For The Love Of Port

Self-serve wine machines have become very popular at a number of stores around my area. These are the type where you put money onto a store "credit card", then swipe the "credit card" at the machine, select what wine you want to taste, and it automatically dispenses a pre-measured amount of wine into your glass.

While I've tried them a number of times, I've got mixed feelings about them. It's fun to be able to select from a decent amount of different wines being offered and try a small amount before buying, but I sometimes wonder how fresh these machines really keep the wines? And I miss being able to talk to a wine store employee during an actual "in store tasting" where a live person pours the wine for you and explains a little about it.

Anyways, I was curious as to what others think of these machines, and/or their experiences using them.

My first encounter with this was at a shop in SF, which was the very first place in the USA using this technology, a place owned by a couple of women. It was in 2005 or 2006 and they had brought over these machines which were first invented and used in Europe (Italy, IIRC?) but their shop was filled with people. Darryl Corti, Bartholomew Broadbent and I went in there to explore the place which also had some small area for sitting at tables and a very light menu with cheese and food pairings from their itsy bitsy kitchen in the back. They also sold all of the bottles from the dozens of wines poured by the glass in 3 sizes. They even had Chateau d'Yquem on one machine. At the time, I considered opening a Port, Madeira & Douro wine concept with a similar type of theme, with foods to pair with them. I often think about that venture and still may do so, some day. If I had a spare 500k, I'd probably do it tomorrow.

Roy Hersh wrote: If I had a spare 500k, I'd probably do it tomorrow.

Roy, if you didn't have so much great Port, Madeira, and other fine wine, you WOULD have that spare $500,000!

FTLOP members could raise the 500k, and we could open the FTLOP bar....
I know a tiny town called Sandefjord, Norway, in desperate need of a place like this.

Roy, I'm sure many of your friends Port producers would give you a huge discount for the first orders!!

Saw this at a restaurant hotel in Hawaii, but didn't try it out:

I think they said it used argon gas to keep things fresh. They had a Smith Woodhouse VP (2003?) and possibly a tawny available.

I've been meaning to try one of these that seems to get good reviews in North London called "The Sampler".

Think they have 10 machines with 80 wines at any one time (and rotated regularly), and a I've heard that they have a big enough following to keep the turnover sufficiently high to ensure that the wine drinks well.

As well as daily drinkers, they have one machine reserved for "Icons" which, according to their website, currently has the following:

El Nido 2006
Ponsot Chambolle Charmes 1988
Musar 1970
Leoville Las Cases 1970
Chave Hermitage 1998
Stags Leap Cask 23 1992
Mouton Rothschild 1983
Haut Brion 1983

Think they offer three different sizes of pour (at different costs), though if you want to try any of the "Icons" i would imagine it is worth getting familiar enough with the staff to be pre-warned when they are about to open something you might be interested in and time your visits accordingly.

http://www.thesampler.co.uk/store/content/15/Sampling/