Wine Wise (Tiong Bahru)

Went to Wine Wise a couple of time, after my "budget" dinner at Thiong Bahru market. Is just diagonally opp the market, next to a fruit stall.

A small outlet which store their wine in barrals!

Once you step in, you will smell the woody and wine smell.

My comments as follow:

Food/Beverage:

They dont serve food. Wine only....

Wine are serve by glasses (abt $6/glass), and you can ask to taste the different wine from the barrels before desciding on which one to order.(But dont taste every barrel, usually i will taste one or two to help me make up my mind.

Dont expect fantestic wine, all are table wine standard.

Selection is wide, but yet limited. Encountered a few time that the wine barrels are empty.

You can chose to DIY your bottle of wine too.

A concept which i like a lot.

Big bottle abt $30, small bottle abt $16.

Add $1 or so for the botle and the cork and another $1 for the label.

Customised your label... you can chose the wording and the pictures as well.

Think is a nice gift to give to friends housewarming or birthday.

But do bear in mind, the wine cannot be kept for too long. I was told, abt 6 mths.

Ambience:

Cosy and small.

And of cos cold...as you are just sitting next to the wine barrels (they have to keep the temperture cool for the wine and you of cos.)

If you like, there are 2 table outside, where you can chill out too.

But seats are very uncomfortable..won't suggest staying there for a long period of time.

Value:

The wine quality somewhat matches the pricing I guess.

If you are not paying for so much, dont expect too good quality as well.

Service:

Usually not much people, so you get more personalise service.

But staff need to go for training. Know not much of the wine they sell there!!!

P/S: They need some training in proper labelling of wine as well. The barrels show limited description for the wine. Very basic name such as merlot, rouge etc, and probably country of products are used. (not even mentioning the estate.) But there are a few interesting blend, which I tried, one with scandel wood taste and another with orange taste. (Can't remember the names thou).

I've never been a fan of wine but my husband is so when we stumbled upon this place we thought we'd just give it a try. Really nice relak jack setting. You will sit on crates, and the tables are also crates... which is nice but makes it a bit uncomfortable cos they are a bit low ah.

But the overall setting is cosy. On one wall you will see barrels of wine. If you're lucky someone with a good knowledge of wine will be on duty and you can ask him/her to recommend some good wines. Or if you know what you want then it won't matter la.

For me, I let the staff recommend and I took a muscato from I don't remember where. $6 I think. It was good! Take note all of you who don't really drink wine but find yourself teleported to Wine Wise and feel obligated to drink something to act cool

My husband says their other wines are good too. I trust him la though wines all taste the same to me, regardless of price, country, age. Sorry I'm so suaku, wine lovers. I respect that you know how to appreciate wine but my palate is just untrainable in that sense

They don't serve food but have no problems with you bringing your own. Most people ta pao from the F&B outlets around, or from Tiong Bahru Market.

They also can bottle wine for you. I think they said it was $16 per bottle, or $8 for half a bottle (thatsmean small bottle la, not you walk out of the place with a half-filled bottle.... unless you as suaku as me?). But I'm not sure if it's for all wines, or the particular one we chose. Probably the latter.

Nice place to hang out with friends, or if you're alone, with a good book.

Edited 27 Oct 07: Went again last night with my husband. Since we already have a bottle of the fabulous muscato at home, I decided not to liao lwee and ordered a fruity gordo instead. It was nice but I much preferred the muscato. I will never abandon you again, muscato!!!!

Chairs really not comfy.