Wine Bar World

I stopped in Wine World & Spirits in its new location over on Fremont Ave last week, hoping to pick up an interesting spirit, QFC and Trader Joe’s selection being exactly what you’d expect from a grocery store. Unfortunately, the “& Spirits” part of the name is still aspirational: their license only allows them to sell wines, beers and ciders, at present. There are still some issues to resolve with the WSLCB, it seems.

While there, though, I was roped into a wine tasting (twist my arm) and had a great chat with Sean Michael Mullner, the passionate, oenophile behind the counter.

Sean is not your typical sommelier: indeed, he is not a trained sommelier. Rather, he “learned at the table,” he told me. “I am grateful to have a family that gathered for a meal together every night and enjoyed a lot of conversation and more than a few bottles of wine.” His wine vocabulary was evocative, passionate and at times racy(“luscious and big-bottomed, it’s a lingering kiss around the tip of the tongue”.) He cited Bukowski as his literary influence.

I learned a thing or two. Did you know that a Chianti is a wine produce with Sangiovese grapes in the Chianti region? OK, maybe you did, but I did not. Did you know that the little straw basket that was historically associated with Chiantis is called a “fiasco”? Nobody really knows why “fiasco” (meaning “flask” or “bottle” in Italian) has come to mean “ludicrous or humiliating failure”.

I also learned that Wine World will be opening a wine bar in the front of their Fremont space, hopefully within the next 1 – 2 months. It will feature a wall of by-the-glass options handpicked by Sean, as well as record nights (BYO vinyl), and other casual, community-minded events. He’s still working on the name, in collaboration his pup Paige, who was also on premises, making customers feel welcome and comfortable.

In the meantime, you can enjoy free wine tastings five days a week, Tuesdays through Saturdays, 5 pm to closing.