Grape expectations

Wine down with The Second Glass

By CHRISTINE LIU

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We take the rear exit of Dave's Fresh Pasta, stepping into the frozen air armed with a bottle of sealed bubbly and a heavy knife. Clueless as what to happen next, I look on as Chris Hallowell holds on the bottle firmly with one hand while swiftly sliding the handle of the knife right along its curves with the other. "Let's see how far we can get this," he mutters. Before anyone could blink -- though his comrade Tyler Balliet grinned knowingly -- the bottle was open, the glass sheared cleanly at the neck. The procedure, known as sabrage, is apparently a sexy wine guillotine. We walk back inside to enjoy the effervescent Simonnet-Febvre Crémant de Bourgogne, examining the beheaded bottle top with hushed respect. (It sailed a nice distance, by the way.)

These two run The Second Glass, "The Magazine for the New Era of Wine Drinkers," a cheeky Boston-based publication aimed to make wine both pleasurable and accessible. Balliet, editor-in-chief/publisher and Hallowell, tasting director, produce take-action articles like "Open Bubbly Like a Rockstar " (see sabrage above) or "Vino Viagra vs. the Panty Remover" (Piemonte Brachetto is the "date wine of the century," adds Hallowell). They also send out emails recommending a "Wine of the Weekend" -- like Chris' recent pick of Bodegas Viñas Zamoranas' 'Los Zorros', a "fat and ballsy Tempranillo in a Zinfandel's body ... crafted specifically to warm the blood and pair with football, nachos, and wings."

In addition to the mag, they tackle real-life tasting and educating: Tyler is a manager at Bauer Wine & Spirits and Chris is the wine buyer at Dave's. And in this Somerville spot we taste an assemblage of Chris' picks under $15 -- bubbly included -- plucked from his arsenal of 320 different wines in which "everything is really unique: small producers, organics, great food wines that are kinda rare," explains Hallowell. We hit everything from bright Vinho Verde ("movie theater wine of choice," declares Balliet), to the superbly food-friendly Domaine Grès St. Vincent, Côtes du Rhône Villages (a pairing "safety blanket," professes Hallowell).

Another night we imbibe at Ivy Restaurant in the Ladder District, whose $26 wine list The Second Glass guys recently -- and completely -- revamped. As we work our way through a bottle of Bricco Mondalino Barbera del Monferrato ("The ultimate pairing wine; it is to Italian food what Côtes du Rhône is to French," says Hallowell) and tackle truffled arancini and savory clams, the conversation veers between how Prohibition "fucked things up" for the American wine industry and how Petite Sirah is a hybrid grape with hardly anything to do with Syrah at all -- "it's confusing as crap." Still pretty tasty, though.

Leaving the warm enclave of Ivy, we slush through a few sleepy blocks of downtown to Silvertone, one of the guys' favorite spots to enjoy for themselves and recommend to others. Not only is it for the food and affable vibe -- the place deliciously redolent with garlic as we enter -- but also for the impressive selection of wine half-bottles. "It's the perfect size; usually you never just want one glass," says Balliet. After our party heads to No. 9 Park for late night hijinks -- Chris kicks back with Chartreuse on the rocks -- the legions scatter, ostensibly waking up the next day to oatmeal and port.

[The Second Glass will debut in the Dig's next issue as a regular column. Learn more at thesecondglass.com]