Wine
Four Wines, One Ounce of Chips, Saturday on Palm Avenue
Sarasota Wine Co. runs a ticketed Saturday tasting on Palm Avenue: four wines, printed notes and precisely one ounce of chips. Oct. 10, 1–3 p.m., $35 plus tax and fee. Thursday's art-and-wine night already sold out.
There is a wine shop on Palm Avenue that sells caviar, and on Saturday it will also hand you exactly one ounce of chips. Not a bowl. Not "some." An ounce. Somebody made that call on purpose.
Sarasota Wine Co. is at 64 S. Palm Ave. downtown. The homepage leads with Champagne, Fine Wine, & Caviar, which is the most honest mission statement I've read in this county.
The Saturday setup
Every Saturday afternoon the shop opens The Tasting Room: a ticketed flight of four wines picked by their team, with a new theme each week. A region, a grape, or what they call a story.
This Saturday, Oct. 10, 1–3 p.m., the listing doesn't say which theme yet. I respect a little mystery.
The ticket gets you:
- a curated flight of four wines
- 1 oz of Wine Chips, paired with the wines
- printed tasting notes to take home
The page says you can come anytime during tasting hours, so nobody has to jog down Palm Avenue at 12:58 like it's a tee time.
The math
Tickets are $35, plus $2.45 Florida tax and a $0.94 ticket fee, per the event page. Call it $38.39 to drink four wines on a Saturday afternoon and leave with homework.
That's about what one forgettable bottle costs at a restaurant with a TV over the bar. Here somebody walks you through four of them, and the chips arrive portioned like they have paperwork.
The ounce, again
I've thought about the ounce more than a grown man should. Salt and wine get along. Anybody who has eaten potato chips with cold bubbles on a Tuesday night already knows this and has told no one.
A shop putting the chips on the ticket, by weight, in writing, is the first time I've seen someone admit it with a straight face. I'd like to shake that person's hand.
Thursday is already gone
The shop's other night this week, A Toast to Color on Thursday, Oct. 8, 6–8 p.m., launches Confluent Issue No. 3 and the first look at a new artwork collection by LISS, with three wines and light bites. It's sold out. Sarasota bought the art-and-wine night before Monday even showed up.
Before you go
Hours from the shop's site: Tuesday through Thursday noon–6 p.m., Friday noon–7, Saturday 11 a.m.–6 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday. It's Sunday night, so put the keys down. Phone: 941-340-8994.
Their events page mentions a sister company, A Vine Affair, that does Champagne tastings, Champagne yachting and trips to Champagne, the Hamptons and St. Barth. I didn't price any of that. I'm starting with the ounce.
If bubbles are your lane, our note on this year's short Champagne harvest has five bottles under $60.
— Kevin
