Extra: Is Wine Back? New Cool DeRusha-Approved Spots To Hang!

Small Hours, Barcelona Wine Bar, Picnic, Milly's, And More

Wine is back! At least those who love wine are back at it, trying to get us drinking cool stuff again. So many interesting dynamics at play:

• Data shows Americans are drinking less.

• Wine sales are down: US in 2023, down 3%. California in 2023, down almost 9%.

• Struggling Restaurants Screwing Wine Drinkers - I see a lot of 4x wholesale markups now at restaurants. 3x was the old standard.

• Undertrained staff & fewer wine stewards/somms trained to help guide us to the good stuff.

AND YET: there are signs of optimism - and I see it in all of the innovation we’re seeing locally.

JASON’S GUIDE TO GREAT WINE SPOTS

SMALL HOURS, NORTHEAST MINNEAPOLIS

Small Hours is a hi-fi lounge / wine bar that specializes in bottles. There are like 3 wines by the glass, but the goal here is to sell bottles. Share a bottle, listen to a record, enjoy. Alyssa & I went the other night and loved the vibe. Minimalistic room, incredible sound, just so nice. Local somm Sarina Garibovic has put together a list of wine that she likes. It’s big. It’s sort of random - from France, Spain, Croatia, North America - it’s just wine that Sarina likes. I’m not a big funky/natural wine fan, and Sarina’s list leans way more towards classically made wines. I asked what to drink, Sarina recommended a Sonoma County, old-vines Bedrock red, Alyssa & I both had a glass, corked the bottle and took it home. They have tinned fish and some snacks, a great nighttime hang.