While exploring South Pasadena via the Gold Line over the weekend I stumbled upon a wine store/bar called Winestyles. Winestyles is a new wine store chain, with an interesting concept. Instead of setting up shop and lining up the zins, cabs and blancs side by side, they organize their stores by the style of wine; bold, crisp, silky, mellow, fruity, rich, bubbly and nectar.
Looking for something to go with that light pasta or grilled chicken? Go for something “silky” with flavors of honey and melon. Or how about something from the “mellow” selection? It goes well with pasta, veal, pork or beef with flavors of cherry, berries, herbs and earth. A great set-up for someone who doesn’t know a whole lot about wine.
Signs help guide your taste buds.
There are a lot of wines from many different regions.
It’s a very cozy store. I felt at home right away. You can get there by taking the Metro Gold Line to Mission St. While there, I picked up 3 bottles. I’ve already cracked open my bottle of 06 Palmina Dolcetto that I purchased over the weekend. A very approachable red wine, it was delicious. Most wines cost between $10 and $30.
The tasting area.
Winestyles has $15 tastings Thu-Sat night and generally include pours from 4 different bottles. This Thursday (5-8:30pm) they are featuring affordable French wines. On Friday they are tasting big California reds (5-9:30pm). Then on Saturday (5-9:30pm) they are revisiting both French and California wines.
They have a monthly wine club you can join for $34.95. You get two bottles of wine every month. Weekly wine tastings are only $7.50 for wine club members, plus ten percent off in the store.
WineStyles
1007 Mission Street
South Pasadena, CA 91030
626.799.4638
February 27th, 2008 at 6:13 am
this sounds like a perfect place to bring my wine snob brother-in-law! thanks for the great review, i’ll be checking it out!