New wine bar, 90pluspoints, opens in East Village
First time here? Check out the "site highlights," send in a question, subscribe to the latest posts by RSS, daily email, or free monthly updates by email (right sidebar). Thanks for visiting!
A new wine bar, 90pluspoints, opens in New York City’s East Village neighborhood next Tuesday. The focus of the bar is, as the name implies, serving wines that have been rated 90 points and more by the influential wine review, Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate.
“Anything under 90 points is crap,” owner Joseph Coonawara told me last week. “The point score is all that matters. Grape variety, region, and especially vintage, even food pairings–the rest of it’s all noise.”
Known as “Run Rig” to his friends after the Torbreck wine awarded 99 points by Robert Parker, the Australian Coonawara has built a solid resume for launching his own wine bar. He rose in the ranks at New Jersey wine shop Wine Library and later became head of internet sales at Zachy’s. But he left because “they weren’t points oriented enough for me. There’s a great opportunity here to bring the pleasure of points to an on-premises establishment.”
Coonawara will have several flights of wine by the glass available. Most notably, there will be the five two-ounce shot glasses of Parker favorites from Spain and Australia that roll in at more than 16 percent alcohol.
“You don’t need to swirl and sniff, just toss it back,” Coonawara said. We’ll see if New Yorkers have a taste for it starting next week.
90pluspoints
131 e. 4th st
212-555-9463
click here for directions and other background information
One of the "seven best wine blogs." 
One of the three best wine blogs
On April 1st, 2007 at 2:41 pm ,Douglas wrote:
You know at first, I thought this really could be legitimate, isn’t there a new web site called justwinepoints.com? But then I noticed the phone number and no phone number starts with 555! So you had me fooled for a little while! April fool back at you!
Douglas
On April 1st, 2007 at 7:23 pm ,Alder wrote:
You joke, but there actually IS such a wine bar/store in Redwood City, CA. Just a 20 minute drive south of my house: http://www.savvycellar.com/
On April 1st, 2007 at 8:18 pm ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Wow, Alder, how sad. Next year, something even MORE outrageous then!
On April 2nd, 2007 at 1:08 am ,Today’s Wine News Headlines | Wine News wrote:
[...] New wine bar, 90pluspoints, opens in East Village [...]
On April 3rd, 2007 at 11:58 am ,Brooklynguy wrote:
I went there with my wife on the first night in 2 months that we could get a babysitter, solely on the basis of this recommendation, and it was not there. How disappointing!
just kidding. I wish that I had thought to post something funny on April 1st. You guys are KILLING me with this stuff!
On April 6th, 2007 at 2:18 pm ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Brooklyn guy,
Funny! Good thing that didn’t happen! (But there are plenty of good restaurants in the area anyway)
Cheers,
On April 6th, 2007 at 10:25 pm ,Benjamin Liepelt wrote:
In New York anything is possible. Wouldn’t be the first snooty place opening up around here. Try the Meat Designer District on for size!
On April 9th, 2007 at 12:31 pm ,Dr Vino’s wine blog » Blog Archive » No catsuits, wine shooters, distiller-in-chief, corked — tasting sized pours wrote:
[...] bar that serves wines based on point scores including a flight in two ounce glasses. Shockingly, a commenter pointed out that one such points-based wine bar already exist in California! Now there’s news [...]
On April 18th, 2008 at 9:10 pm ,East Village WIne Geek wrote:
WOW. I felt sweat bead on my brow with every word. I read too fast and had to go back and read it again. As i got further down the post I felt faint and woozy. Then the capper. It was on 4th street! Thak god for the 555. Good one man. Good one.
EvWg