The Wine Experience

Another tasting room? That was my reaction when I heard about The Wine Experience, which opened at the Monterey Plaza Hotel complex this fall. (At last count there were almost 60 in the county.) But after a couple of visits I found there’s something different about this one. So much so, wine tasting room would be a misnomer.

Founder and owner Brent Virgin, who calls himself a winemaker and wine educator, explodes with enthusiasm when he talks about his vision. Since he left the rough-and-tumble world of information technology in 2013, he was determined to convert his decades-long love for wine into a business model.

He says his goal was to create an “entertaining, engaging and educational” experience for enthusiasts – or people who just want to know more. That translates into a 520-square-foot tasting room with a capacity for 40 people, and about 400 square feet to accommodate 15 wine students and the equipment to make, age, blend and label their own wine.

He offers classes and seminars like introduction to wine drinking, history of wine, wine sensory analysis, wine and food pairing, wine and chocolate pairing and wine blending.

In my first two visits to the Wine Experience, things were quiet. I absorbed the good vibe of the place and eventually tasted all seven reds and two whites he carries at the time.

A rotation of local wines are tapped through rows of neatly labeled oak barrels mounted behind the tasting bar, giving visitors a peek of what Monterey and other local counties have to offer via flights of eight ($20), six ($15) and four ($10). The two whites are Chardonnays: a fruity, unoaked 2013 Puma Road from Paicines; and a light oak and butter 2014 Blair Vineyards from Arroyo Seco. The seven reds include four more from Puma Road – Grenache, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Petit Sirah – and two Pinot Noirs, one from Blair Vineyards and another from Figge Cellars. There are also three local micro-brews currently on tap – Mad Otter Pale Ale ($6), Carmel Valley Brewing Blond ($6) and Peter B’s Porter ($7) aged in Syrah wine barrels.

Virgin will add a couple of his own wines currently aging on site. More local flavor comes from award-winning CSU Monterey Bay graphic design graduate Nicole Langstaff, who did the storefront signage and is currently filling all other graphic design needs, including custom-made labels for customers. Working part-time behind the tasting bar, she shows as much flair for her food presentation on the small bites as she does her graphics.

Between sips I nibbled on the cheese and charcuterie combo ($18), a choice of items from the cheese flight ($12) and charcuterie flight ($12). I went with salami and loma for the cured meats; cheddar and blue for the cheeses. Honey produced by 12-year-old entrepreneurial beekeeping phenom Jake Reisdorf of Carmel Valley comes drizzled on the blue cheese, counterbalancing the cheese’s sharpness. Pickled veggies, whole grain mustard and preserves from Happy Girl Kitchen, just down the block, provide additional flavor. Other small bite choices include a grilled panini sandwich ($9), truffle mac and cheese ($12), dried apricot and pistachio pate ($10), roasted Marcona almonds with truffle salt ($4), Castelvetrano olives ($5), breadsticks and radishes with fennel butter and Maldon sea salt ($5) and a seasonal soup ($6), which I enjoyed on my third visit, a busy Saturday evening.

It was a potato, leek and fennel soup ($6) – a creamy, mild puree created by Chef Joshua Clever, who leads the way on all things food at The Wine Experience.

A steady flow of visitors meant I had to wait a while to talk to Virgin.

In the meantime, the tasting room was an elegantly comfortable place to hang out and socialize. Large-frame picture windows look out on Monterey Plaza Hotel, in all its Mediterranean grandeur. And there’s a 75-inch TV screen where Virgin shows videos about wine cultivation and production. (He shows sports too – Virgin’s a big Warriors fan.)

During my visit, I befriended a 50-something couple from Fairfield, a town east of Napa Valley. Based on their thorough tasting of several reds, they ordered a case of blended wine that Virgin helped them concoct and label.

Mixing wines is something that had never occurred to me. Virgin explains that variations in sugar content affect the quality of wine during the fermentation and aging process. Winemakers can and often do blend different wines to produce a consistent vintage with the desired qualities.

I discovered long ago that wine is my favorite beverage with most meals but my ignorance about it has limited my ability to enjoy food to the fullest. The Wine Experience looks like the best resource I know of to help me up my game and stop fumbling through the wine aisle, not knowing what I’m looking at or looking for. I plan to use it and share my – what’s the word? – experience.

THE WINE EXPERIENCE 381 Cannery Row, Monterey. 4-8pm Tue-Thu; 2-8pm Fri-Sun; closed Mon. 324-4974, www.wineexperiece.org