BAT Recap: Uncorked Wine Tasting Bistro

July 1st marked the Grand Opening for West Hartford’s newest wine spot, Uncorked Wine Tasting Bistro. You can bet that Constance and yours truly stayed in tune with our beverage industry roots and checked out the new digs in West Hartford’s Blue Back Square over the opening weekend.

Uncorked features over 60+ wines displayed behind the creative WineStation” technology, the first system of its kind of reach Connecticut. All the wines are automated to dispense a different sized pour based on your piqued interests: a 1 oz. taste, a 3 oz. half glass, or a full 6 oz glass.

We started our adventure with a few tastes of whites, but my interest was more heavily tuned to the selection of reds on the menu (surprise, surprise…). I was immediately grabbed by the inclusion of a member of the Layer Cake Wines family, the 2008 Shiraz out of South Australia. It’s not my favorite from the family – I’m particularly biased towards their Malbec out of Mendoza, Argentina – but I happily sipped away at my 3 oz. pour of the Shiraz.

I asked for Constance’s help when picking my last taste of the evening. We landed on a spicy but inviting 1 oz. taste of the 2007 Pinot Noir Revana Vineyard from the Williamette Valley in Oregon. What a great bottle of wine! Both Constance and I were pretty blown away by this Pinot out of the Northwest. Managing Partner David Rudman also has some great things to say about this bottle, which you can read on Uncorked’s blog.

Uncorked has a very nice, quaint feel to it, with a comfortable blend of dining tables, high-top bar tables, and standing room alongside the WineStation systems. Constance and I “ooh”ed over the menu of both artisanal cheese and chocolate offerings, but were too full to indulge this particular evening. In speaking to Rudman, we received confirmation that the worldly wine list at Uncorked is fluid and will likely see changes as it establishes its niche in West Hartford.

My only initial complaint about Uncorked – from a spirits blogger perspective – was that I was not able to order a cocktail unless I was sitting at the bar, so our waitress told me. I was also informed earlier by a friend in the Twitter community that a cocktail menu was in place, but was disappointed to find no such menu on this particular visit. Hopefully next time. Peering at the back bar, it does seem that the restaurant does have a established interest in the craft cocktail scene; bottles not notably seen in West Hartofrd – Aperol and Veev are a few particulars that stood out – were readily available for the enthused cocktailian.

Until next time, Uncorked, we’ll be dreaming about indulging in those chocolates…

Cheers!

Uncorked Wine Tasting Bistro
63 Memorial Road, West Hartford, CT
(860) 216-2620
www.uncorkedct.com