April 17--A.O.C. -- When the original A.O.C. opened in 2002, it was one of the first dedicated wine bars in L.A., with 50 wines by the glass. With the recent move farther west on 3rd Street, co-owner and wine director Caroline Styne pared the list down to 30 or 35 selections, as there are also cocktails at the new spot. Probably 30% are from California, the rest divided among France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Austria, plus a little bit of Australia and Slovenia. The list changes every day.
8700 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles. Wines by the glass, $6 to $22 or so.
Augustine -- This new Sherman Oaks wine bar opened by the Bar Covell team pours 50 wines by the glass from regions all over the globe. The price point tends to be a little higher than at its Los Feliz spot, but the selections are great, and always changing. You could start with a glass of Salomon Undhof Brut Nature Ros頦rom Austria, then follow it with a Kabaj Rebula Brda from Slovenia. Never heard of it? There's lots to discover here.
13456 Ventura Blvd., Los Angeles. Wines by the glass, $9 to $25 and more.
Barbrix -- Claudio Blotta offers a great array of international wines by the glass and at very fair prices at this Silver Lake spot. Some 50 to 60 selections are chalked on the board every night, four 6-ounce pours to a bottle, with glasses priced at exactly 1/4 the cost of a bottle. The selections are constantly changing, so there's always something new and exciting to try.
2442 Hyperion Avenue, Los Angeles. Wines by the glass,
$9 to $15.
Bar Covell -- It's almost frightening how many bottles -- 150 -- Matt Kaner and company will have open at any one time at this energetic Los Feliz wine bar. Everybody's happy here: wine lovers, wine geeks, neophytes. Among the fun choices: Rieslings from the Mosel or Ribolla Gialla from Friuli. The place usually has wines from 25 wine-producing nations. The almost 5-year-old wine bar is unpretentious and fun, and if you indulge too much, there's a swell little hotel upstairs (but probably already booked).
4628 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles. Wines by the glass, $9 to $50 (but most not above $15).
3239 Helms Avenue, Culver City. Wines by the glass, $8 to $12.
R鰵blique -- Wine director Taylor Parsons offers more than 20 wines by the glass with a strong emphasis on vintages from France, Italy, some from Germany, Austria and California too. He buys just a few cases of each wine, and when it's finished, he moves on to something else. That's why he writes a new list every day. He also features one white and one red carafe -- basically two glasses -- a night. You could try anything from a simple dry Riesling to a premier cru Burgundy, an older Rioja or a 1969 Madeira by the glass.
642 S. La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles. Wines by the glass, $10 to $28. Carafes can go to $120 (that's for two glasses).
Upstairs 2 -- This wine bar and restaurant sits above the Wine House retail wine shop near West Los Angeles. Marilyn Snee oversees the list of 45 to 50 wines by the glass, which she offers by the 2.5-ounce taste, the 6-ounce glass or the 12-ounce carafe, which is roughly half a bottle. Snee changes out a quarter of the wines every two months or so, but has two that customers won't let her take off the menu: the sparkling Parigot Cr譡nt de Bourgogne ros頡nd the Hippolyte Reverdy Sancerre. With the power of the Wine House behind Snee, pricing is remarkably fair, even for old and rare bottles.
2311 Cotner Avenue, Los Angeles. Wines by the glass, $8 to $35.
Wally's Vinoteca -- At Wally's new and lavish Beverly Hills wine bar, Christian Navarro has initiated a strong by-the-glass program. On any given day, you can sample any of 150 wines by the glass from all over the world, some of the them old and rare. And every glass is served in Riedel stemware via Coravin, the wine access system that dispenses a glass of wine without ever opening the bottle. You could pay $25 for a glass of 2012 Luciano Sandrone Barbera d'Alba or $425 for a glass of 2005 Chⴥau Cheval Blanc Saint-Emilion. A Harlan Estate 2008 Cab? $400. But there are lots of interesting, less expensive wines too.
447 CaDrive, Beverly Hills. Wines by the glass, $9 to $425.
