The fantasy of drinking a glass of good wine (without ordering the whole bottle)

Barcelona"Why not pair bravas with a sparkling wine by the glass? It goes wonderfully with a potato omelet!" says Laura Roca, the driving force behind La Baula, an initiative that seeks to increase the Catalan wine offering in bars and restaurants. Catalonia is predominantly a wine-producing region, but the presence of its wines and sparkling wines on the menus of restaurants doesn't always do it justice. It can become even more noticeable when you go out with the desire to have a glass of wine, without intending to drink the whole bottle. Verdejo White or black Rioja are still offered by the glass in many establishments, while, for example, ordering a glass of Catalan cava as Roca suggests is not always possible.

There are plenty of reasons for bars and restaurants to offer good wines by the glass. They may appeal to customers who want to try new wines to break the monotony, to those who love to have several with a meal—now a white, now a red...—to those who want to try a unique or sweet wine, to those who don't initially want to order the whole bottle but rather a glass, to those who go out with a moderate amount of alcohol because they want to drink less but higher quality, have decided to drink less, or have to drive.

Beyond the more gastronomic establishments or wine bars, which are careful even with the glasses they use, the fact is that many bars and restaurants may be reluctant to offer a good selection of wines by the glass. This is especially true because they want to avoid loss of business, meaning that a significant portion of each bottle ends up being thrown away because the wine has oxidized after a few days of being open. Likewise, there are restaurateurs who want to maximize profits and have few wines by the glass, at prices that are too high for what they offer, and, for dessert, they serve them in glasses of questionable quality.

With La Baula, Roca has been working for two years now to break this inertia in establishments where the food is good but where at the same time they haven't put much thought into having a good wine list. Every month, he organizes a tasting at a restaurant with a guest, and the five selected wines, all Catalan and traditional varieties, are added to the establishment's offering at least until the last day of the following month. By the glass, they end up working better than by the bottle, but some restaurateurs don't even dare to try them. "They prioritize profitability a lot, and we should prioritize sensitivity a little more, without forgetting profitability," he claims.

In one of La Baula's latest experiences, at the El Mercader restaurant in Eixample, a white Picapoll wine from the Abadal winery (Pla de Bages DO) and a wine from the Josep Foraster winery (Conca de Barberà DO) proved to be a huge success by the glass. This March, it was Greta's turn, in the Mercantic district of Sant Cugat, with five wines with a social soul, all by the glass, including a Macabeo and Xarel lo brisa from the Coop-era project. "We are a country that produces excellent wines, at all price points, and the selection in restaurants isn't up to par," she says. In Barcelona, ​​however, there are some restaurants that are a paradise for wines by the glass: they recommend them to customers, let them taste before pouring the whole glass, and their prices can range between 4 and 8 euros.

Places to have a good drink

One of Barcelona's most experienced figures when it comes to capturing the tastes of the clientele who come to him for a glass of wine is Chris Grenness. For a decade, he was a partner at Bodega Bonavista in Gràcia, and for the past year, he's been a partner at Barna Brew Born. In addition to craft beer and food, he offers around twenty quality wines by the glass from the country, with a notable presence of Catalan wines and a wide variety of styles. He emphasizes that most of the wine bars opened in recent years in Barcelona have focused on natural wines, but this label isn't a guarantee in itself: "First, the wine has to be good, and then everything else comes." Furthermore, he believes that with so much tourism in the Catalan capital, there's plenty of room to encourage them to try Catalan wine.

Opened in late June in the Eixample district, Glug is a bar-restaurant offering everything from a bite to a paired meal. Their wine is minimally invasive and natural, and some of their by-the-glass offerings come from taps on the wall. It comes in 5-liter Bag-in-Box (flexible plastic containers), or kegs –usually used for beer– of 20 liters, but this format doesn't mean they serve just any old wine: they've worked with renowned wineries such as the French Marcel Lapierre and Le Soeur Cadette, the Italian Buondonno and Michele Brezzo, as well as the Catalan Vega Aixalà. "We didn't opt for this format to make it more economical and earn more money, but rather to change the mentality of wines in abundance," which have a bad reputation, recalls Glug's co-owner and sommelier, Beatrice Casella. This way, they also offer a market for small, unique, quality wines, even paying for some of these wines at bottle price.

Publicists Laura Pou and Mar Badosa opened Vidorra in September in Sagrera, a vermouth bar and wine bar with tapas. Unlike its predecessor at the venue, which was 035, they don't limit themselves to natural wines and maintain a varied selection of wines by the glass, possibly the best in a neighborhood very devoted to beer. "I was a little fed up with going to wine bars by the glass, ordering a red wine, and it being Rioja or Ribera," says Pou. They've set out to promote Catalan wines, although they have many references from other parts of Spain, because "people still keep asking for them," Badosa explains. They've now added a short description of each wine to the menu, which "encourages people to try other things," as happened during our visit with a table that was livened up for the first time by a Garnacha from Gredos.

It is necessary to preserve wines well

The key to offering wines by the glass is to store them well, according to a conclusion drawn at one of the sessions at the recent Barcelona Wine Week (BWW). Mario López, managing director of the Valencian wine academy More than Wines, has often ordered a glass and been served warm or oxidized wine. "However, the chef doesn't take away a rotten steak, so to speak," he emphasizes. Winemaker Adam Martin believes restaurants should install systems to prevent oxidation of opened wines by oxygen, such as by creating a vacuum or introducing an inert gas into the bottle. "If the restaurateur counts the wine they haven't had to throw away, they'll realize they'll cover these investments in a matter of months," he asserts. This minimizes the loss, which allows for better wines at more reasonable prices and happier customers.