered many bottles under $50 and all were from Europe or the US. I did notice a typo on the bottle menu though. The menu lists the red wines, but the title for the white wine section is missing, so it fails to designate which ones are white. Whoops!

I ordered the 2009 L. Miguel Nordic Sud Viognier from Languedoc, France. I think I found one of my new favorite white wines! This was delicious. I couldn’t quite nail the aroma of the wine, but it smelled very sweet, almost like berries. It was very crisp and tasted lightly of dried apricot and had a nice, mild acidity.

My wine became a casualty of outdoor seating when a fly careened into it. This can’t be avoided in the summer though. Even in my apartment I find fruit flies floating in my glass with no idea where they came from! I guess not even bugs can resist the allure of a tasty vino.

Bin 71 was a very cool place. It has a busy city-like atmosphere and it’s a very true New York café-style bar. It was casual enough to feel like I could chill there with a couple glasses of wine for hours. I rate this place 4 out of 5 glasses.

Bin 71's outdoor seating area

Ahh, Viognier!