Top 6 Award-Winning Wine Bars From Around The World

Best Wine Bars •

Fine Wine Bars •

Fine Wine Blog •

Differing by thousands of miles in location, style, and offerings, this collection of the best wine bars from around the world have one thing in common: fine wine excellence.

From the quality of wine available, to the service provided and the surrounding atmosphere, each best wine bar provides a unique yet outstanding drinking experience that is guaranteed to impress even the most pretentious of wine lovers – regardless of the continent they’re on!

Without further ado, here are our favourite 6 fine wine bars from around the world.

1. Gordon’s (Best Wine Bar – Europe)

Gordon’s Wine Bar of 47 Villiers Street, London, holds the distinction of being the oldest wine bar in the capital. Open for over 125 years (for 363 days a year), Gordon’s may well be the most experience-backed wine bar in the world. With a wide variety of fine wines on offer (and over 20 types of cheese to pair with it), the bar is an excellent choice for tastings or dinner.

It takes pride in having something to offer every customer of every style. Rudyard Kipling was a famed patron, and is the one who wrote “The Light That Failed” in the room above the bar. Many other famous writers continue to frequent and enjoy the bar’s offerings.

2. Covell (North America)

Covell of Los Angeles, California is more laidback than the other wine bars on our list – however it is the very casual environment of this venue that allows fine wine to truly shine.

Run by Dustin Lancaster and Matthew Kaner (named Sommelier of the Year 2013 by Food & Wine), the bar offers 150 unique wines by the glass (and no wine list), with food to accompany. It was listed one of America’s top 100 wine bars.

3. The Symposium (South America)

The Symposium of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, specializes in South American red wines, as well as some European labels too. The bar is located in a restored and preserved heritage mansion, and is a regular location for courses and wine tasting, in addition to private wine sampling and enjoyment.

4. Harry & Frankie (Australia)

Located on Bay Street of Melbourne Bay, Harry & Frankie is a dual purpose location: it is one of our favourite wine bars, but a wine shop as well. It offers over 600 local Australian and international wines for tasting at the bar, or purchasing to enjoy at home.

If choosing to imbibe at the bar, there is a delectable menu of a constantly changing two course dinner with share plates and tasters throughout the day. Owned by friends John Tennent and Tom Hogan (previously Sommelier at Lake House and Langton’s), the bar is family-themed.

The partners seek to promote wine’s three (equally important) tasks: be delicious, cause and accompany celebration, and dig deeper into the story behind each fine wine label. With a focus on the “behind the scenes” of fine wine labels (producers, regions, and grapes used to make the wine), this bar is truly a wine lover’s paradise.

5. The Riedel Room (Asia)

The Riedel Room at Q88 in Hong Kong provides not just a variety of wines, but a variety of wine glasses as well.

With a room specifically dedicated to wine glassmaker Riedel (the only such room in the world), the bar offers over 100 different types of glassware for wine enjoyment. Located at the luxurious JW Marriott and open for both lunch and dinner, the Riedel Room requires reservations in advance.

6. Belthazer (Africa)

On the V&A Waterfront of Cape Town, South Africa, the Belthazer Restaurant and Wine Bar is said to be the largest wine-by-the-glass bar in the world.

With over 250 wines available for ordering by the glass, Belthazer surely has something to please every palate. Both the food and the wines are highly awarded, including the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence (for 3 years in a row) and the American Express Fine Dining Selection award.

Too Far Away?

If you find yourself too far from your favourite wine bars, or if you simply prefer to enjoy fine wine within the comfort of your house, you can always order a fine label online!

Moncharm’s online wine shop (click here) provides a wide range of some of the world’s best and most renown fine wines (think Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Super Tuscans) – all delivered right to your doorstep!

Please take a moment to check it out, and feel free to contact us at any time if you have any questions or queries. Our fine wine experts respond promptly, and will gladly jump in to help!

Image source: Pixabay

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

Wine Acidity: A Guide to An Essential Wine Characteristic – Moncharm Fine Wine Merchants

Wine Acidity: A Guide to An Essential Wine Characteristic

• Fine Wine Blog • Wine Acidity • Wine Guide • Wine Tasting

Wine acidity is a confusing concept for many, and the taste of acidity is frequently mistaken for tannins or alcohol. But the acid in wine plays an important role.
From a functional perspective, acidity is crucial for the preservation of wine. Proper wine acidity prevents spoilage of the wine and inhibits microorganism growth – while an acidity level too low will ruin the wine quickly as it will go bad.
The acidity of your wine is also important from an enjoyment perspective, providing balance and zest. We discuss in greater detail in this quick guide to wine acidity.

What Does Acidity Taste Like In Wine?

For an easy generalization, wines with higher acidity feel lighter or “zestier,” while wines with less acidity feel heavier or “richer.” Acidity can be recognized as a tingling sensation at the sides of the tongue, or a bumpy feeling on the rough of the tongue, with a prominence of saliva in the mouth.
Wine lacking acidity tastes flat and boring, while wine with too much acidity is too tart and sour. Acidity and sweetness in an ideal wine should correctly be used to balance each other.
Proper acidity proportions can enhance a wine’s refreshing qualities, and can complement paired foods exquisitely. This is achieved incredibly well in highly regarded fine wines such as those from these wine investment regions.

Types Of Acid In Wine

Four types of acid are found most commonly in grapes and in wine. The presence of a fifth type of acid (acetic acid or vinegar) should be found only in tiny amounts in good wines, because in large amounts it indicates a wine flaw – a common occurrence in cheap table wine. Acetic acid is undesirable and volatile.
Tartaric and malic acid are the most common acids in wine, and are created in grapes as they mature on the vine, with acidity decreasing as the grapes continue to mature. In general, wines from cooler years and areas tend to have higher acidity and lower sugar.
Warm climate grapes tend to have lower acid and higher sugar. Colder climates’ acidity is preserved better as compared to warm climates (thus presenting a higher level in the wine), because warmth and sunlight cause grapes to both mature and lose acidity faster.

Measuring Wine Acidity: TA & pH

TA (or total acidity) is measured under the assumption that a wine’s acid is all tartaric, and measures the percentage of acid in the wine. Total acidity is recorded as grams per 100 mL of wine. The general range is between 0.4% and 1.3%, with a most desirable range between 0.6% and 0.7%.
Wine that tastes too tart and sour would rate near 1.0%, while wine that tastes flat and boring is near 0.4%. An average red table wine is about 0.6%, with the average white wine just slightly higher.
An exception is very sweet white dessert wines, which may have acidity above 1%. This is considered very high, but necessary to balance the high sugar.
pH, on the other hand, measures active acidity. It is a logarithmic measure of wine acidity, meaning that a pH of 4 translates in 10 times more acidity than a pH of 5. The lower the pH number, the higher the acidity. If a pH is too high, microorganisms may grow in the wine.
Most wines are between the pH levels of 3.3 and 3.7.
To learn how you can find the acidity measurements of your wine, we recommend reading our recent article on wine tech sheets.

Understanding Your Fine Wine

The enjoyability of your wine drinking experience is often times dependent on your knowledge of it. It is this knowledge that helps you choose the right wine for your palate, and keep choosing right wines in the future. This is why we bring you weekly articles and guides here on our blog!
We hope understanding wine acidity will help you better understand your wine, and we recommend checking out our online wine shop for a collection of some of the world’s best fine wines from the most popular wine making regions – all just a button away from arriving at your doorstep.
For any other fine wine related questions or queries – or if you’re interested in fine wine investment or collecting – please feel free to contact our experts at any time. We always respond promptly, and will be glad to help!
Image source: Brent Hofacker

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