Fruit of the vine

MANILA, Philippines - For most people, wine is more of an idea rather than a beverage. The light playing through its rich hues shines with cultivated taste, the curve of the wine glass traces its effortless class, and its heady effects often play matchmaker to a night of intended romance. But a wine list for most folks reads like a menu in a foreign land. And the tasting of wine, with its flavor notes and talk of tannins and terroir, gets in the way of the enjoying of it.

WineBar 1771 believes that this need not be the case. That wine can be something enjoyed easily, as welcome to dinner as a great roll of bread or stimulating conversation. It’s a place where wine is a happy and even casual companion to good food and good company. “Truly, any time is an occasion to drink wine,” enthuses its sommelier, US-trained Cecile Mauricio. “The wine list is realistic — not ambitious. The wines were chosen to go with our dishes, and are priced accessibly.” WineBar 1771 doesn’t just sell what’s on the menu; it offers diners “the complete food and wine experience,” two of life’s greatest pleasures, which happened to be best enjoyed in each other’s company.

Wine pairing may sound again like another inaccessible idea, the sort of thing fancy folk do in overpriced hotel restaurants because they have nothing better to do, but wine pairing in its essence is just about making something good taste even better. In fact, before there was pizza and beer, there was wine and dinner.

“The wine is chosen to bring out the best in the food and the wine,” explains our wine guide. “The belief is that individually the dish and the wine each have their distinct characteristics, but taken together, new flavors develop, making for a unique gustatory experience.” Okay, perhaps not quite like your pizza and beer, but based on the same principle, just like sushi and sake.

So what sort of experience awaits WineBar’s guests?

For starters

Oysters, for starters. That’s how our meal began, at least, with oysters served two ways: cold and fresh from the sea, spritzed with lemon, and Rockefeller, the shellfish’s briny taste gentled by light cream and cheese. The theme was the sea, made apparent when a bowl of spicy sardine pasta arrived soon after my friends and I had shucked our shells. The pasty was hearty and spicy in all the right ways, working up our digestive juices. To tame the seafood’s ocean twang we were served a “lemony and crisp” 2011 South African white wine, Mulderbosch Chenin Blanc. “The wine’s pleasant tartness cuts through the oiliness of the sardines and complements the brininess of the oysters,” explains our trusty sommelier.

Appetites thoroughly whetted, we moved on to a pizza topped with wine’s traditional partner, cold cuts. Circles of salami and piles of good cheese covered fresh tomato sauce and a crispy-thin crust. No beer in sight, but what we drank instead was just as satisfying: 2011 Valdelosfrailes Rosado from Cigales, Spain. A refreshing and strawberry-inflected wine, made from 80-percent Tempranillo (a Spanish variety of black grape that makes full-bodied wines) and 20-percent Verdejo (a white grape grown in Spain and originating from North Africa), with “enough muscle and fruit to stand up to the saltiness of the cold cuts and cheese, and the acidity of the pizza’s tomato sauce.” Two lessons learned: wine and cheese need not be a stuffy affair, and when it comes to pizza, the answer is always yes.

Nibbles and chitchat are great, but the time comes during a dinner when everyone is looking for the meat of it: something thick and juicy enough to get your teeth into. These canines have a purpose, after all. The main event did not disappoint, but I should say that in the plural, for we had a beautiful cut of grilled Black Angus strip loin along with a hefty WineBar burger. The burger was a 200-g prize of Black Angus ground beef, paired off with aromatic gruyere cheese and bone marrow. Yes, they went there. The reason this burger is WineBar’s eponymous dish became clear as the perfectly grilled beef patty bit back and the marrow melted on the tongue, hiding in sinful pleasure deep in our bellies.

Juicy steak

As for the steak, its crusty, charbroiled exterior hinted of hot, delicious juices trapped inside, waiting for a knife or a bite, and its toppings, a selection of raclette and gruyere cheese, caramelized onions, and roasted garlic, all promised to add to its toothsome satisfaction. Not forgetting, of course, the dollop of béarnaise sauce melting by its side. That first bite settled all speculation with a mouthwatering affirmative, deliciously followed by some show-stealing sides: sweet potato pumpkin mash, pommes frites, and creamed spinach.

So much meat deserves a wine with some weight to it. And our ever-helpful sommelier found just the thing: a 2010 Luccarelli Ampelo Primitivo di Manduria from Puglia, Italy. Puglia is a beautiful region in Southern Italy that kisses two seas, the Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea, and forms Italy’s “heel.” The wine is 100-percent Primitivo, which is identical to the Zinfandel grape, a red grape that produces a robust red wine and a semi-sweet rose that is particularly popular in the US (White Zinfandel). This traditional wine from Puglia is “full-bodied and smooth,” proffers our sommelier. “The wine’s subtle smokiness mirrors the smoky char of grilled meat.”

As our stomachs got to work on all that protein, and our conversation and appetites tapered off, the sweets stole in like thieves. Monroe bread pudding: brioche bread baked in custard with butter and real vanilla bean, topped with vanilla ice cream. Evasion: cream cheese mousse with strawberries and crispy feuillentine. Sugar-free passion fruit cake. There’s always room for dessert — it’s sugar’s sly trick, and this meal was no exception.

The meal capped, empty dishes and drained glasses scattered in the aftermath, I learned a few things that meal. A wine for each occasion, yes — but for any dish, too, whether seafood or red meat, pizza or steak. A wine for any budget, as well. “There is good wine at all price levels,” affirms our wine guide. And with WineBar’s realistic but diverse selection of wines, a beautifully decorated space that can accept everything from dinner reservations for two to parties and small wedding receptions, and a helpful sommelier to navigate the labels and flavors, it’s really not all that hard to wine while you dine.

* * *

Winebar 1771 is located at El Pueblo, Ortigas. Tweet the author @nicolapops.