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It’s 11-11-11, make a wish! If you wished for an amazing *FREE* tasting of 11 wines from around the world at an adorable boutique wine store, it has come true! Harlem Vintage also offering 11% off off any 11 bottles and will be staying open until 11pm. The tasting is from 4-8 but the party continues next door at their bar Nectar where the “wine whisperer” Cynthia will be satisfying all your libation needs. Get the Manchego stuffed dates wrapped in Pancetta… it will blow your mind!

Here are a few examples of what you will be sampling at the tasting:

Fuentenarro “4 Months”

This lovely Tempranillo is a creamy mix of redcurrant, blueberry, plums and ripe peach fill the palate. A medium bodied wine, with sweet ripe tannins, well structured, showing great potential.

Santa Vincenzo Ventoso Morellino di Scansano

This is ablend of 85% Sangiovese, 10% Ciliegiolo and 5% Alicante. It features very outgoing aromas of smoky cherry, violets and leather. In the mouth, it has bright medium-bodied cherryish fruit and finishes very long.

Baglio Dosa Nero d’Avola

A warm and plummy red wine with a touch of raisins and a hint of almonds in the flavor. There’s sufficient acidity to give it structure, but the overall impression is soft as velvet. Although the finish isn’t overly long, ripe and appealing fruit and surprising complexity hold up as a food wine perfectly paired with a juicy brisket or Hungarian stew.

Hannah Nicole Syrah

This powerful Syrah comes from Contra County California in the same region as Turley and Rosenblum which is famous for Zins and Syrahs. This wine explodes with fresh black pepper. Flavorful and rich, it is lush and abounding with flavor, with hints of smoke, cherry and fig.

Hope to see you all there!

Upper East Side Wine Bars

International

1728 2nd Ave. 10128
Cross Streets: 89th & 90th
212-426-0919

Hours: Mon-Thu 5pm-Midnight Fri 5pm-1am Sat Noon-1am Sun Noon-11pm

The first installment of the Cavatappo wine bar group is a COZY wine hang out for Upper East Siders who want a chill experience. Chalkboard menus offer the specials for snacks and wine.

Join strangers at the communal table or vie for one of the few outdoor tables in the warm weather months. Sunday nights they host half-price specials. 60 wines by the glass!?

Word is they have an awesome happy hour special: Two appetizers (i.e., prosciutto, goat cheese and kalamata on toast, or fresh bruschetta, or warm hummus, etc.) and a bottle of wine for $35….!

Brooklyn Heights Wine Bars

127 Atlantic Ave.  11201
Cross Streets:  Henry & Clinton St.
718-855-7500

Hours: tbd

In an area on the side of Atlantic Avenue where previous choices were basically fish & chips, falafel and pizza, Brooklyn Heights will welcome a seasonal restaurant with a wine bar in the Winter of 2010.  (Funds to make this all happen were raised from using the help of online crowdfunding website, Kickstart.)

Expect there to be a focus on the trend of the times: “local, seasonal American cuisine with a definite bias to all things gastronomically Brooklyn” and a wine list that will be “unique yet super approachable and affordable.”

Chef Alex Sorenson, formerly of Mas (Farmhouse), cooks oysters Rockefeller, black risotto with crisp mushrooms and rabbit lasagna. And you probably should check out their adventurous dessert: foie gras doughnuts.

The space is bright and airy with high ceilings and lots of exposed brick… warm, comfortable and interesting.  As if sitting at a kitchen table, the chef prepares your meal right in front of you.  The owners, hailing from PUBLIC, believe that “watching the art of cooking while you dine is like a new kind of theater and can be truly inspirational, changing the way you think about the food you eat.”

As other’s have mused: maybe they’ll have help from former Monday Room sommelier Ruben to design their wine list. (Updated wine list information to come.)

Carroll Garden Wine Bars

520 Court St. 11231
Cross Streets:  Huntington & Nelson St.
718-407-0047

Hours: Sun-Thu 5pm-Midnight, Fri-Sat 5pm-1am

An edgy-esque wine and tapas joint from Alessandro Peluso (Bocca and Cacio e Pepe) and Alessandro Piliego (the House) is the newest comer onto this Carroll Cardens’ block.  And, they are serving all things Spanish influenced, from the wine to the small plates to the design.

If you are interested in trying sherry, they have about a dozen.  Affordable whites from the NorthWest, juicy reds from the SouthEast and maybe even a dense Garnacha from the NorthEast regions are on the list too.  You will even find a few beers to pair with your nibbles. But, you won’t find any hard liquor on the menu; just order one of the wine cocktails instead.

No matter, you’ll have enough delectable elixirs to help wash down the the assortment of traditional tapas – a menu full of charcuterie, meatballs, and sandwiches.  And just to keep things on edge, they’ll offer daily specials “with a little bit of flair,” such as today’s house-cured salmon carpaccio with watercress apples and horseradish.

Don’t forget to check out your surroundings… they built the 38-seat counter/ bar top with tiles from a 180-year-old church in Uruguay, the chandeliers are cast-iron, and there are even a few pieces by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero (yes, the same dude who created the large – undressed – Adam at the Time Warner Building). The seating is all bar height, with two communal tables up front and five or six two-tops in the back.