THE wine bar is a simple idea, yet it can be fraught. A wall of unfamiliar labels, obscure descriptions and extravagantly wine-schooled patrons can evoke a nagging vertigo.
But in San Francisco, a city known for both its casual culture and obsession with quality food and drink, a visit to a wine bar can be an unpretentious pleasure. The city has long had wine bars — the London Wine Bar, downtown, opened in 1974 and is said to have been the first in the United States. Now, a wave of new wine bars has been opening, often in unexpected neighborhoods.
I met with Alder Yarrow, the obsessive and opinionated writer behind vinography.com, a blog that exhaustively chronicles San Francisco's wine bars. We sat at the long zinc bar at Nectar (3330 Steiner Street; 415-345-1377; www.nectarwinelounge.com), a wine bar in the Marina District. The place was just starting to fill up, and summer evening light flooded the tall, narrow space.
After I ordered a taste of 2005 Alois Lageder pinot grigio ($4) — was that a smirk I caught over my choice? — Mr. Yarrow got down to business. “May I see that?” he asked, and I handed him my copy of Zagat San Francisco.
He turned to the list of 45 wine bars in the back and began editing: “Not a wine bar ... not a wine bar ... wine bar ... wine bar ... why isn't the Bubble Lounge on this list? Champagne is wine too!”
Our server offered us a number of tastes before I settled on a glass of red, a 2004 Le Clos du Caillou ($12), and Mr. Yarrow explained his system. “A wine bar has to serve wine by the bottle,” he began, “and by the glass and the taste. It can't be a regular bar that also has wine. It can be a restaurant, but there has to be a separate seating area for wine drinking only. And it has to have more than a few wines — at least five — in a changing list. And it can't be a retailer with a small tasting area in the corner.”
It is a testament to the vibrant scene in San Francisco that even as he was ruthlessly crossing out those that did not meet his criteria, Mr. Yarrow effortlessly added eight wine bars to the list in my 2007 Zagat.
I was glad to have Mr. Yarrow on hand, but my own predilections are more pedestrian: I like drinking good wine in a convivial atmosphere. I love it, actually, yet I would be hard pressed to pontificate at length about terroir, vintage or varietal.
A retail element is a feature of many of San Francisco's wine bars. California liquor laws are famously reasonable, and many wine bars offer carryout bottles. It's also perfectly acceptable to drink half a bottle, then stick the cork in and walk out with the rest. Indeed, you can walk to a nearby restaurant, most of which have friendly corkage policies. (Still, there is an etiquette to it: don't bring in cheap wine, or wine on the restaurant's list, and if you bring an exceptional bottle, it's polite to offer the sommelier a taste.)
The Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant (One Ferry Building, Shop 23; 415-391-9400; www.fpwm.com) is two-thirds wine shop (any bottle from the shop can be enjoyed in the wine bar for a $6 corkage fee). The Wine Merchant is in the Ferry Building, that mecca of all things local and organic. Shoppers bustle past in a light-filled interior space, on their way to pick up local goat cheeses and rare olive oils.
I met some friends, easily lured away from nearby offices, and prevailed upon them to start with a pinot gris/grigio flight (three two-ounce glasses for $10). The light grapiness went well with our eclectic lunch of cheese, salami, tamales and samosas foraged from the teeming Tuesday farmers' market at the Ferry Building.
Our server was patient and helpful, and pushed my wine education forward with a glass of mystery white. It was sweet, almost meady, and turned out to be a New Zealand chenin blanc from Milton ($25). We finished with a bottle of the Wine Merchant's own California chardonnay ($14) and bought a bottle of the Milton ($19) to take with us.
Hôtel Biron (45 Rose Street; 415-703-0403; www.hotelbiron.com) is tucked on a back alley near a cluster of restaurants on Market Street. One would be forgiven for thinking it a bar bar upon entering. The walls of the small, moody space are dark-painted brick, hung with art of the energetic Mission School. Alt rock plays loudly, and low seats cluster in nooks around tiny tables crowded with big wine glasses.
I visited with a large and unruly crew that included both wine enthusiasts and rank amateurs. The bar does not offer tastes, but the owner, Chris Fuqua, was patient and generous with our high-maintenance group. From his station in the back, he eventually splashed out nearly 20 small samples before we ordered our first bottle — a 2004 Agricola Cueso nero d'Avola from Sicily ($27) that was delightfully tart and fruity. We skipped the selection of excellent cheeses, fruits and nuts, although we probably shouldn't have.
The surest sign that wine bars in San Francisco are branching in new directions is last year's opening of Yield (2490 Third Street; 415-401-8984; www.yieldsf.com), in Dogpatch. This previously decrepit postindustrial neighborhood at the edge of the bay now has not just a wine bar, but one specializing in organic and biodynamic wines.
Yield is jointly owned by Chris Tavelli, formerly the sommelier at Millennium, a highly regarded vegan restaurant. (It shows in Yield's compact and sublimely executed menu: at $9, the olive cashew mushroom flatbread was worth the trip all on its own). The airy space of tastefully rough materials draws the eclectic crowd of a sophisticated neighborhood bar.
With Johnny Cash melding into free jazz and downtempo, I finally worked past my pinot grigio problem. The one I tasted at Yield, McFadden 2005 from Mendocino ($3 for two ounces), was peary and full enough, but I was set straight by a glass of Australian 2006 Yalumba viognier ($8). Or was it the cool, almost minty 2006 Château de Lascaux rosé from Languedoc ($9)? It might even have been the 2003 Domaine de Tavernel Passerel ($8).
At any rate, nobody smirked. And if they did, I didn't notice — or care.
