I’m not far removed from my mini-van mom phase, so I admit that wine bars have not been part of my regular repertoire. But since I traded in the Odyssey for an Acura, cabernets rather than carpools can occupy my late afternoons. So it was that I recently headed to The Tasting Room Wine Bar & Shop, John Kent Cooke’s relatively new wine bar at the Shops at Wisconsin Place (5530 A Western Ave. in Chevy Chase). The place is small, dark, chic and equipped with Enomatic servers, which look like high-tech soda dispensers. In addition to selections from France, Spain and other countries, The Tasting Room offers a couple of wines from Cooke’s Boxwood Winery in Middleburg. I thoroughly enjoyed Boxwood’s 2007 Topiary, a mix of cabernet franc and merlot, tickled that I had no place else to go.
Anybody have more local wine bar recommendations for me?