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Thursday Wine Tastings at Bistro 360: Adventure and Education

By: Buzz McClain

November 20, 2017

You come for the wine tasting, you stay for the dinner.

That was our experience one Thursday night at Bistro 360, the three-year-old wine bar that splits the difference between Courthouse and Rosslyn. We came for a wine tasting in the hopes of discovering new flavors, but we also stumbled onto one of the best food values in Arlington.

Each Thursday at 6:30 a sommelier representing a different winemaker hosts an informal tasting in the market portion of the restaurant. It’s a no-pressure presentation of three wines that happen to be agreeably priced as well as welcome finds.

For example, our new discovery–the Monasterio de San Miguel Tinto Roble, a 90-point tempranillo–was $20 in the market. After sampling it (several times, we have to admit), we decided to buy a bottle and stay for dinner.

When you purchase one of the wines in the tasting, the $10 corkage fee is waived, which is an added and unexpected value that made our evening all the more affordable.

Deciding we would stay for a meal after all, once we sat down in the restaurant section of the three-stage Bistro 360 and looked at the menu, we were taken by the price of a selection of three small plates: $25.

And so it was we washed down with the tempranillo a just-enough meal of deviled eggs with black truffles and fresh chervil, tuna poke with avocado, cilantro, green onion and soy-sesame dressing, and lamb and hummus with feta, mint and nan.

The next wine tasting we attend, we’ll plan on sampling the “regular” entrees and perhaps something else from the 150-label wine collection.

Bistro 360 is located at 1800 Wilson Boulevard, between Rosslyn and Courthouse. Reservations can be made at OpenTable or by calling 703-522-3600.

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