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     Tannins Restaurant & Wine Bar

“The person who is truly passionate about wine knows that the formula for the perfect marriage of wine and food is far more complex than choosing a glass or red or a glass of white. No restaurant in south Orange County understands the nuances of combining these elements better than Tannins Restaurant & Wine Bar. The San Juan Capistrano establishment has a wine cellar with over 500 bottles that can be purchased for dinner or a future special occasion, and its impressive stock expands weekly with new and exciting additions. The restaurant also offers more than 40 wines by the glass.

Tannins highlights the virtuosity of their wine list by having what they call Wine Flights, which allows patrons to enjoy three to four three-ounce samples from their vast collection. The passion that Tannins possesses for their wines is also exhibited on the menu, where Wine Director Kijou Morris has carefully paired the entrées with what he suggests as the optimum glass of wine. The meal selection is an excellent blend of both Northern and Southern Italian cuisines, highlighted by such items as the chicken piccata, seafood linguini, and a vast array of 10-inch pizzas. Enjoy a lovely evening of dining on the outdoor patio, or stay inside amongst the dark wood that accents the old-world inspired restaurant and indulge in wine, dinner and song, as Tannins features live music two nights a week. Regardless of what perspective you choose to take in all that Tannins has to offer, the one certain constant is that you are guaranteed to have the perfect glass or bottle of wine to fit whatever mood or attitude you happen to be in.”

“That Tannins is 32 miles away from Brix is a measure of more than just distance. The two wine bars operate from opposite ends of a restaurateur's philosophical spectrum. While Brix is a 10-stool operation run casually by a baby boomer, Tannins is a large restaurant that sends young twentysomething women in snug black clothes to not only take your order, but assist you in making wine selections.

Well, only if your expectation of assistance is pointing you to a wine designated by an asterisk. A small number of the 40 or so wines by the glass receive special consideration. These are wines considered particularly good and chances are, your server will not veer from those specialties, which may indicate a lack of deep knowledge.

If you want a wine bar serving hearty dishes, Tannins is the jackpot. Here, you'll find a complete menu concentrating on Italian food. The veal may not be make you swoon, but bread slathered with olive-rosemary butter will make things better. A house salad may suffer from an acidically sharp vinaigrette, but a simple dish of sautéed shrimp served with a garlic butter sauce and topped with peppery greens puts things back on course.”

Our wine cellar is home to more than 500 wines which can be purchased for your dinning pleasure or to simple take home at nearly store prices. We also offer the wine cellar for private parties.

Passion can be contagious. At Tannins Restaurant and Wine Bar, we have a passion for enjoying great wine. We would love to introduce you to this passion and offer you all of our knowledge about wine. One of the best ways for you to attain this knowledge is by tasting and drinking different types of wine. To make this process simple, our wine list offers over 40 Wines by the Glass and 9 Wine Flights. AFlight is one of the best ways to experiment and taste wines which share a common theme.

Generally, a Flight consists of four (or sometimes three) 3oz. glass pours of wine served next to each other. You will also notice that each item on our dinner menu has a Bin # under each food item which corresponds to our wine list. This number represents a wine that Kijou Morris, our Wine Director, has paired with that meal. This suggested pairing helps alleviate some of the guesswork associated with food and wine pairing.

All of our wines are available in 3 or 6oz. pours or by the bottle. If the passion takes over, be sure to check out our wine cellar which offers over 700 wines.