Bar Wine.
posted by Annie in Wine
Its NFL playoffs season, hooray! Now, time for me to head off to the bar.
When I go out with the guys, theres never really much of a choice as to what kind of bar we go to. We go to ‘the bar.’ It’s not like it is with my girlfriends, where we belabor the decision by making distinctions between “beer bars” and “lounges” and “wine bars.” ‘The bar’ has the game. We go to ‘the bar.’ End of story.
As a wine drinker 99% of the time, I find myself in a pickle when we go out to ‘the bar.’ ‘The bar’ doesn’t really put a lot of energy into the wine selection -sometimes it only consists of the red wine and the white wine. For those wine lovers with a more fine-tuned palate, it can be a tough swallow. I pride myself on my ability to not let my knowledge and love of wine get in the way of a fun night out with my friends. So, I need to make the decision between ordering a glass of some very iffy bar wine, or give in to hops and barley.
In the spirit of good sportsmanship, I avoid making a scene and just go for the wine. Since it’s not so easy in a loud bar to scream “what types of wines do you have and from which countries are they?” at the bartender, I just go for the Cab, which 9 times out of 10, is too sweet and overly oaked. (Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, and Chardonnay are the most popular types of bar wine according to my research). Although the increasing popularity of wine is causing establishments like ‘the bar’ to start paying more attention to their wine offerings, I still find its hard to come by a truly tasty glass.
What do you do when faced with this issue - do you just go for a Stella Artois instead of rolling the dice on the bar wine? Or, have you found that your favorite bar has jumped on the wine train and is stocking some decent bottles? Moreover, who thinks Jessica Simpson is still going to distract Romo’s game on Sunday?
Let’s go Cowboys!
Well, you could always find a BYO place? Otherwise, I’d go with whatever beer is on tap, at least until you’ve wet your whistle enough not to know the difference. Pompous or not, the well wine (if we can call it that) is almost always offensive at best. Although you could theoretically “take one for the team” in the spirit of adding some really harsh, comical, negative reviews to Snooth.
P.S. “Go Cowboys”? Are you nuts, or have you just been dipping into the wine at work again? That’s blasphemous! If you want to be a fan of some other team than the local squad, that’s your prerogative. But the Cowboys are off limits in New York. You can get beat up for that you know…
offensive. good word for this.
Also, as a Jets fan, im not thoroughly behind the Giants. I do root for them, but I have followed the Cowboys consistently this season and plan to follow through. Plus, I’m pretty fiesty. Bring it on!
sounds like someone needs a favorite mixed drink.
Sorry, but given the choice of wines in the average bar, I go for some trusty room temperature Britsh ale. We dont have American Football, but we do have Old Speckled Hen…
Sadly, I have to say I go through this problem all the time, because I mostly hang out with guys at my local neighborhood bar. I usually get what’s on tap, and drink wine with dinner or someplace else. As for football… I like college football. I did go to FSU, so I am a die hard Seminoles fan!
I watched a certain other Snooth employee go through these “wow, this wine sucks” reaction in two different NYC bars twice in the same night recently. In both of those cases, the bar had posted a respectably long (more than five each under “red” and “white”) list, but I’m pretty sure every one of them would have been “offensive”. (Certainly, the two he ordered and I tried were, and I’m not even much of a wine snob when it comes down to it. These were in the category of wines that, if someone gave me a bottle of them as a gift, I’d have a couple of sips, pour out the glass, and use the rest of the bottle to cook. That’s a cut above pouring out the whole bottle.)
The situation is clearly that wine has become popular among the relatively-young, metropolitan set, and basic Econ dictates that bars should take notice, but I’m pretty sure I’m against bothering to do anything if all you’re only going to go halfway on it. If this place didn’t carry wine at all, you’d just have a beer or a mixed drink, and you may well come out of the whole situation less disappointed than you do when you have a *bad* wine. It seems like it’s insulting the customers’ intelligence to make a motion towards wine, but Fail.
I made the mistake, more times than I’d like to admit, of trying to order a “martini” in mainland Europe (hint: just don’t; it doesn’t mean what you think it does) before I realized that I should just order something other than my Standard mixed drink, and I was much happier for it.
“The Bar” isn’t in the business of maintaining a quality cellar. They might be in the business of stocking decent liquors, but more frequently they’re in the business of stocking fairly local craft beers, on draught no less. I don’t think it’s worth swimming against the stream. Maybe, if you actually know a wine on the menu or someone behind the bar to route feedback through, but otherwise, it’s probably not worth it.
(And I live in Philadelphia, so even to the limited degree that I notice US football, I’ve no comment on that bit.)
Good game, loud company, 20 bottles carrier of _any_ beer…
Opening beer with lighter, yelling at the referee all the time ’cause he is f@#$@&^& blind, mentioning whole family of every single player of both teams… I really don’t see bottle of wine in this picture?
Kosher wine
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