Good Grocery Stores Have Wine Bars

The wine bar has a stainless counter and comfortable stools. The elaborate enomatic wine tasting system dispenses most tastes. You can also have tasting flights. | Photo by John Oliver

Post by John Oliver/Special to LAist

When the new Whole Foods that opened in Venice, I figured it would be like the other Whole Foods. Cramped. Packed. Expensive. Sometimes worth going to but an endurance. This Whole Foods is different in that it is gigantic (see the photo below) and even has clothing. That is all fine and good, but you can buy food and clothes many places.

The find is the wine bar. Nestled in the expanse of Whole Foods is a wine bar ith a reasonably good tasting range. The tastes aren’t free, unfortunately, but come in at $1.99-2.99 per 2 oz pour. So if you drink several, it comes to about $6-9/glass. Tastings are half off on Monday in the late afternoon early evening. They also serve some small plate food to munch on. The nice thing is that the staff are very knowledgeable about wine and it is pleasant diversion from shopping. The wines I tasted included a great Aligote from the Niagra Falls region for about $15. They have a mailing list and host events (winery tastings, etc) and other tastings at reasonable charges. Check out the calendar here.