My friend ordered the Muscadet they were pouring, and that’s one of the things that should send you right down to this spot – they are pouring a Muscadet.  And multiple Sauvignon Blancs and Chardonnays and Rieslings and white blends and… well, 33 white wines and 43 reds.  And 5 or six sparklers, as well as some 6  sweet wines.  All the bottle prices are pretty reasonable, and basically any flight is $15.  If you like variety, and I know you do, gentle reader, this is your place.  Variety Central!  It’s like they opened it just for you!

I ordered a flight of three Malbecs: the Llama, Terra Rosa and Tomero.  All from Mendoza, all around $9 per glass.  The flight setup was very sensible, given that all wine is served at a bar for the patron to carry with her to a table.  I was there to socialize and not to scribble wine notes, so I don’t have tasting notes for you, but the Tomero was my favorite.  The other two were more tannic and might have been happier with food.  The Muscadet was really lovely, with tartness as arresting as a slap in the face from an old Southern lady.

Oh!  And Sundays they do a great deal in which they pour all the wines by the glass half-price, as long as the bottle’s already open (usually from the night before I bet). And they do wine cocktails!!! I love wine cocktails!  I’m going back just for the cheese plate and the wine cocktails.

What other things do Austinites care about in a wine bar?  Let’s see.  Big patio.  Dogs allowed on patio.  Street parking.  Probably gets crowded at the bar when it’s busy.  Minimal food but interesting cheese and chocolate. Good happy hours.  Go see them; I bet you’ll like it too.

I turned into said parking lot to check things out last night, and snapped a few pics from my car, feeling like an unsophisticated Kinsey Millhone. I even went to the lengths of going inside to scope the place, and looked at the wine list though I did not have time to have a glass — we grouted the kitchen floor last night at Castle Scamp, an activity which I can not, dear reader, recommend to anyone for any reason.

There was a small bar with tables (packed), a restaurant floor of tables (packed) and a large outdoor patio (empty because we were expecting rain last night). The list offered about 10 flights that seemed to range from $11 to $16ish, and a long, extensive by the glass list on top of that, and a long bottle list on top of that. I did not get a look at the menu, but this is definitely worth investigating when I can finally shake the dust of home improvements from my heels and venture back into the world of wine again!

Have any of you been here? Is it a chain, or a local sensation? I’ve done no research, I admit, but I’m dying to know if this place is a gem or a gyp… discuss!

Plus, they’ve got a hell of a sense of humor. I had to try the Saint Cosme at $9 a glass because of the following description on the list:

“There is no reason to believe this wine isn’t made by elves… or gremlins, trolls or fairies for all one can find out about it on the internets. I’ll have to wing this one. This wine is 100% syrah or 50% syrah and 50% white clairette or the love sweat of rutting goat-gods which has been bottled by little, bitty people with their teeny tiny hands and shipped to us by winged squirrels.”

I mean, seriously – how do you NOT taste a wine written up like that?

I personally found it to present dusty, heady raspberry aromas, white pepper, slight truffle and some of that umami edge of aged cheese.

On the palate, it’s crispy with tannin on the edges with an ooey-gooey fruit center. This wine gets a tight grip on your lips and teeth and proceeds to spew all over your tongue with earth and brick-house raspberry goodness.

My bartender tasted it for the first time near where I was sitting, and I overheard her comment that the wine “smells like Jewish Christmas.”

I chose the country pate to go with my wine, despite the bartender’s recommendation of the “Portuguese gumbo” soup, and I probably should have gone with her idea. The pate was excellent, don’t get me wrong, but it was too rich for the Cotes du Rhone. Or rather, the wine’s tannins met their match with the fatty pate, but then the acidity just went crazy. It was much better when I added some red onion, capers, olive or a cornichon. I bet it would have been great with a thinly sliced tomato, too.

Vino Vino will open most everything on their shelves for a nominal fee, and their wine by the glass list is really unusual. They’re pouring a Franciacorta, a Dolcetto and a Corbieres, among other gems. Lots of wines you’ve probably never heard of, but all of them good.

And when I say free pouring, I mean FREE.  No money, unlimited bubbly.  Seriously.

They’re also pouring off all their sweet wines.  I hope this does not mean that they’re giving up on their Exceptionally Progressive Sparkling Wine Program and trying to ditch all their inventory in one fell swoop, because that would make me sad. 

I was over there the other night and enjoyed a gorgeous pink sparkler, the Lucien Albrecht Cremant d’Alsace Brut Rose if I remember correctly, for only $20.  (Sorry, no tasting notes, but the perlage was positively minute and the wine was delicious.)  Service was a delight and the prosciutto sandwich was lip-smacking. 

Vino Vino’s wine selection is wonderful and whimsical, and they offer 15% off of any six bottles of still wine you buy and 10% off any six of sparkling.  Because their markup on sparkling wine is so low.  Because they really want you, their valued customer, to discover the wide, wonderful world of bubbly.

I’ll be drinking stars tomorrow.  Will you? 

Erath 2006 Oregon Pinot Noir, $19 retail: Light garnet, almost cranberry juice in color. On the nose, strawberry and cranberry cocktail, with some black tea with bergamot. Very Oregonian to me: light and elegant without all the dirt. The tea aroma is quite pronounced.

Palate is a good, tart cranberry with some mushroom in the mid-palate; the finish has some earth on it which gives it some weight. Not spicy, but not harsh and not a fruit bomb. Slightly silky; like a duet of cranberry and earth.

Dick Erath is like the inventor of Oregon wine, practically. He founded his winery (now owned by Ste. Michelle Wine Estates) in the Dundee Hills in 1967. Thirty-four vintages later, he’s still growing grapes and blowing minds. This wine was closed with a screw-cap, which I applaud.

Acacia 2006 Carneros Pinot Noir, $25 retail: Darker, opaque ruby in color. Very evident oak at first whiff, with an undertone of spice beneath that. Cherry, some heat, raspberry, mushroom and some violets on the nose.

On the palate, good drying tannins balance with acidity; nice black tea, cranberry, some warm nutmeg spice, and maybe some earth. Finish doesn’t last with the clarity of the Erath. Respectable, but not blow-your-mind wine. I remember this Acacia bottling as showing stronger than this.

Acacia Vineyard is a Carneros Pinot Noir and Chardonnay house, and was acquired by Diageo when they bought the Chalone Wine Group. I’m really disappointed in their website, I must say. Winemaker Matthew Glynn starts the fermentation of this wine in stainless and then moves it into a barrels to finish the first and then the malolactic fermentation as well. I like this winery a lot; they’re always pretty solid, possibly because they pretty much stick to two varieties?

Dog Point 2005 Marlborough Pinot Noir, $40 retail: Very deep red in color, almost Merlot. Barnyard manure (finally!), blackberry, some cherry on the nose.

Palate is fecund, earthy cherry with strawberry, smoke, and candied flowers. Palpable tannic grip, but with enough acidity to balance it out just fine. Kind of a cough syrup finish. Decent enough texture, but little finesse.

Dog Point Vineyard has an oddly pared-down website. They don’t talk much about why the winery exists or what their winemaker’s philosophy is. The secret is that winemaker James Healey and vitculturalist Ivan Sutherland used to work for legendary Cloudy Bay Winery before they decided it was now or never and founded their own winery. They make a small amount of wine and sell the grapes they don’t use to Cloudy Bay. With chops like that and the careful business plan they seem to have, these guys should go far.

As Pinot Noir flights go, meh.  I guess someone was thinking New World (not from Europe) when they put this one together. It’s hard to offer affordable PN flights, I get that, but I really felt that if the Erath was supposed to be the example of the varietal that showed finesse, it was a little too entry-level for that. I assume the Dog Point was supposed to be the Wow Wine, and I liked it, but it didn’t blow me away. And the Acacia seemed a little too similar to the Dog Point for good contrast. Ah, well. You can’t win ‘em all.

LTWT to the rescue! They offer more than 30 wines by the glass, and offer tasting portions of all of them. Their list changes pretty regularly, and they also offer six different flights of four wines each, if you want to taste wines against each other. I love tasting wines in flights — there’s something about the contrast of multiple wines that are similar but different that really makes me feel like I am tasting profoundly. I especially enjoy tasting similar varietals from different regions around the world: it’s so interesting how different soils, weather patterns and winemaking can make the same grape into such different wine.

Because it’s of interest to me, I think you’ll also find it relevant that their tasting portions range from $3.00 to $10.50, and glasses range from $6.00 to $21.00, and on their high end they’re pouring stuff like Far Niente Chardonnay and Antinori Tignanello. They have a WineKeeper, if you’re curious about storage methods.

I’ve heard the criticism of Lake Travis Wine Trader that they’re all about the California wines, to the exclusion of all others. Just looking at this week’s list, I beg to quibble: half of the wines they’re pouring right now are California wines, but the other half are from Oregon, Connecticut, Italy, Spain, France, Argentina, Australia, and Portugal (and not fortified, either). They have a very respectable non-CA bottle selection of affordable and collectible wines from around the world. Did I mention that you can purchase any bottle in the place and drink it in the shop for only $3 more? Considering that all their stemware is Reidel, I think that’s a solid deal.

Food wise, there’s a $10 cheese plate and a $5 gorgonzola plate, as well as chocolates by the Sweet Shop. They’re cool with you bringing in take-out, though, so if you want to drink the good stuff with the Papa John’s pizza you bought next door, you’re wired for sound. Heh, and if your food tastes are slightly more sophisticated, you can’t go wrong with nearby Pao’s Mandarin House, which is in the neighboring strip mall. Mizu Sushi is just a few doors down from LTWT, but I’ve never been there so I can’t give an opinion.

One of my favorite things about this place, which I have mentioned quite a bit in posts past I’m sure, is their tasting program. I have yet to be disappointed in a Tuesday Night Seminar, in which one pays $30 and tastes some very high-end wines, with instruction and snacks provided. They like you to RSVP for that one. It’s a great way to ruin yourself forever for cheap wine, for better or for worse.

Saturday Premium Tastings are drop-in, from 2-5, and feature a taste of three high-end wines for $20. Generally, there’s a theme, but it’s always a nice selection. I attended Steven’s Sunday “Virtually Free” Tasting this week, and tasted four wines for only $5. This one runs from 2-6, and the price of your tasting is waived if you buy a bottle of wine that day. This is a great way to discover new value wines with little-to-no risk to me, the customer!

George and Lori Wise opened up this place a couple of years back, and Lori attends Tuesday Wine Seminars pretty regularly. The only person I ever seem to find behind the bar is the knowledgeable and charming Steven, who certainly tends to the joint like he’s invested in it. Steven is a great presence behind the bar: he’s sincerely friendly and engages with the customer, but he isn’t all up in your business, either. He remembered me the second time I walked into the bar, although my nerdly way of writing in a wine journal is somewhat memorable. Lori Best Wine is a Certified Specialist of Wine through the Society of Wine Educators (like your very own scamp), and I hear tell she and George are avid collectors.

If you’re a Lakeway local or just passing through, do stop by the Lake Travis Wine Trader and raise a glass. I think you’ll be pleased with your surroundings, your company, and your libation.

I’m no posh Steiner Rancher, gentle reader; rather, Le Chateau du Scamp is in an extremely modest subdivision near Hamilton Pool. I was reflecting as I drove out into Lakeway yesterday evening that it’s all very well to live within one’s means, but it helps that one has Nice Places To Go so close to home.

I walked into the ballroom like I was walking onto a yacht, and who happened to be manning the bar that night but the debonair owner himself, Mr. David Parrish? I thought I was lucky, but it turns out that David works his store every day, nearly all day, so I guess we’re all lucky. The walls, as you can see, are filled with bottles for retail sale, but evidently any bottle you like can be opened for a reasonable fee. They hold a wine tasting from 4-7, which I had missed that night, and there’s a wine club as well.

There were three people including David clustered around the bar (this place, like many, is suffering from the renewal of football season), exclaiming over a bottle that they were tasting. As I was browsing the store, a nice young man who later introduced himself as Kail (sp?) walked over to me and asked, “Would you like to taste a really fantastic white wine?” and handed me a glass.

Well, who could turn that down, boys and girls? Certainly not yours truly, and thus I was seamlessly pulled in to a delightful tasting session. The wine they were tasting was the Monastero Suore Cistercensi Coenobium 2005, a delightful wine made by Cistercian nuns in Lazio. The wine’s name, Coenobium, means monastery in Latin. It’s a blend of Trebbiano, Verdicchio, and Grechetto grapes, and evidently vinified without oak; I must say that the color of the wine, combined with its viscocity and rich creaminess made me pretty confident it had some oak treatment, but I was wrong, wrong, wrong! The weight of the wine, as it turns out, comes from the Grechetto, a grape that is mostly vinified into Vin Santo, though it’s also blended into Umbria’s signature white wine, Orvieto.

Golden straw in color. Apple pie, honey, nectarine, apricot, and licorice gang up on my nose riotously. This is phenomenal sniffing wine; it’s creamy, spicy, floral and fruity all at once, and I love that about it! The palate is tart, with bright apple and some herb on the back-palate. The crisp minerality of the finish lingers pleasently as I stick my nose in the glass again, and again , and again. This wine will be selling at Vino 100 for about $20, and would be a perfect wine for Thanksgiving or any other occasion. Really noteworthy. Mondosapore liked this wine too, so you know it’s not just me.

Tasting with David and Kail (again, unsure of spelling!) was Jessica Sellers of The Serengeti Trading Company, which ironically enough is right down the way from my house! If you’re local and you like using burlap for mulching (it’s excellent if you have trouble with erosion like we do), they have lots of used burlap coffee bags, and they give them away for free. Free, I say! Anyhow, they were bummed that I missed the excellent white Burgundy they had just finished, and after hearing about Wine Blogging Wednesday #39′s theme, they opened up another bottle! It was an excellent Macon Solutre-Pouilly, and that’s all you’ll be hearing about it until November 14.

So this David Parrish guy was in the semiconductor business, travelling between plants in France, Germany and California (and learning wine the whole way there and back), when he woke up at three in the morning and decided he wanted to go into the wine business. He opened his shop about 2 years and 2 months ago, he said, and he’s there pretty much all the time.

Nat Davis, sommelier-about-town, is the store’s wine consultant and works with David to select the stock, but don’t let that convince you that David doesn’t have an intimate relationship with every single bottle he’s got. Most of his wines are obscure, from off-the-beaten path wineries and regions, and he will pull a wine off the shelves if it gets picked up by a local grocery store: he wants his stock to be unique.

David hand-sells most of the wine himself, and his store is a seriously excellent place to buy a new wine you’ve never heard of before. Not to be immodest, I know my brands and I only recognized about 40% of the bottles in the store. Also, David likes to turn over his inventory frequently, so you don’t have to worry about getting in a rut if you shop there often, and you probably will.

Vino 100 usually has live music on Fridays, which I am assured is chill, not too loud for the small space, and very good. They have no kitchen, but Cafe CastroNova is only two doors down and I hear tell that some food wanders its way down to Vino 100′s tables every so often.

Discover new wine and make new friends at Vino 100 Lakeway — knock three times and tell David the Scamp sent you!