Last night, we headed to Pourtal for a nice night of wine tasting.  We’ve been trying to check this place out since it opened a few months ago but for some reason or another we failed to do so.  We finally decided to wing it; we jumped on the I-10 towards Santa Monica [after we caught the early show of True Blood of course] and after a slight detour we finally made it.  The place was practically empty and how I’m glad it was. Their Enomatic machines of self-serve tasting caught us off guard and had there been a ton of people we would have looked like total morons but after our first ounce pour, let me tell you; we were experts.

The concept is simple; an ATM machine that dispenses wine…oh the joy!

Thirty minutes before closing time a small group of people joined us, one of which was a sassy older Latina lady who was full of charisma and ready for some heavy drinking.  She got her group going on the 2006 Sans Liege, Grenache, which was one of our favorites, we chatted a bit as she kept calling us “experts” and helped her remember her choice of wine (I think the first glass might have gotten to her).  A man in his mid 50s (part of her entourage) asked us if we knew anything about the wine, which Vicster replied, “all we know if that the winemaker is from East LA” to which he responded, “oh, nothing good comes out of East LA.”  I should have been offended as I grew up in East Los but all I could think of was, “oh but my dear Sir, apparently something good and tasty did come out and you’re drinking it.”

Ha!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention, the owner is a former Trojan!