Wine Bar

[anna]

I'm kicking around the idea of starting a wine bar/retail store (if any of you are from the Chicago area, my dream would be a scaled-down version of Bin 36). What are some of the logistical/practical problems that I should anticipate? One big concern is wine preservation -- how do wine bars keep their opened bottles fresh?

[Innkeeper]

With nitrogen gas systems. Several are available. If the NRA show is going on now, look over there.

[hotwine]

Is it customary to try to carry over opened bottles from one day to the next? I would think that a small operation would try to finish 'em off each evening, to avoid the hassle of trying to preserve them, and possibly alienating the following day's customers.
We're also toying with the idea of opening a wine bar, so the issue is pertinent for us.

[mrdutton]

The local wine bar here uses a nitrogen system for their bottles. It is a commercial deal that blankets the bottle with N2, chills it to the proper serving temperature and then forces it from the bottle to a nozzle for serving. The owner swears by it. He also says he has a pretty high turnover rate so he usually doesn't keep many bottles any longer than the next day.

But he also doesn't keep that many different varieties available. He prefers to sell you the bottle from his stock, allows you to drink it in-house and then will re-cork it for you with a spritz of N2 thrown-in for good measure. That way YOU are stuck with the leftover wine.

On another note, the Wine Enthusiast has these 1/2 bottle and 1/4 bottle decanters that you fill to the "brim" and then stopper. That way there is no further exposure to O2 after the stopper is inserted.

It looked interesting..........