Los Angeles - June 08, 2005

Wine Me Up

Colorado Wine Company

The wine world is chock full of rules.

Merlot is for plebs. Chablis is a dirty word. Four glasses of wine equals one mighty hangover. Good wine isn’t always expensive.

And, conversely, expensive wine isn’t always good. (A recent run-in with a pricey bottle of Manishevitz-like sludge made that abundantly clear.)

Colorado Wine Company can help you navigate the complicated oenoscape. The new wine shop in Eagle Rock holds tastings five times a week and serves wine by the glass.

Most nights they pour new arrivals and old favorites, but every so often there’s a theme. Sunday Bubbly Sunday (champagne tastings) and Rose-Colored Glasses (pink wines only) are potential palate pleasers, as is Dessert Oasis: Dessert Wines from Around the World. The Beauty and the Beast series addresses why some downright delicious wines have disgusting labels and vice versa.

The Sake Shelf introduces tasters to a wide range of rice wines, teaching them to identify the sweet, the dry, and the must-avoid bulk types, which are to sake what Olde E is to beer.

Guess that proves some cheap wines are bad.

Maybe the world of wine doesn’t have to be so complicated after all.

Colorado Wine Company, 2114 Colorado Boulevard, between Caspar and Maywood Avenues, Eagle Rock (323-478-1985 or cowineco.com).