Wine Riot takes over the South End

(C. Fernsebner)

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On Saturday night, a line of stylish 20-somethings - the men in blazers and Converse, the women in scarves and heels - snaked through the plaza outside the Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts. Nine hundred and fifty tickets had been sold for the Wine Riot, the first mass tasting of its kind in Boston, and the Cyclorama space was soon packed with people who may or may not have been attending their first tasting, ever. Tyler Balliet, editor of wine publication The Second Glass and one of the event’s organizers, said that the goal behind this event was to “get people to drink more wine,” and by these standards, the event was a success.

Hipster girls, dude-bros, and suburbanites alike tottered from table to table as wine reps uncorked bottles from as far away as the South Island of New Zealand (such as the well-liked and wallet-friendly Arona Sauvignon blanc, which retails for under $10 a bottle) and as close as Westport Rivers Vineyard & Winery (beloved by Boston sommeliers, especially for their brut).

When they got tired or bored, Riot attendees wandered into an array of “crash courses” taught by local wine pros, like the hilarious Jeff Golden of Downtown Wine & Spirits (whose gesticulations got wilder and wilder and whose speech grew more hoarse and profanity-laced as the day wore on) and the verbose and swarthy John Hafferty of Bin Ends Wine (“the Filene’s Basement of wine stores”). At the end of the night, Hafferty served his course attendees wine from a box (gasp!), while Golden, who was sipping a sherry throughout his last course, simply poured some vino into this Bostonist’s glass from his own when she asked for a sample.

Groups of friends poured into the photobooth set up at the entrance, donning feather boas and top hats, then hit the dance floor to show off their fake tattoos and intoxicated moves. But while the Riot was chaotic and decidedly un-stuffy, the event was far from sloppy, as event organizer Lauren Michaud and a team of over 100 volunteers (including this Bostonist) kept courses running on schedule, spit buckets emptied and white wines properly chilled on ice. And despite the copious amounts of wine consumed, there were few, ahem, incidents -- thanks in part to the carb-heavy food offerings from the restaurants providing snacks throughout the day, like Sel de la Terre's vegetarian arancini, Garden at the Cellar's pork sliders and the Savant Project's soba noodles, all priced under $5 to encourage people to eat enough to stay on their feet. A delicious strategy if we do say so ourselves.

For more info about the structure and scope of the event, see our preview here.

Photographs contributed by C. Fernsebner.