Your handy primer for the best in wine and drinks in our town and beyond!

September 30, 7:19 PMSF Wine and Drinks ExaminerLiza Zimmerman

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Best wine bar: Ottimista for lovely Italian wines, Amélie for French wines and Bin 38 for its beautiful outdoor deck

Best cocktail bar: Bourbon & Branch for atmosphere, Rye for innovation and CLOCK BAR for classic style

Best wine retail shop: K&L for mid- to high-priced wines, BevMo! for bargains, Jug Shop for Aussie and Kiwi wines and D&M for Champagne

Best wine shop worth leaving town for: K & L: the "Mothership" is located in Redwood City

Best wine bar worth leaving town for: Wellington's in Sausalito: it has great views and a lovely eclectic wine list

Best classic spirits: Fernet Branca (you gotta love it!) and Campari (the Italians do some things better)

Best new product introduction: Crop Organic Tomato vodka, it's amazing in a Bloody Mary and I am not a vodka drinker!

Best place to drink a pisco sour: Destino on Market Street

There's nothing better than a classic Pisco Sour on a hot afternoon.

Most eagerly awaited wine bar: Raj Parr's RN74, named for Burgundy's famed wine route

Drinks City (outside of New York) that you really need to visit: Portland now and often, it's cutting edge, affordable and only an hour and a half flight away

Most indispensable wine book: Janis Robinson's classic The Oxford Companion to Wine

Most exciting wine and cocktail magazine you may not know about: Imbibe: it's published out of Portland, what a surprise…

Coolest drinks concept of 2008: the grappa selection at Bar 888 in the InterContinental SOMA. How can you not love a mojito made with grappa?

Best dive bar: Cresta's on Polk (no webiste, sorry), it's perfect for one Negroni too many before or after dinner

Mixologist we'll miss most behind the bar: Scott Beattie at Cyrus in Healdsburg: the poor guy needed a night off and wrote a great book called Artisanal Cocktails

Best wine-based drink from a mixologist: the Napa Sour by Marco Dionysos at CLOCK BAR

The best sprits-based drink from a sommelier: the Triple 7 by Marcus Garcia at Fleur de Lys

Iconic barmen who built the cocktail business in our town from the ground up: Jeff Hollinger of Absinthe and Marco from CLOCK BAR

The coolest wine tour in Napa: Castello di Amorosa has 107 rooms, a dungeon, torture chamber and great wines made from Italian varietals (don't tell anyone that I told you)

Hottest emerging region in California: Paso Robles for its down-home feel, brilliant winemakers, huge wine diversity and the most amazing executive director/diva, close second goes to the Anderson Valley and a third place to Santa Cruz

Hottest emerging domestic wine region outside California: Walla2: if you haven't been don't miss the boat; runner up is Sedona, Arizona: don't giggle; they are making some serious wines out here in the dessert

The next hot white wine: Alvarinho and Alvariño from both Portugal and Spain and Argentina's Torrontes

The next hot red wine: Bordeaux blends from Paso Robles and South Africa, better and better Malbecs from Argentina and Aglianico from Campania in Southern Italy

Best value wine region to travel in: Argentina: divine wine, steak and fashion at ridiculous prices how can you not go?

Coolest wine T-Shirt: Ruby Dum and Tawny Dee from Neipoort with an Alice in Wonderland theme

What a great T shirt: everyone was wearing them at harvest.

Coolest spirits T-Shirt: Save the Sazerac from Tales of the Cocktail

Most fun wine event: International Pinot Noir Celebration followed by the Anderson Valley Alsace Festival

Most fun spirits event: Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans

Least-appreciated French wine region: the Loire Valley: that's fine as you'll leave more for me

Best-priced and most dynamic European wine region: the Douro outside Porto: the area uses the Port wine grapes, don't miss Quinta do Crasto, Neipoort and Evel

Divine views in the Douro Valley outside of Porto.

 Most exciting Italian wine region: Campania the area around Naples: savor incredibly floral and well-balanced whites made from Fiano di Avellino, Greco di Tufo and Falanghina

The land of beautiful Southern Italian white and red wines (with an amazing coastline to match).

The charming cork campaign from Amorim (the largest cork producer). Miquel is a tree.

Wine Closure of the year (and hopefully every other year as well): the cork: it's good for the environment, is steadily improving in quality and reducing cork taint and is romantic

Please enjoy and let me know if you agree.

Cheers,

Liza the Wine Chick