Perfect places to find the vino

Stephen Santacroce

January and February are often slow months in the restaurant

business. Feeling guilty from the holiday excess at the table and the

mall, many diners opt to stay home to manage their waistlines and

their budgets.

The cooler winter weather also helps. There’s sometimes nothing

nicer than staying home in front of a fire, testing out the new

cookware that was a gift and opening a favorite bottle of wine.

The cooking part of a stay-at-home dinner is easy, at least when

it comes to the grocery shopping, but what about finding that perfect

bottle of wine to augment the kick-it-up dinner from your new Emeril

cookbook?

Luckily, Newport-Mesa residents have a good selection of wine

purveyors to satisfy their search for just the right bottle. And if

recent news stories are any indications, this could be the perfect

time to stock your cellar.

Articles in many wine magazines and even a front-page story in the

Los Angeles Times are heralding the end of the wine boom. Higher

priced wines are sitting on shelves as consumer pocketbooks reflect

the worsening economy. Wine prices, which became ridiculously

inflated during the late 1990s, are finally starting to approach

something that can be considered reasonable.

So this week, I’m going to take a break from restaurant reviews

and talk about some of the area’s better wine merchants.

Just about anyone living in Orange County who collects wines knows

that the granddaddy of all wine shops is Hi-Times Cellars in Costa

Mesa (250 Ogle St., Costa Mesa, [949] 650-7463). Boasting the largest

temperature-controlled retail wine cellar on the West Coast, Hi-Times

offers one of the largest selections of wines anywhere.

Walking into the large store, set behind a 17th Street shopping

mall, is like walking into an adult candy store. The first floor

houses several high-end specialty stores, including a chocolate shop

and a smoke shop featuring fine cigars stored in a walk-in humidor.

Diedrich’s coffee got its start here. I can still remember walking

in and smelling the enticing aroma of fresh-roasting coffee beans. In

addition to the specialty stores, the main level houses a full liquor

store with an extensive selection of spirits, including a large

selection of single malt scotches, small batch bourbons and rare

cognacs.

The real fun at Hi-Times starts when you walk downstairs. Most of

the basement floor is taken up by the store’s vast wine cellar. Step

through the glass doors into the temperature- and humidity-controlled

room, and you’ll be confronted by a multilevel array of wines from

all over the world.

The selection is logically arranged by country and then by wine

type, and if you can’t find a particular bottle here, you’ll be hard

pressed to find it anywhere else. Locked cages house bottles of older

and rare wines. Hi-Times’ collection is as impressive for its

vertical (same wines of different vintages) selections as it is for

its breadth of labels.

In addition to the comprehensive cellar, the basement floor also

sports a wine bar that hosts do-it-yourself tastings (patrons pour

tastes into marked glasses and keep a tally of their total), as well

as numerous special events. A sample of upcoming events includes a

tasting of ports (today, $40) and a sampling of the 2000 Bordeaux

(Jan. 23, $35).

On the reverse end of the intimacy scale is Overstreet Wine

Merchant at the corner of Via Lido and Via Opierto on the Balboa

Peninsula (3400 Via Lido, [949] 566-9463). Compared to the almost

supermarket atmosphere of Hi-Times, walking into Overstreet is like

walking in the library at a posh English country estate.

The store is anchored by the wine-tasting bar, which is done in

heavy oak, as are the tables and chairs that surround the bar. Old

English furnishings and family crests add to the comforting

atmosphere. Overstreet, like Hi-Time, features a temperature

controlled wine room that houses a selection focusing on European and

Californian wines.

Owners Dennis and Chris Overstreet opened their shop six months

ago, but have successfully run a similar store in Beverly Hills for

30 years. Dennis is passionate about his wines and wine drinking

(he’s written several books and numerous articles on the subject) and

loves nothing more than sitting with customers for a discussion of

the subject. The philosophy at Overstreet is that tasting is an

integral part of the wine buying experience, and the wine bar is open

until 11 p.m. most evenings, offering patrons samples of the store’s

collection. Special tastings are held periodically and the store also

offers for sale a selection of artesian cheeses and other specialty

food items.

Another smaller shop that specializes in smaller boutique

California wineries, as well as a growing selection of European

wines, is the Wine Gallery in Corona Del Mar (2411 E. Coast Highway,

[949] 675-3410). Owners Jeff Schroeder, Chris Olsen and James Huston

opened the store in October 1999 to offer customers a selection of

harder-to-find wines at reasonable prices. The Wine Gallery expects

to have its tasting license in a few months and will be building a

lounge below the main store to host tasting events.

Finally, if you’re the last-minute shopper who grabs his or her

wine along with the groceries for dinner, check out the wine

department at Bristol Farms (810 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach, [949]

760-6514). The upscale grocer offers a fairly extensive selection of

wines from all over the world at fairly reasonable prices, thanks to

their corporate purchasing power. The managers of the wine department

are knowledgeable about the wines and can offer good choices in any

price range to complement the evening’s dinner.

I’m particularly impressed by the strong cross-section of whites

and sparkling wines that are kept chilled for a truly last-minute

purchase. Bristol Farms also offers regular wine tastings. Call the

store for the current schedule.

True wine aficionados consider their hobby almost as a way of

life. Dennis Overstreet correctly noted that while you probably won’t

want to call your friends to tell them about the martini you had last

night, you would almost certainly make sure to share your experience

of a good bottle of wine.

Any of the stores mentioned here will offer ample choices to stock

a cellar, as well as the opportunity to increase one’s knowledge on

the vast subject of wine.

* STEPHEN SANTACROCE’S restaurant reviews appear every other

Thursday. Send him your comments at sdsanta@oc-dining.com.