Pourtal Wine Tasting Bar

Unfortunately they are closed now. I loved their lamb sliders with any kind of red wine. I’ve been here a few times during the weekends. The ambiance is really nice and not too loud. Prices is a bit steep.
Bye Bye, Portual Wine!!!

This trend towards broadening the concept of a soda machine into something that dispenses perfectly portioned tastes of wines is even better than the cupcake boom. I kid you not.
Pourtal is a unique little wine bar nestled amongst all sorts of other restaurants and bars on the west side. I came here on a date (excellent date spot, btw) and had so much fun! It was a cold night, LA’s version of cold anyway, and we had been wait-​listed at the sushi spot across the street. There wasn’t anywhere to comfortably wait for a table inside the restaurant and we clearly couldn’t stand around in 60 degree weather, so spying Pourtal across the street was perfect.
It’s tiny, just one square shaped room with a wooden bar island in the center. The walls are lined with wine machines (I can’t think of a better words. It’s just like a soda machine but better because it dispenses wine). The remainder of the décor is nothing crazy special, just simple, cozy and most importantly, warm. The young woman running the place was super friendly and informative and she explained you put however much money you want on a card that she dispenses and then insert the card into the machines with your tasting of choice. The bottles are displayed within each machine, along with a description of the varietal, region the wine is from and price of a tasting (which I think is 1.3 ounces). Prices range from $ 2 up to the low $ 20s.
After cashing up a card, we ran from station to station, filling up, tasting, chatting, bullshitting, tasting some more, refilling the card, tasting some more and trying to decide which one was our favorite. It’s almost like grown up trick-​or-​treating with instant gratification. We had full reds, thin reds, bubbly, buttery whites, dry whites and oakey whites. You name a pretentious wine description; they had a representative wine or two. We kept this up until they called us for our table over at Sugarfish (which was fantastic, btw, but I suppose that’s another review).
I wish I could say I walked about being armed with enough knowledge and experience to judge the acidity of a wine, describe it’s floral undertones and hints of pear… but I’m still working on that. This requires several visits to several wine bars. I’m getting there. In all seriousness, I like this place enough to drive to Santa Monica for it. Since you don’t know me, this means nothing to you but trust me, I NEVER drive to Santa Monica (except for Andrew’s Cheese Shop and Father’s Office). I highly recommend it; for a date or otherwise.
Parking: Deck (more likely) and street

I came here during a Six Taste food tour on a Saturday late afternoon. The concept is interesting: load a card with money and pour yourself 1 ounce tastings of a variety of wines. The nice thing is they will reimburse you (in cash) for any amount you do not use.
There were about 20 – 25 wines available for tasting. The cheaper ones were going for $ 1-​$ 2 per ounce, and the expensive ones were $ 8+. I tried the expensive ones in the «Tuxedo Wines» section and wasn’t very impressed — they tasted a little flat. I asked the worker if they had any bordeaux’s available and she had me try a French malbec which was a little too light for my liking.
Overall the place is cool and if I were invited to hang out here I’d go again, but the ounce tastings are a little pricey and when it comes to wine tasting, I can’t help but compare it with the top notch experiences I’ve had in Napa Valley. Also, don’t come here expecting to get buzzed because an ounce is relatively small, so plan on charging $ 25+ on a card depending on what you drink.

Definitely a nice place to come catch up with friends.
Came here around 8:00 or so on a weekday evening and the place was relatively empty. We ordered a cheese platter (the one you build yourself), the burrata, and claimed one of the tables to ourselves.
The wine vending machine concept is clever, though $ 2-​$ 6 + for one tasting is a little pricey in my opinion. It’s definitely fun filling up a card and trying out different types of wine though. If i were to do it over, i would have only tried a few and purchased a bottle instead. My tight college budget doesn’t really account for expensive one ounce tastings of wine :/​
The burrata was good, and the cheese platter was pretty standard (though the salami we paired it with was very tasty). Not sure if I’ll be back to Pourtal, though I had a good first visit.

Ernest Hemingway said «Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.»
Mr. Hemingway must have paid a visit to Pourtal in Santa Monica.
Service/​Quality:
As soon as I walked in it was packed with people (Friday July 29^th, ’11) and I was greeted with a smile by a very affable young lady. She was extremely nice and being more of a beer lover not much of a wine kinda guy, she successfully selected a couple glasses of wines she thought I may like. BINGO! Loved it! (They have beer though too!)
While having a couple glasses of wine, a couple of us decided to munch on a few food items. We ended up ordering:
Carpaccio — Nice thin cut of meat, I personally never try raw meats very much, yet this had a great light taste which was not too strong. I enjoyed the grated cheese on top (just enough for a taste.)
Tomato & Burrata — The tomato and cheese come on top of a piece baguette bread. It’s pretty good considering I’m not a huge fan of tomato. I don’t know if it was the light sauce on the tomato or the cheese that made it taste delicious but I would definitely have it again!
Olives — I’m a huge olives fan and it’s pretty difficult to screw up olives. They tasted awesome with my glass of Sauvignon Blanc. However, i have one suggestion, more green olives needed! I love the green ones: oD
Strawberry Shortcake — this is ok. Nothing too exciting about it.
Chocolate & Blue toast — OMG! Should I say more. Just try it! You won’t be disappointed!
Shout out to employees: Rachel and Kasey who were outstanding and made my first time visit a great experience.

Pourtal is the perfect wine tasting bar for all wine-​swilling gadget loverls. Pourtal’s website describes an «innovative Enomatic system,» which is basically code for «arcade-​like wine-​drinking playground for adults.» You throw some cash on a card that gets loaded with credit, and then you run around like a kid in a candy store, pressing buttons to get wine to pour from spouts. Any credit you have left over and don’t want to use, you can load back on your credit card, but who are we kidding here?
Too tired or too old to run around like a kid in a candy store (pffft)? Never fear. Pourtal also serves 30+ wines by the glass, as well as great hors d’ouvres to pair with them.
The prices are about $ 2-​$ 4 for a taste, depending on the wine, and the selection of 40 different wines is always changing. They have some really interesting wines, too. I tried a Cab from Montenegro and another red from Hungary, and happily shuffled off home with a bag containing a bottle of the latter.
BONUS POINTS FOR:
1) Having an amazing, helpful, friendly staff. (Thanks Kasey!)
2) Really taking advantage of social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. They lured us in by tweeting at us while we were nearby for dinner.
3) Giving $ 15 off bottles you buy to go (what wine store will do this for you?).
4) Supporting charities. 15% of proceeds from Monday tastings go towards a charity, which switches every 2 weeks. It’s why it’s called «Angel Shares Happy Hour.»
5) Monday’s happy hour goes all night (until 10pm).
6) Having cool events and special tastings all the time.

I like this place. I *love* that they donate to charity and I like their Tuesday Happy Hour that has reasonable wines and tasty treats. I did not not try enough of the wines to be blown away by any of them, but the intimacy and size of the place is fun, I hope it does not get too crazy busy. It’s sweet, nice, perfect place to meet a friend for a glass of wine without all that LA swagger and fuss.
Actually, there was a special tasting come to think of it and I did really enjoy the Ampelos Pinot Noir Reserve, not sure if that was a special occasion wine or is always there and at $ 20 a glass it does not come cheaply, but it was an exquisitely velvety dark cherry indulgence. I loved the presenter, she was a hoot and a half! Very cool lady. Staff is sweet too. Maybe it’ll grow to a 5 star, I’ll have to go back next week and see :)

Wine tasting by the beach! I’d wanted to try this place for a long time.
The vending machine wine dispensers are a fun, fresh way to sample wines. Made me remember the college days of making photocopies at the library. You load up a card, and insert whenever you want a pour. The pours are between $ 1.75 ish to $ 5, so your money won’t get you far here, but it’s still fun. We used a little over $ 30 for two people. Each pour is 1 oz. and five pours equals one glass, so don’t come here expecting to get slizzard unless you’re a big baller.
It’s a small-​ish place with 4 sections… the specials on whites, specials on reds, regular whites and regular reds. That day, the special features were women winemakers (celebrating renowned women in the wine industry by showcasing their whites) and Hooray for Gamay, a series of red gamays from France. The guy at the counter was very, very helpful in explaining the process, pointing out his faves, and he had even lived in France for a while and studied gamays. He really knew his sh! t. Friendly and welcoming, too.
Cozy place with a cool outdoor patio for people-​watching (and you know all the interesting weirdos hang out by the beach, the best ones to watch). You can buy wines by the glass or bottle; the bottles are pretty much within the $ 30 to $ 60 range.
This seems like a fun date place, providing conversation and a fun activity. Definitely give it a try if you’re a date or a local. I wouldn’t make it a destination place; because of the price and the limited selections, we were ready to leave after an hour or so. But it would be great to stop by before dinner or for a quick happy hour.

Wine vending machines? FUN!!!
Ok I’ll admit that this place runs a little bit off a novelty, but I am definitely a sucker for ways to spice up your wine bar experience!
Jessica Y. and I came in on a Tuesday night and we were both staaaaarving! She had a $ 30 card from TravelZoo that was supposedly expiring the next day so we went in and immediately went to town on the tastings! We also ordered a bunch of food and were definitely satisfied and full after. The burrata and lamb sliders were real standouts — still drooling just thinking about it!
Keep in mind that is a pretty dark place with very very limited seating — maximum 4 people got dutr. They also have a lot of wine tasting events that seem like a lot of fun =) Great for night out with the girls… I’ll be back!

Press me… that’s what the button kept telling me to do imbibe in some wine!
This wine tasting bar is quaint. I specifically came here to celebrate my friend’s birthday. The space is quite tiny so do not expect much room. In fact, our party took up ½ the space. I was in love with their Rose wine apparently because it was all gone and I had to ask one of the employees to change the bottle (twice).
Essentially, what you have to do is purchase a card with a specified amount. You insert the card into a reader and basically you choose the wine you want, press the button, and it dispenses 1 oz (30 cc) of wine! I think as the night progressed, I had to press the button 3 times to at least get a decent amount of wine in my glass. The price of the wine is listed directly above the wine bottle.
Also, they seem to have some great happy hour specials as well. We were able to order at least 2 glasses of wine before the special ended, along with some appetizers at $ 5 each plate and glass.

Came here pretty randomly for one of their many many wine tasting events. Ended up getting pretty hungry, so decided to stay behind after the event to get some FOOD.
I was pleasantly surprised to find the food to be really good. We ordered the Duck Rillettes and the Sliders. The sliders were REALLY good. I would definitely come here again to try the other things on the menu.
Parking kinda sucks. The public parking structures are at least 2 – 3 blocks away. There was one right next to the bar, but you had to pay $ 5 cash… I rarely have cash on me so sucked to be me.

*** C’mon, a dog friendly wine bar nearby the beach … ***
How can I not be a fan? They welcome dogs on the patio!
There’s even free treats. Add happy hrs, a modern interior
design, and cool personnel then perhaps you’ll be a fan too.
But unfortunately I really do not drink wine. I had a beer. (lol)
*** A wine bar that serves Old Rasputin to guys like me. ***

My friend and I came here for happy hour last night. Happy hour goes from 4 – 7 pm and we got in at 6:52 pm. We sat down at one of the many high tables and waited for service.
Our waitress comes over, and told us that they have HH, but there was only 8 min left. Yeah, we know.
She left and came back about 9 minutes later to take our orders. We ordered a glass of wine each ($ 5) and 5 appetizers at $ 4 a pop. Good prices.
We asked for duck rillettes, olives, spanikopita, burrata and tater tots.
After about 10 minutes she came by with the olives and mini hot dogs. I was confused and asked her what the hot dogs were. She said they were kobe dogs. Um. we didn’t order those I told her. She said sorry curtly and took them away.
Another 10 minutes later we got the tater tots, duck rillettes and spanakopita.
I’ve gotta say, those duck rillettes were effen amazing. Similar in texture to pâté, and served with toast, it was the best thing of the night. I could have ate another order of them. I’m sure it was laden in fat and I probably gained 5 lbs from one serving, but whateves, it was worth it.
Tater tots were average, crispy, but after a while was just okay.
Spanakopita was soft and flaky with a nice spinach and cheese filling. Another winner.
Olives were just average. Nuff said.
And the burrata? Well, I couldn’t tell you as they never showed up. We tried to flag her down but she was too busy chatting with some people at the bar. Seriously, the service was just off. She got the order wrong, then forgot our other order, and basically ignored us till we got our bill.
Maybe she should have written down the order. Just sayin.
Or hire another server, since she was the only one.
I might come back to try the Monday all night happy hour, but I really hope the service is not as bad.
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While not my first wine tasting, this was my first official wine tasting bar experience. What a trip! Gave the guy my credit card and had him put $ 20 on their little ‘charge card.’ You then place the card into one of the readers, place your glass under the ‘spout’ of the wine you want to sample, and push the button. You get 1 oz of wine for each tasting and prices vary by wine.
While there were interesting wines from around the world, i didn’t think the selection was that large or great… mainly because i prefer sweeter wines. Nothing really jumped out at me, so i did a dessert wine tasting off the menu with the $ 10-​ish balance on my card. Yum! I tried the Welschriesling, Apple Ice Wine/​Cider and the Tawny Port. The Welschriesling kicks ass!
Cool little place, the guys that work there are helpful and the food menu looks interesting. They also have regular events, such as guest vintners.
Just a hop, skip and a jump from the Santa Monica Pier!

Stopped here while hanging out with Craig R. and his GF Kim this past Sunday afternoon. A couple drinks at 3pm why not?
I don’t know crap about wine, but I definitely like sparkling wines. So I got a glass of the Renardat-​Fache Bugey-​Cerdon (Gamay/​Poulsard) 2007 OR at least I remember it was called Bugey… Dude it was soooooo goood. I need to find this and buy like 30 bottles, and drink them like all night long.
Okay the place is pretty modern and chic. I really liked it actually, and it wasn’t crowded when we were there. They have coolers with all kinds of wine ready to be dispensed. The guy who took our orders was friendly enough, and he was the one who recommended the Bugey to me.
We also ordered the bar nuts, those were really really good too. Kim got a flight of dessert wines, two of which were nice, one of which was narsty. But we certainly enjoyed people watching and relaxing our feet for a little bit.
I don’t know if I’d come back here, unless it was another spur of the moment walk-​by sort of thing. And I thought $ 10 for my Bugey was kinda pricey, but it’s down town Santa Monica, it was really good, and it’s a fancy sort of place, so it was fine with me.

I have to start out by saying I love these types of wine bars where you get a pre-​paid card and can do the tastes. So i walked in already loving it. To add to it, I thought the name was very smart, so they already had my vote. But they won me over when I walked in the door. I was especially pleased that on a friday night at 7pm I was able to get a table. It got busier later in the evening, but it was the perfect place for my friend and I to catch up. For the summer they even have a little patio that was pretty cute. The guy who was working tonight approached me right away and gave me the low down on how things worked at Pourtal. He was super friendly and helpful when we asked for suggestions.
Although they have an extensive wine list of wines by the glass, we decided to venture out and choose to taste different wines. I loved that they carried my favorite Pinot Noir — Ken Brown, and that most of their pours were pretty reasonable in price.
For food we chose the Salumi plate, the burrata bar and the zucchini flat bread. The food was fabulous, but what won me over was that they served little bread pieces with the burrata bar and the salumi plate and it came with plenty. I didn’t feel like I had to conserve my bread like I do at most places.
I definitely can’t wait to go back again and try their dessert menu the next time!

I almost hate to review this place for fear it will become over crowed! lol
But in all seriousness this just might be one of Santa Monica’s best kept secret that needs to be told.
The décor is a nice up scale lounge. The staff is friendly and helpful.
The choice of wine is decent.
Not only can you buy the wine by the taste, glass or bottle you can also take your favorite bottle home with you.
The price of wine is very affordable, plus you can do a pay as you go tasting as well.
The food was delicious, a little on the expensive side but worth every penny.
You could stop by here on your way home from work, meet up with friends or take a date! With happy hour specials you cannot go wrong!

This place is cute, do not expect anything big it is a pretty small bar. Do not expect to become very educated in wine this is place that is simply to wet ur palate & inexpensive enough to allow u for trying several wines without the big ticket price.
However, the selection is not huge as stocking here is limited the place is small, intimate, & cute.
Good chill pre or post game hang out, I would not make this the main event. Cool enough to just show up & do something a lil out of the ordinary.
It is really cool kind of like a Dave N Busters for wine.

I was stoked to hear that another wine bar was opening up in the area since Bodega doesn’t have a good wine selection. Pourtal definitely has a good variety of wines and they have that cool machine similar to Vinum’s that you can use to try different types of wines by using a card.
The concept is great but I doubt I will come here often. Each pour you get from a machine is 1oz. A normal bottle of wine is around 750ml or 25oz. That is less than ¹⁄₂₄ bottle of wine and the prices per pour are pretty steep. It seems to come out at a higher markup than the more expensive restaurants in the area.
I understand the overhead in the area probably is pretty high but I came and spent over $ 20 on mid grade wine and didn’t even feel buzzed. And the person working the bar area seemed annoyed that there were people asking questions.
I hope to some improvements because I really would like to see this concept work in this area.

I really like these sort of wine bars, where you get a card, fill it with cash, and then use it to try out different types of wines, by the ounce. They had a fairly good selection, divided by the type of wine (red or white) and then by how full it was. Most of the wines have descriptions that go along with them, as well as indications of which foods will best be complimented by the wines. They also have some food, which is always a good idea when trying a bunch of different wines.
The guy at the front was very friendly and knowledgeable. Great place for a date or a chill time with friends.