The Next Big Thing: By-the-Glass Pours

The future of wine is connection — between winemakers and the land, winemakers and consumers. The future of wine is freedom — freedom from brand restrictions and expensive facilities; the freedom to experience new grapes and wine styles. The future of wine depends on the return of the artisanal craft of winemaking and the unique experience of sharing your wine experiences with friends. The future of wine is all this and more...

For those bored of glass-pour programs too often characterized by poorly thought-out selections of innocuous whites and boring reds, the future looks good. There have always been restaurants willing to push us with more interesting, thoughtful and satisfying choices, but they are rare birds, on the whole, as most restaurants favour the usual suspects in hopes of moving through open wines within their fresh-drinking lifespan. But now, thanks to wine-preservation technology, surreptitious sommeliers can offer a wide variety of delicious glass pours without the encumbrances of shelf life and a bottom line.

Napa Technology’s WineStation and Enomatic are two similar technologies that provide temperature-controlled, sealed wine units that pump argon or nitrogen into the bottles, keeping oxygen ingress at a minimum and allowing the wines to be open for 20 to 30 days before noticeable deterioration of quality.

Calgary’s Vin Room uses the Enomatic system, which has allowed the wine bar to offer an amazing array of selections available for its patrons. Karen Kho, the sommelier at Vin Room, says, “The length of time the wines stay fresh allows us to pour more of the delicate and precious selections we have on our menu … just the sight of the machines gives our guests confidence that everything is going to be as delicious as it should be.”

This type of technology allows Vinroom to feature 64 wines by the taste, ranging from a two-ounce pour to a 13-ounce decanter — a far cry from the options available in restaurants only a few years ago. The Sampler in London, England, offers 80 wines by the glass, ranging from fresh country wines to Screaming Eagle.

This style of two-ounce tasting is just what we need — freedom to sample variety and varietals without committing to a whole bottle. And it’s as welcome in restaurants as it is at home. WineStation’s home version allows four wines to be controlled in a standalone unit anywhere in your house. Enomatic offers eight machines ranging from module units to the mobile battery-operated unit for when the party moves outside, or inside, or really anywhere the 48-hour battery pack will take you.

The following restaurants are among the more than 90 locations across Canada that use Enomatic's machines:

Cuvée Wine Bar (at Terminal City Club)

837 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC

Vin Room

2310 4th Street S.W., Calgary, AB

Hardware Grill

9698 Jasper Avenue N.W., Edmonton, AB

Pizzeria Gusto

404 Academy Road, Winnipeg, MB

Must Wine Bar

41 William Street, Ottawa, ON

Mercatto

15 Toronto Street, Toronto, ON

Reds Bistro

77 Adelaide Street W., First Canadian Place, Toronto, ON

Leméac

1045, avenue Laurier O., Montréal, QC

Savini resto-bar\vinothèque

680 Grande Allée E., Québec, QC

Cut Steakhouse

5120 Salter Street, Halifax, NS