#184: Rosie's Wine Bar

The Bar

Rosie's Wine Bar. 1130 W 6th St, Austin, TX 78703

Visited 10/21/2022 @ 6:30pm.

The Drink

Ovum Hell For Leather. $162.

The bartender was thoughtful enough to ask if I had any price restrictions first when I asked him what wine best represented the bar. I try not to limit the bartender, which can be dangerous (see the 96 oz of Moscow Mule I got at Unbarlievable), but occasionally it works out quite well, as it did when I was recommended this bottle. Previous wine bars offered drinks by the glass, and Rosie's does as well, but when you're buying a round at a wine bar, you might as well buy the whole bottle! This wine is a riesling mix: 50% Beerenauslese riesling, and 50% of Ovum's Old Love riesling, which itself is a mixture of rieslings from several different vineyards scattered around Oregon. Ovum itself is located in the Columbia gorge wine country along the Willamette river just south of Portland. By coincidence, around the time of this visit I was reading a paper highlighted by the American Association of Wine Economists (don't laugh, they are one of the most interesting specialty economics publications I've come across) titled The effects of knowledge spillovers and vineyard proximity on winery clustering; it was unfortunately focused on vineyards across the Columbia river in Washington state, but it stood out to me that Ovum is in a vineyard cluster, and I imagine the same clustering dynamics apply there too. 

How did it taste? Well, their website somewhat mystifying claims that "Drinking an OVUM wine should be like listening to AM Radio, in Stereo" (a thing that does actually exist, to my surprise). I cannot overemphasize enough that I am not a wine guy, but I did think that it was really good. Rieslings tend to be very sweet but this was not at all, so if you're put off by the "dessert wine" reputation that rieslings have, fret not. Tasting notes I found for it contain the following description: 

White gold in the glass, its aromas of ripe Bartlett pears and golden delicious apple are deceiving. Under the fresh fruit layer sits a brooding sea of herbs. A lightning bolt of acidity strikes your palate upon first taste, and then begins the cascading flavors of salted lemon and white pineapple soaked in chamomile tea. The finish is dry, and layered with dried herbs as the wine warms in the glass.

That same site has it for much cheaper, so if that description sounds appetizing to you, I can vouch that it was a really tasty wine. 

The Crew

Sienna, Elijah, Karen, Mark, Aaron.

Notes

While we were waiting for our reservation at Pecan Street Cafe to become available, I had noticed that Howards was open. Then when we were leaving Howards I noticed that this wine bar was open, and that even though it faced onto Blanco St opposite Pecan Street Cafe, it had the same Sixth Street address that Howards did, so we were able to cram it in between visits. What luck! Rosie's is the 6th MML joint covered on the crawl, and the third wine bar, after The Grove and Lolo's. I think Rosie's had the nicest vibe out of all of those wine bars - the interior might be cramped, as a legacy of the somewhat odd way that MML redivided the property after they bought out the old Wiggy's liquor store, but we were able to grab a space at the end of the bar and feel quite cozy. Furthermore, there were a ton of people sitting out front along the side of the street in a very casual, relaxing, inviting setup. Much was made about the introduction of parking lot conversions due to COVID; I think they're an excellent idea and I hope the trend continues, because they make a charming little spot like Rosie's even more attractive if you're just walking by, like we were. There's no appeal like curb appeal, and has the kind of vibes that are tailor-made for the social media of your choice.