House Wine

For our January Wino Divino, a few of us decided to check out another wine bar that I've been hearing good things about. It's called House Wine, and is basically just an old house turned into a wine bar. I actually love the idea behind this wine bar. It has a cute yard where you can sit, but also each room inside the house is a little sitting area.

We decided to sit in the front area (it was like 35 degrees outside).

On Saturday nights, House Wine serves a lot of bottles by the glass that don't get completely finished. So on Sunday, they offer those wines by the glass for 1/2 price until they are all gone, which is a great deal. Their glasses are normally about $7 - 9 a glass, but on Sunday they are only about $4, which is fantastic. I was especially impressed when I ordered a glass of wine and there wasnt QUITE a full glass's worth, so they gave it to me for 1/4 price! :o 

To order, you go into the "kitchen" of the house, where you can look at a list of wines opened from Saturday night. There isn't a lot of service involved - nobody comes to your table and takes your order or brings you things. To me, this made the experience more relaxed and it really felt like I was drinking wine in someone's living room! Our party all got there around 4 and stayed until 12... which is something I would never do if people were waiting on me the whole time. 

The first glass I got was a Cycles Zinfandel which I thought was pretty flat and uninteresting. Then, the server recommended a sauvignon blanc that wasn't even on the regular menu. At first I was hesitant since I usually don't like those, but it was actually one of my favorite things of the night - there was only a 1/2 glass left of it! Another cool thing here... they will let you taste any wine before you order a glass (something I didn't know when I ordered the zinfandel). She also said their rieslings were pretty good, so I was debating between the 2 they had (Milbrandt and The Stump Jump), and ended up getting 1/2 a glass of both to compare!

We also had a cheese plate which was delicious too - I think ours ended up having pecorino and gouda. It came with bread, crackers, almonds, and a pretty good cheese spread also, 

Finally, we saw this on the menu and couldn't pass it up. There was a brownie a la mode with a port sauce and it was STRONG.

This place had a very different feel from Cru and Cork & Co, and its so cool getting to experience the variety of wine bars in Austin. I will definitely be back here to lounge and try other wines asap!