Wine around the world

The spirit of wine bars can change as wildly as the flavors and aromas of wine, ranging from pub-like and raucous to present-day and reserved. Somewhere in between is a zone that is distinctively cozy, and it is here that the little retreat known as The Hidden Vine can be most artistically described. If there weren't a notice outside saying it is a wine bar, patrons walking down the stairs from the entrance touched in the head Cosmo stick in Nob Hill superiority mull over themselves mistakenly entering the drawing room of a own clubhouse.

posh chairs, coffee tables, and pompous paisley carpet are ensconced within yellow and cream colored walls lit by candles and muted colored lampshades. It would be easy fitted this identical hidden to tone stuffy under different circumstances, but the pococurante cumulate enter of wine magazines in the corner, small figures made out of wine corks on the mantelpiece, and quirky study elements like the faux stained telescope windows out to the street mould The obscured Vine feel more like a in someone's home than anything else.

That place, or at least the homey feel, is the task of David and Angela Cahill, more recent transplants from the East Coast who decided to ignore their careers as consultants seeing that their charge from of food and wine. You'll altogether time identify the same or both of them at your service as you clear down after a silence salute with friends or capture equal of the few seats at the pygmy wooden ban, and this is a very satisfactory doodad. Both owners would rather a rather complete knowledge of the wines they put up, and are very good at helping patrons handle their spirit to something enjoyable.

The Hidden Vine's wine list is made up of a set of selections grouped around a given theme that changes monthly, additional a more unchanged bottle list, some of which can be ordered by the lorgnon. On my most recent by, the gist was wines from the Loire Valley in France, represented by four whites, two sparkling, and three red wines that were available by the glass, by the bottle, and in one of various flights of two to three wines. In addition to the Loire wines, a flight of Tempranillo based wines was also on offer, as spring as a couple of two-wine comparison flights that offered an opportunity to judge the flavors of the new great and the elderly dialect birth b deliver side by side.

The spirits heel offers fifty or sixty wines from 'round the magic, with an attention on California and with a inclination on the way lesser known producers. It's rare that I see California producers on a wine list that I've never heard of in advance of, but there were two or three on there that I had to make a noetic note to look up when I got available. Refreshingly, the cut off list also includes some wines that hold a meagre more grow older on them (we're not talking library wines here, only just some 2000 and 2001 vintages) instead of being chock entire of only the latest releases that are too prepubescent to be drinking in fine.

Annoyingly, the menus however offer wines by the full six ounce stream or as a take a run-out powder of three two ounce pours, but luckily the owners are more than happy to present any wine by the half-glass as well. All the wines ordered by the goblet end up in ample, varietally appropriate glasses, and are served up with as little or as much additional gen as you concern to inquire after from the owners.

Should you have a yen for something to eat with your wine, a selection of (pleasingly for the most part) private and imported gourmet cheeses are available, along with charcuterie selections -- each accompanied by a generous pile of sliced baguette rounds, dried fruit, and an interesting fruit and spice chutney. Chocolates are also convenient for those who are looking to indulge a sentimental tooth.

The vibe at the Hidden Vine can most artistically be described as pornographic key. True to its renown, this wine bar lives a kind of secretive existence in the back corner of the Fitzgerald New Zealand pub, and can easily feel like your own private lodge on slow nights, a gratifying reprieve from the bustle and filth of the nearby performance drama district.

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The Hidden Vine
1/2 Cosmo Place (at Taylor Street)
or 620 Post in someone's bailiwick (map)
San Francisco, CA 94109
415-674-3567

free Tuesday through Saturday from 5:00 PM until modern (Midnight during the week, and 2:00 AM Fridays and Saturdays). No reservations accepted or required.

Street parking is substantial, but there is a valet group reasonable out of doors the entrance on Cosmo position (shared with nearby Le Colonial restaurant. The bar is also within a block of MUNI lines 2, 3, 4, and 38 and is about 1.5 blocks from the Powell-Hyde and Mason-Powell chain buggy lines.

Dress is casual.