Checking out the libations at M – The Hostile Grape

If you read about our attempt to get a beer at 32° Draft Bar, you might think we were discouraged and went home.

Not so fast.

While we were in the mood for beer, wine is always also high on our list, so we decided to check out The Hostile Grape while we were there.

The results were much better, but still mixed.

The Hostile Grape is located below the Casino level in its own area, available both by stairs and elevator. The seating and drinking area is spacious, and well appointed. WineWenchLV especially liked that the coffered area of the ceiling that had barrel staves nailed up for a very dramatic effect.

There are several long couches with tables in between that are very conducive to talking to others both across and next to us, and during the course of the evening we struck up several conversations (and some new friends) with others.

About 120 wines are available from a series of Enomatic Wine Servers, which allow you to select either 1, 3, or 5 ounce servings. Prices ranged from $1.00 to $50.00 per ounce, with the average being about $3.00 per ounce. Purchasing was done by means of a smart card that was purchased from the cashier, and could be loaded and re-loaded, based on how much you wanted to spend. This would be a great way to have a party or get-together, as everyone would have their own card, with no haggling over how to split a bill.

Armed with $100 in our card, we concentrated on reds and ports, which gave us about 80 wines to consider. All wine regions were represented, with a fairly good selection of varietals and blends, with the curious exception of Zinfandel. Only one Zin was available, athough it was tasty enough that WineWenchLV went back for several glasses.

I tried a couple of Pinot Noirs, several Bordeauxs, a couple of Sangioveses, a Valpolicella Ripasso, quite a few Cabs, a Syrah or two, a really excellent Madeira, and a couple of ruby ports.

One downside to the evening was when I tried to get a $5 tasting of a Prevail Cab, and all I got was a hissing sound and a small spritz of wine instead of my expected ounce. Seems the bottle was empty. It took about 20 minutes to get one of the hostesses to find a new bottle, insert it into the machine, re-enable the dispenser, and credit the $5 back onto my card, time which could have been better spent drinking.

Another problem arose when we tried to get some food to go along with our wine. Seems that they weren’t really set up to offer much in the way of food, and the wait was very long. We were assured that the bugs in that system were being worked out, and would be operational in the near future.

Finally, they wre having a problem keeping clean wine glasses available. At one point, some ladies sitting across from us had to wait about 15 minutes before clean wine glasses were brought out.

Overall, the experience was good enough that we anticipate going back.

...And This Is Why We Drink™