The 10 Most Exciting Wine Lists in Philadelphia | Zagat Blog http://blog.zagat.com/2012/08/the-10-most-exciting-wine-lists-in.html

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8/15/2012 10:02:00 AM

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BROWSE POSTS BY CITY By Danya Henninger Boston Chicago "Although Philly is a beer and cocktail town, there are definitely places a London Los Angeles wine lover can feel at home,” says David Snyder, food and wine writer Multi-City New York City and part-time Philadelphia City Paper restaurant critic. Though many of Paris Philadelphia Snyder's favorite haunts are BYOs, it turns out there are quite a few great San Francisco Washington DC wine programs in our city, including some that are truly unique. With help from Philly's top sommeliers, we searched out 10 of the most exciting wine programs in Philadelphia, from a Guinness World Record cruvinet HOTTEST system to a list that focuses on wines of the Middle East. Whether you’re Boston: Hot Chicago: Hot looking to dive head first into the world of vino or just dip in your toes, Restaurants Restaurants here’s where to begin. DC: Hot LA: Hot Restaurants Restaurants London: Hot NYC: Hot Restaurants Restaurants Philly: Hot SF: Hot Restaurants Restaurants

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1 of 3 10/21/2012 9:46 AM The 10 Most Exciting Wine Lists in Philadelphia | Zagat Blog http://blog.zagat.com/2012/08/the-10-most-exciting-wine-lists-in.html

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Jet Wine Bar As she traveled around the world doing archaeology, Jill Weber fell in love with the local wines in unusual places like Syria, Turkey and Mexico, and so launched this global wine bar on South Street West to showcase what she had discovered.

What’s your goal when building the wine list? The idea is to let people explore wine in a comfortable and friendly place. I try to compile great wines from less-well known grapes or uncommon regions. It’s my hope that after enjoying these rather adventurous wines, people will feel more comfortable experimenting with wine in general.

How do you choose the wines? Our wine representatives know that I’m always on the lookout for something new, interesting or just plain odd. Of course, a wine won't make it onto the list if it isn't good - no matter how exotic it might be.

What will we find on the list? Because we specialize in the unusual, we offer nearly 30 wines by the glass and for the bottles, our markup is pretty low. This is also the objective behind our "Tasting Tuesdays" in which people can build their own flights and buy half glasses of wine.

How are servers trained to suggest pairings? When I taste the wines with the staff, we talk about the flavors, of course, but we also try to relate an unusual wine to a well-known wine. For example, we have an rkatsiteli on the list - not very common - but we can tell people it has characteristics of riesling (in its acid) gewurztraminer (in its nose) and sauvignon blanc (in its citrus).

Where will we find another great wine list in Philadelphia? Other than some of the obvious choices, such as Panorama, I recently went to Ta s ha n and was really pleasantly surprised by the wine list. Indian food isn't the easiest to pair with, but they had a ton of great choices, including an Indian producer and some different grapes, which always catches my attention.

1525 South St.; 215-735-1116

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Labels: a.kitchen, featured, Fork, Jet Wine Bar, Le Bec Fin, Osteria, Philadelphia, Ristorante Panorama, Talula's Garden, Tas han, Vedge, Zahav

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