The Southwest Voice

All > Columnists > Wine
Ask a Wine-Know: Offerings at Beverage Mart, Wine Me Up
Topics:
Anonymous user Tue Jan 9, 2007 13:03:29 PST
Viewed 483 times
0 responses 1 comment I’m trying to keep the New Year’s resolutions that I made for this wine column:  No. 1, to check out all wine offerings at big discount food chain markets; No. 2, to visit all new wine shops, wine bars, and restaurants with wine lists as they open and become known to me. Be sure to let me know if you think I’ve missed one!
First, I received a flyer with the local newspaper a few days ago advertising the Beverage Mart now open inside the Smart & Final store here in town on Golden State Highway between F and H streets.  Also, a new store opened in the shopping center on the Northwest corner of Rosedale Highway and Calloway Drive.
I visited the latter on Jan. 2, and found a large selection of wines at prices very close to what I know to be regular wholesale prices, most were even below what I’m used to seeing. In addition to most of the usual suspects from California, I was impressed by their selection of wines from France, Italy and Australia. There were a lot of lower-priced wines I’m not used to seeing in Bakersfield, except maybe at World Market.
You’ll have to check out these Beverage Marts and compare the prices of your usual everyday wine selection with what you find there. You’ll probably find some pleasant surprises.
Secondly, a friend and I made a special trip to visit Wine Me Up, a new wine bar and shop at 3900 Coffee Road.
It had been open for just eight days when we arrived, and business had been so good that wine was flying off the shelves. Owners Don and Melynda Grimes can’t keep bottle prices on the shelves due to changing inventory and restocking! But just ask, and ye shall know.
They are busy expanding their selections and keeping good track of what their new customers are drinking. They have one of the newest, and biggest, wine-by-the-glass machines available in Bakersfield. It dispenses 10 red and 10 white wines in pours of 2 or 5 ounces into appropriate glasses. Prices per glass range from $2 for a 2-ounce pour of an ‘03 Smashed Grapes cabernet (that’s a new one to me) to $13.75 for a glass (5 ounces) of the ‘03 Groth cabernet from Napa.
The Wine Me Up tasting menu has a nice description of each wine available by the glass on a daily basis, and has good variety in selections. My only suggestion would be to print the appellation or the vineyard designation of the wine on the list, too. We wine “purists” will want to know just which of Rosenblum’s 16 different ‘05 zinfandels is being offered. Something I think will be very popular is their plan to offer any bottle opened on the premises for their retail price plus a “corkage fee” of $6.
Wine Me Up is a beautiful place (nicely decorated) to meet friends after work or shopping, or to visit after dinner for a bottle of wine. They have an excellent location, with ample parking in a well-traveled and popular area. Try it! You’ll like it! And there are copies of  Wine Spectator in the ladies room —these people are serious about wine! As their inventory grows and broadens, so will their clientele and success.
Wine bars are good places to try new wines or new vintages of old favorites before buying. Wine Me Up is a good place.
Now for a little Christmas story.  A friend and her husband were invited to a Christmas party of 16 couples. Each was to bring a bottle which would be “bagged,” and a contest would ensue to determine the favorite.
She took an ‘02 Lewis Napa cabernet that I agreed would have to win the prize! It’s one of my favorites, of course! All the guests were to drink out of the covered bottles at their leisure, and then a consensus of four would be chosen. 
A second tasting of the four would create a winner. I am sad to report my friend’s Lewis was not in the four because there was no wine left in the bottle for the taste-off!
This is a wonderful illustration of a reply I always used to give my wine classes when the inevitable question would come after tastings, “Which wine did you like best, Miss Cierley?”
My answer: “The one in the empty glass.”
Cheers!

Coming Events:
Jan. 27 Bakersfield  Wine Society at the Petroleum Club, 6:30 p.m. The great Chuck Ortman of Ortman Family Vineyards will bring his wines. To make reservations or for more information, call Mike Stepanovich at 654-2456.
Feb. 5 Winemaker dinner at Cafe Med featuring Whitehall Lane. For more information, call Don at 834-4433.
All of you are welcome at either or both of these — they are a great way to start off the New Year!

E-mail Ann at: acierley@etcrier.net

Send to a Friend

Report a Violation

Comment From: lward

Another great wine column, Ann! Has anyone else tried Wine Me Up? It sounds fun –– I think I'm going to go there this weekend.