Well, actually, we WENT to Clo, but it doesn’t rhyme as nicely.

A few weeks ago, my friend and I visited Clo, the new wine bar located in the Time Warner Center in Manhattan. This certainly qualifies as a wine bar with all wines available by the glass.

The diminutive space comprises a long, white, communal table on which the bar’s wine list can be viewed utilizing touch-screen technology. It is fun for about the first five minutes and then I desperately wanted a regular menu. The initial views are of the actual bottles, which are a little hard to read due to a less than sharp resolution, and scrolling through the bottles was a bit too quick for me to really see what I was doing. When you actually drill down to individual wines, the technological menu is thorough, but it was difficult to go back one step rather than reset a search. However, we did finally set upon a wine selection, a red wine from Spain.

We provided the server with a credit card and were given a POS card and two glasses in exchange. We could then take the card to the coordinates listed on the menu for our wine selection, as the wines themselves lined the four walls surrounding the central table. Inserting the POS card into the appropriate slot, we held a glass under the spigot for our wine and pressed a button releasing a 2 oz pour. This was repeated for the other glass, yielding us two identical pours. A second wine selection was made, but as it is nearly a month later, I can’t remember what it was.

This wine dispenser system kept the wines at the perfect temperature and maintained quality as no air was able to enter the open bottles. I don’t know what the bar’s turnover is like, but such systems permit the bottles to stay open longer than usual. Therefore, bottles of wine which may have previously only been available by the bottle are now available by the glass (or the pour, in this case).

We ordered a selection of cheeses and meats to accompany our wine, which were nicely plated and served with bread. If I recall correctly, this was the extent of the menu, so I wouldn’t suggest going when very hungry. But, as this is truly a wine bar, I found the limited food offerings to be in line.

At the conclusion of your stay, you present the server with the POS card, which has a record of which and how many wine pours you had and can thus bill your credit card accordingly. Prices for the 2 oz pours spanned a wide range, depending upon the wine selection. For example, the least expensive wines were ~$6.00/pour while a classed growth Bordeaux went for $40.00/pour.

I don’t think there was a card reader available to guests, so if you aren’t paying attention, it is possible to rack up a hige bill, especially if your tastes run to classed Bordeaux! In some cases, this might be a way to try more expensive wines without springing for the full bottle, but you’d have to find the retail price and do the math to be sure it’s worth it. What did we ever do without on-demand Internet on our phones? 😉

Despite the expense, I do plan to return to Clo as the wine selection and location are good. Also, the service was very good. In fact, we arrived just as a crush of people were leaving, delaying the server’s initial introduction, but the manager? apologized for the oversight and gave us each a taste of a sparkling wine from Brazil to compensate.

So, I would recommend that you go to Clo, too!