Photograph by Catherine Viox
It’s Friday night and i’m enjoying a glass of chenin blanc at Wine Not Wine Bar in Symmes Township. It’s been a long week, but in keeping with the bar’s name, I’ve got no complaints. The recently opened bar, with its scented candles and love seats, feels like a suburban living room, and I feel like a welcome guest.
I land on a tart South African vintage after an enthusiastic discussion of my mood and preferences with the bartender. He insists I try it first. One sip and I’m sold. This is a friendly, unpretentious bar, and it’s packed. Although it’s brand-new, it already feels like a community gathering place.
These laid-back vibes seem to be exactly what owner Mark Wimmers had in mind when he opened. And he’s not alone in that goal. Several wine bars have opened in the tri-state recently, community-oriented places that aim to take the supposed snootiness out of wine culture. Hart & Cru, Annata, and Vinology join more established but equally welcoming peers like Revel, Skeleton Root, Ripple, and 1215. This might be a beer town, but wine has quickly gained ground.
Photograph by Catherine Viox
Pendleton’s Hart & Cru is located on a leafy corner of 12th and Broadway. On warm, pleasant days, you’ll find people sipping wine and sampling snacks (fruits, cheeses, crackers, dips) on the small sidewalk patio. You’ll also find them doing the same in the loft apartment interior. One large communal table runs the length of the room, which makes this a great place to meet a stranger or, judging from the number of laptops set up on said table, do a little work while sipping chardonnay. Against the wall is a floor-to-ceiling shelf featuring a diverse, well-curated selection of wines. While this might not be a Jungle-Jim’s-sized inventory, each bottle reflects the tastes and expertise of owner Kevin Hart and his team.
While Hart & Cru opened its brick-and-mortar in 2021, it has provided wine-centric services like personalized cellar management, team wine tastings, and hospitality industry consulting for years. Hart himself has built a long and illustrious career in wine, having served as sommelier at both Boca and Pigall’s. While his knowledge and experience are formidable, he has created a spot that feels welcoming to all.
Photograph by Catherine Viox
Before going to Hart & Cru, we stopped by Annata Wine Bar, which owner Tim Shumrick opened last year in his former Chateau Pomije space in O’Bryonville. Annata is laid out more like a typical bar, with ample bar and high-top seating and a large outdoor patio. The wall across from the bar displays its generous daily specials. As we were there on a Saturday, it was $5 off bottles and $2 off dips. Happily, the robust menu also includes sandwiches, salads, and flatbreads.
Wines here are helpfully divided into type, with a substantial offering of each grape variety. Moreover, all of the world’s wine-producing regions are well-represented; the “by the glass” menu alone jet sets from the U.S. to Argentina, France, Italy, Spain, and Australia. We opted for a wine flight, three moderately full glasses for $20. In our case, a Grillo, a rosé, and a red blend. The Grillo had a delightful taste of apple and pear, the rosé was downright peachy, and the red blend brought plum and a little spice into the mix. If I lived in East Walnut Hills, this would definitely be my wine bar. In fact, it might even be my bar, period.
For vinophiles a little farther east, Vinology, which opened this spring in Mt. Lookout, pulls its wines from all over but specializes in wines from Austria and Germany. As Owner Michelle Nguyen tells it, this tight focus is the result of a chance encounter. She was walking her dog when she ran into David Schildknecht. After some small talk, she revealed that she was opening a wine bar and Schildknecht shared that he knew “a thing or two about wine.”
Photograph by Catherine Viox
Turns out, he knows quite a lot about it. He writes for Wine & Spirits magazine, leads wine tours of Europe, and is regarded as the local expert on Austrian and German varietals. He eventually signed on to be Vinology’s “chief wine officer,” with many of the bar/shop’s bottles coming from his personal cellar. Nguyen—who draws on a love of wine she developed while touring Europe as a young adult, eventually earning a Level 1 sommelier certification in Boston—was working the bar on my visit, highlighting its selection of glasses and bottles to curious patrons.
For those whose curiosity runs a bit deeper, Schildknecht teaches classes at the affiliated Cincinnati Wine Academy, upstairs from the bar. The room is decked out in his rare vintages as well as maps of Europe’s great wine regions. At a wooden table in the center, a dozen or so guests can indulge in a quick wine tasting or take a four-hour class on, say, the wines of the Loire Valley (complete with ample samples, of course).
That’s the thing about Vinology, and all of these wine bars, for that matter. Just because they are accessible and unpretentious doesn’t mean that their offerings are shallow or merely introductory. They’re all willing to go as deep as you’d like with one of the world’s oldest spirits. Yours truly has a lot more “research” to do in this department. Luckily, my glass overflows.
Wine Not Wine Bar, 12090 Montgomery Rd., Symmes Twp., (513) 582-8687
Hart & Cru, 1206 Broadway St., Pendleton, (513) 725-7525
Annata Wine Bar & Cellar, 2021 Madison Rd., O’Bryonville, (513) 871-8788
Vinology, 3181 Linwood Ave., Mt. Lookout, (513) 321-0636
In late August, Brandon Wuske, who served as our main food critic for the past three years, passed away at age 40 after being diagnosed with stomach cancer. You can read “Soup’s On,” his last column for the magazine, here.
Facebook Comments