Winesdays, five wines featured on each Wednesday, are still around but the price has gone from $10 to $15 for five tastes. Our bartender remarked that the wines are of better quality, though, so that may offset the price increase. The tastes are always generous anyway, so you’re getting your money’s worth. This is coming from a guy who usually thinks he paid too much for tastings, remember.

Food is good, nice fresh Italian selections. I had a panini, and The Wife had spaghetti in Bolognese sauce. Everything was seriously fresh: the cheese, the pasta, the bread. Great, authentic flavors.

But let’s get down to business:

The wines aren’t prices at standard restaurant markup. They are priced at retail.

I couldn’t believe it. Glancing at the wine list, I saw prices in the teens and I started internally grumbling about by-the-glass prices in the double digits. I scanned and scanned and decided I would just have a beer.

But, the prices were bottle prices, not prices by-the-glass.

The glass prices are all $7 or $8, but you can get a whole bottle of real wine for $12 with your dinner. Guys, no longer do you have to shop around for fixed-rate financing on your wine with dinner. You can dine with dignity, have a bottle of Chianti, and pay with cash. I recommend the $16 Kermit Lynch imported Cotes du Rhone.

This was enough to push Taverna Corvino onto my “happy” list of local restaurants. Good food, friendly and helpful staff, a TV in the bar area to watch the Orioles get crushed, and cheap wine prices. I hope this place sticks.

Taverna Corvino
1117 South Charles St
Baltimore, MD 21230
(410) 727-1212
http://www.tavernacorvino.com/

I stoped by before opening today and perused the bar menu, a range of appetizers in the $6-$9 range, as well as cheese plates (three cheeses $11); dinners reportedly hover around $16-25.

Grape Leaves Online reports that Church Street Cellars in Vienna, Virginia has Enomatic machines to facilitate your wine tasting needs. If you haven’t used an Enomatic machine before, you’re in for a good time. An Enomatic is a big box with 5-10 wine bottles inside it, each with its own button and price. You pay for credit on a card, then slide the card into a machine and press a button corresponding to your choice. Your card is charged per the price of the taste and one ounce of wine goes into your glass and you drink up. Rinse, and repeat.

Last time I was in New Orleans, I spoke with the owner of WINO about the machines, many of which he had just set up in his store. He said that it wasn’t easy getting them past the liquor licensing board given that people are serving themselves and the good government magistrates were concerned that people would drink too much. We both shared our wonder that this was happening in New Orleans where public belligerence isn’t illegal, it is required. So kudos to the VA liquor board for allowing this to happen.