Salt Lake City wine bar welcomes all — no prior knowledge or experienced palate required

There are people who are curious about wine, but feel intimidated by talk of terroir and varietals.

The owner of a Salt Lake City wine bar says those people are welcome at Bar à Vin. It’s come as you are, with no prior wine knowledge necessary.

“What we want to do is take away the pretentiousness, take away the stuffiness of this and make it fun,” owner Kasey Newman said. “Let people take this journey and find wine that they love.”

At Bar à Vin, at 917 S. State St., there are plenty of options to choose from at the “wine wall” — which Newman said is the largest of its kind in the western United States. The wall includes more than 120 wines, all available by a 1-ounce splash, a 3-ounce glass, or a full 5-ounce glass.

But if you don’t know where to begin, Bar à Vin offers prix fixe wine flights that are designed to take you on a trip through the world of wine and help you find something you like.

“So, these people that say, ‘I don’t know a lot about wine’ — great,” Newman said. “We’re the perfect place for you.”

‘Why doesn’t Utah have this?’

At Bar à Vin, all of the wine is stored in automated wine-dispensing machines that keep each wine fresh and at the perfect temperature for sipping.

Newman had been kicking around the idea of a wine bar for about 15 years before he opened Bar à Vin. He said he’d been inspired after seeing the wine-dispensing machines at an event in Las Vegas.

“I thought, ‘Why doesn’t Utah have this?’” he said.

But he put the idea on the back burner for a while, until he realized in 2024 that “I’m not getting any younger,” he said.

Newman opened Bar à Vin (French for “wine bar,” pronounced “bar-uh-vinn”) in February last year. He isn’t your typical wine expert, though. When asked what his favorite wine is, he says, “If it’s wet and in a glass and not sweet, I like it.”

An executive at a software company by day, Newman has gone through wine education and certification courses and considers himself a sommelier, but he won’t talk your ear off about tasting notes. “I don’t care if someone says, ‘I don’t know why I like that wine, I just do’ — perfect, because that’s how I drink,” he said. “... I just like diversity in my wine. I like to try different stuff.”

The wine experience

As soon as you sit down at Bar à Vin, you’ll be offered a 2-ounce glass of Vinho Verde or Vinho Rose, two inexpensive wines from Portugal. “They’re young, there’s enough acidity to start to open up your palate,” Newman said.

As you sip your $1 glass of wine, you’ll be able to listen to Newman or the server as they explain the menu. Then you can browse the different offerings and start to make some choices.

If you’re new to wine, you’ll probably be asked a couple of questions: Do you prefer red or white wine, and do you like dry or sweet wines?

If you know only that you prefer red over white, and don’t want to pick wines at random from the menu, Bar à Vin has a cleverly named wine flight just for you. Like “Phat Bottomed Girls,” which features five “big, bold and beautiful” red wines. Or “Ryder Cup” — named for the golf competition — a flight that pits three U.S. pinot noirs against three French pinot noirs.

Newman said that sweet white wines are among the easiest to drink when someone is just starting out with wine. A perfect flight for such folks would be “Desperate Housewives of ...,” with its five sweet white wines.

For the wine flights, the wine is usually served in 1-ounce pours, so the entire flight will add up to approximately one full-size glass of wine.

If you’d rather pick individual wines from the menu, the dispensing machines allow patrons to sample a wine without committing to a full glass. “So, it allows the novice to say, ‘Here’s what I like,’ and find something that aligns with that,” Newman said.

Bar à Vin has seven different types of stemware, and their use depends on the type of wine being poured, “because the same wine in two different glasses — completely different,” Newman said. The wines are all numbered on the menu, and the number is written on the base of the glass, so no matter how many glasses are on your table, you won’t get mixed up and forget what you’re drinking.

After you find a wine that you’re a fan of, it’s likely you’ll be able to buy it at a state-owned liquor store without having to make a special order. Except for a few wines in his selection, Newman said he purposefully selected wines for Bar à Vin that could be obtained locally.

The food experience

It just wouldn’t be the full Bar à Vin experience without something to nibble on as you sip. Jerry Liedtke, of Tin Angel Cafe fame, was established about 2½ months ago as the bar’s head chef. “He’s just constantly evolving our menu,” Newman said.

For that menu, Newman said he wanted food that was “fun and approachable.” Most of the items can be held in your hands, like the Neapolitan pizza, which was picked because it pairs well with wine, he said. Bar à Vin’s pizza oven was imported from Italy, and it quickly cooks pizza at 900 degrees. The pizza is available in varieties like the Calabrese (with spicy Calabrese salami) and the Bianca (with arugula, prosciutto, and shaved Parmesan).

There’s also four varieties of popcorn — a rarity at a lot of bars and restaurants — as well as appetizers like feta dip and bruschetta, and a plentiful charcuterie board whose ingredients all come from Caputo’s.

For dessert, there’s creme brulee, cappuccino panna cotta and chocolate hazelnut torte. In all of its food, Bar à Vin often uses local ingredients.

Newman said Bar à Vin isn’t just selling wine and pizza, though. “We’re selling an experience,” he said. “We want to take these people on a journey. We want them to connect with these wines on an emotional level, and have a great time doing it.”