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The California wine adventure By Shavaughn Moss ~ Lifestyles Editor ~ shavaughn@nasguard.com: The palate of Bahamians is evolving and it's nowhere more evident than in the recent opening of a totally unique experience that is the Wine Lounge — a unique and upscale wine bar. It's a place which affords wine lovers and those who want to know more about wines the opportunity to taste, smell, enjoy and purchase boutique wines under one roof. Wine lounges are popular the world over, but it took local wine connoisseur Ruben Fox, an importer of California wines to bring the Wine Lounge, Tasting Room and Retail store to fruition. Fox who started a wine importation business a year-and-a-half ago said it grew so rapidly, that even he was amazed to see how many people love to indulge in the wine experience. As a result, he says the next step for him was to open a wine lounge to allow Bahamians to enjoy the unique wine experience that people the world over have at their disposal. It's an experience he says the Europeans, Italians and French all had right, and which the western world is now catching on to, because they're starting to learn and appreciate what wine is meant for. "Wine is meant to be enjoyed with food, and Europeans grew up with that . . . Italian, French people, when they eat, they drink wine. In the United States it was the opposite. They would drink wine just to drink wine or if they were out at a club. They didn't eat. "But wine around the world has increased in its appreciation, and the age group that is now appreciating wine is much younger — you have people in college who are becoming wine connoisseurs. It's a drink of choice that they can enjoy and relax without getting serious hangovers, and not only that, but there are health properties related to wine, so it's good for us, as long as we don't abuse it," said Fox. He partnered with Peter Moree, and Antonio Silvio to bring the Wine Lounge experience to The Bahamas so that people can indulge in what is now becoming a passion in the appropriate setting. The Wine Lounge is located in Villa Florence on East Bay Street. "The wines we import are boutique wines from family-owned vineyards, and some of the wineries that we represent, only produce maybe 1,000 to 2,000 cases, so it's very, very unique wines that we offer," said Fox. Currently the Wine Lounge offers 30 wines by the glass, retailing for as little as $4 and $150 by the bottle with the priciest tagged at $85. By February Fox expects his stock to be up to 40 wines by the glass and 200 wines by the bottle. His goal is to eventually be up to 100 wines by the glass. But there's one thing he doesn't intend to become — and that is stagnant or stale, Fox says the Wine Lounge's wine list will evolve, and each month new wines will be featured, and new vineyards introduced to ensure that you can taste wines from all regions of California. The Wine Lounge experience is unique in that Fox has installed a Tasting Bar where you can enjoy a flight of wines from three different regions of California. They can be all red, all white or mixed. This allows you to taste wines from different regions and different vineyards. With the experience you get three glasses with two-ounce pours per glass. The tasting starts from $12 and goes up. Glasses of wine start from $4, and you can do one-ounce tastings, two-ounce or three- ounce tastings — whatever strikes your fancy. Fox uses his higher-end wines for tastings. Fox is able to offer the wine tastings because of a unique machine called a wine keeper that he's installed which is a self-contained storage that keeps the wine and dispenses it. "It's connected to a nitrogen gas tank that preserves the wine and keeps oxygen out. The thing with wine is that when oxygen hits it, it starts to basically go south, so what this does is preserve the wines for up to four weeks, which means we're able to open up a bottle of wine and keep it preserved." Because wine is meant to be enjoyed with food, the Wine Lounge offers a tapas menu with light foods like marinated olives, assorted cheeses, assorted salumi like prosciutto and salami, breads, salads, soups, paninis and gourmet hand-tossed thin crust pizzas which they pair with their wines to show you how the wine works with each food for your enjoyment. "We designed a menu and have the wines that fit every category. What I like about the concept of the Wine Lounge is you can come in, have a nice little tapas bite, a glass of wine or two for under $30 per person and it's very inexpensive," said Fox. He selects the boutique he serves with the passion and love he has for the libation. And what he offers is very good wine — good for the price range, great for the palate, and something that you would definitely enjoy. The Wine Lounge is also about education. "A flat screen television l plays scenes of the wine-making process and vineyards in Napa, California, Sonoma and Central Coast, plus there is a service that will give you information about the wine, tell you what the wine is best paired with. Monthly seminars will be held where people can be informed about all things wine — from the topic wine glasses, and whether they are important to the wine, what the glass is to the wine and how it affects the taste to the wine themselves. You can also learn how and why to pair wines with certain foods, cheeses." Fox's ultimate goal for the upscale wine bar is to have a place where wine lovers can meet, interact and exchange thoughts, ideas, and appreciation for wine, and connect with vendors. "We want to bring a fresh approach to The Bahamas, with new wines and new experiences," said Fox who opened the Wine Lounge two weeks ago as he celebrated his 37th birthday. "I'd been thinking about it [opening an upscale wine bar] for a long time, so it all just came together well, with the right people and the right things at the right time. The Wine Lounge will be a nice place to come, relax and just enjoy and understand wine. Even if you don't understand all wines or like all wines, give it a try, because having the wine with the right food and having the right type of wine can change the experience for you," he said. The Wine Lounge Tasting Room and Retail Store is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Patrons can opt to sit inside the Tasting Room that also houses the retail store or, enjoy their sips and bites under the stars in their open-air courtyard. The Wine Lounge will also be able to host parties, and with an in-house caterer, they can design a menu that will fit perfectly with your wines. Fox's goal is to bring in celebrity chefs and do foods and wine pairings from different vineyards at the Wine Lounge. To inculcate the culture for people who enjoy wine and those who want to learn more about wine, taste wine and experience wines, the Wine Lounge also offers a special membership package. Those that join are entitled to a number of free wine tastings per month. In addition, they get 25 percent discount on the wine retail prices, and they get discounts on seminars and foods. Wednesday January 20, 2010