Artisan Wine Lounge and Cafe

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www.WineLog.net:
Artisan Wine Lounge and Cafe
by Ward
February 2008

Beth and I had a free Wednesday evening the other week so we decided to head over to one of the newer local wine destinations in the East Bay, Artisan Wine Lounge and Cafe. The lounge sits just off the much busier Locust St in downtown Walnut Creek. The map says Stave Wine Lounge and Café, because the business partners that own Artisan, Lena Chu and Kevin Ng, also own Stave, situated in Napa.

Lena chooses wines from small and cult California wine producers, as well as those that remind her of her years living in Spain. This is also shown in the great small plates menu that they offer. Beth and I weren’t that hungry the night we were there, so we just chose a couple “Small Bites” to nibble on, the Marinated Olives and the Artisan Cheese Plate. We really liked the Manchego cheese, which went quite well with just about every wine we tried that night. The stronger blue cheese that was offered was also outstanding, but we had to leave it towards the end when we had some tastes of the dessert wine.

The ambience of lounge is very kick back, yet with a nice air of a modern, upscale establishment. The converted wine barrel tables give a nice rustic Wine Country feel to the seating area, but the modern metal and marble other surfaces, as well as the slate flooring still add a contemporary feel. You walk in feeling as if you could go home and dress up after work, but you don’t really need to in order to fit in.

The real star of the lounge is the method of tasting…Lena has installed three of my favorite machines on this very Earth…the Enomatic self-dispensing wine servers. These machines make me wish I had the dough to plop down and get a couple for some reds and whites in my kitchen! These awesome machines dispense wine by the 1 oz pour. The wine lush, such as myself, first loads up a monetary value on the swipeable magnetic cards, grabs a nicely cut Eisch Breathable lead-free crystal glass and then proceeds over to the Enomatics to taste. You place your card in the machine and then choose from a selection of 6-8 wines that are already installed in the machine. The prices are fully adjustable with the majority at Artisan ranging from $1.25-$2.50 (very reasonable!). Press the button above the wine that you want to taste and boom, you get a 1 oz pour and the value is subtracted from your card! The volume displaced by the pour is replaced by Nitrogen gas, ensuring that the wine is properly stored until empty. Whites are in a separate machine that is sealed by glass and cooled to the necessary serving temperature.

These machines instantly open up the number of wines that you can try at any one visit…a standard wine pour is 5 oz, so you can try 5 different wines with that amount instead of getting a small pour of the 5 or so wines that a normal wine bar might have open to try. You can even create your own flights or rely on some that Lena has pre-chosen. Also making things easier is that for both the whites and the reds, the wines range from lighter to stronger and bolder, from left to right. One thing you *don’t* want to do with the Enomatics is to press the button 5 times to get a full glass. Lena has separate and cheaper pricing for those wines that you’d like to investigate further with a full pour.

Artisan has become my new favorite hangout in the Creek. It provides everything I might need…a wine store (you can purchase every wine you see on the menu, with a really nice 10% discount if you take it to go!), a coffee and tea shop (or check out Green Tea Cafe next door!), a constantly updated boutique wine tasting bar and a delicious food menu, all with rotating art displays and some rad music. Yum!

Please check out reviews of all of the wines that I’ve currently tasted during my visits to Artisan below (tagged with “ArtisanWL“) and be sure to stop by and say hi to Lena if you get the chance to visit!

http://www.winelog.net/blog/2008/02/04/artisan-wine-lounge-and-cafe/

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Diablo Magazine:
At The Bar
Wine Time
By Tom Hudgens
October 2007

If you’re not already a wine enthusiast, visit Walnut Creek’s new Artisan Wine Lounge. Proprietor Lena Chu—she and her husband, Kevin Ng, also own Stave Wine Lounge in Napa—proudly offers an ever-changing array of 32 small-production wines. They come in one-ounce pours (from $1 to $9.75) from her Enomatic wine-tasting machines (the first in the 925).

She chiefly promotes California wines, with some imports included to point up differences in terroir or blending style. Chu serves the wine in oversize “breathable” Eisch German crystal glasses. “The glass opens up the wine in just a few minutes, just like decanting it,” she says.

Chu is fond of European-style blended reds and serves classic Spanish tapas to accompany the wine. Chalk this up to homesickness: Chu moved to California from Spain 20 years ago. Here are some of her recent favorites:
2004 Spicerack Vineyards Paso Robles “Rack and Roll”
Red Blend Enticingly spicy 96 percent Syrah, 4 percent

Mourvèdre blend—a clean, elegant example of California Rhône-style. Tantalizing notes of exotic spice and fresh mushroom waft up from the glass, with swirls of unripe plum. Good tannins.
2005 Robert Biale Napa “Black Chicken” Zinfandel Wonderfully complex cherry-berry fruit in a deep, well-balanced structure. Induces visions of grilled peaches and toasted almonds.

2004 Viader Napa Valley Proprietary Red An elegant, masculine blend of 60 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 40 percent Cabernet Franc, this wine has excellent body, with complex nutty aromas and leather-library notes balanced by a delicate floral background.

Very food friendly—think grilled lamb and tomato pasta.

www.diablomag.com/Diablo-Magazine/October-2007/At-the-Bar

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www.ibabuzz.com:
Artisan Wine Lounge opens in the Creek
By Jessica Yadegaran
Friday, June 8th, 2007 at 4:00 pm in Walnut Creek

I went to the grand opening of the Artisan Wine Lounge & Cafe, brought to the Dub C by Stave Wine Lounge in Napa. It’s a cool spot. Small. Cute. The concept is similar to Vino Venue in San Francisco. One ounce pours spilling forth from the sleek Enomatic tasting machines. But the quantity is less. There are 32 wines at a time. Eight whites, and the rest reds.

The focus is small production California cult wines, or soon to be cult wines. Think Vinum. Eponymous. Two Angels. Foley. Stag’s Leap. That sort of thing. I was taken by the peppery notes of a 2003 Syrah from Lodi’s Jake Ryan Cellars, enough that I felt like Molly Ringwald.

The bar rotates in another country (right now, it’s Spain) and offers a smattering of tapas to match. I munched on manchego cheese and chorizo while sipping Gaia.

I also like the subtle extras that Lena Chu and Kevin Ng, the owners, bring to Artisan. A Vermentino from Carneros? Who knew? A Reisling from Germany? Gotta have it. Clear top barrel tables for two plus coffee and desserts for the non-winos.

Their site’s not up yet, but for now you can check out their sister winery’s site, Stave.

www.ibabuzz.com/corkheads/2007/06/08/artisan-wine-lounge-opens-in-the-creek