Talk-A-Vino

Wine on the Go sounds too broad, and it definitely is. It is not my desire to write a 50-page essay to describe all permutations of travel options and wine drinking options.

The topic of today’s conversation is air travel, and conversely, the wine at the airport.

Generally, an airport is not the place to seek wine experiences. Of course, that depends. If you are in Europe, I guess your chances of a glass of decent wine are not zero, and having access to a nice airport lounge might improve them even further.

But traveling in the US, the airport is not a place for a decent wine – unless you like to grossly overpay for third-tier mass-produced substance. Except on those rare occasions when you come across Vino Volo.

I wrote about Vino Volo many times in the past. My problem is that I mostly travel on United out of Newark airport, and United severed ties with Vino Volo many years ago, so unless I’m on a non-United flight out of Terminal B in Newark, I don’t get to stop by Vino Volo.

As it’s been a while, let me give a little brief about Vino Volo, courtesy of Wikipedia:

“Vino Volo (Italian for “wine flight”) is a food and wine bar with a boutique wine shop. Founded by Doug Tomlinson in 2004 and bought by French travel and publishing giant Lagardère Group in 2017, the company operates in airports across the U.S. and Canada.”

Luckily, my last trip was taking me to Terminal B, and hence I had time to have a decent glass of wine at Vino Volo. Actually, even better – 3 glasses.

What I love about Vino Volo is that it is not just a wine bar – Vino Volo offers a variety of tasting flights, often including locally produced wines. It seems that New Jersey wines didn’t catch Vino Volo’s attention yet (which is a mistake, as New Jersey now makes quite a few very decent wines), so after extensive internal debate I settled for the tasting flights called Reds Around the World.

The flight included 3 wines from Argentina, Italy, and France, sufficient for a quick trip around the world. I also got a chicken pesto sandwich with a side of potato chips for a late lunch. Potato chips had cheesy popcorn mixed with them, which I ignored at first, until I tried them with wine… More below in the notes.

Here are my notes:
2024 Trapiche Oak Cask Malbec Argentina –
Inviting nose with tart cherries
Tart cherries on the palate, crisp, earthy, hint of blackberries and mint.
This was very nice with my pesto chicken sandwich, but – it was great with cheese popcorn! I don’t like popcorn and always thought that “popcorn and wine” was overrated – until I tried this popcorn with this wine! I’m now a convert 🙂

2024 Umani Ronchi Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Italy –
Open, inviting nose, a hint of fruit compote
Tart, crisp cherries, firm structure, fresh, with lots of energy.
If the previous wine was great with popcorn, this wine was simply wow!

2023 M. Chapoutier Côtes du Rhône France –
Blackberries and blueberries on the nose
Fresh blueberries on the palate, wow, round delicious!
And this wine worked very well with the sandwich – go figure…

There you are, my friends. Three wines on the go, one great experience. And the discovery of a wine and popcorn “together greatness”.

What are your favorite wine places on the go?