A rosé can be tremendously swell with domestic and international expressions every bit as riveting as exalted whites and reds. It can also be, well, the summertime shandy of wine. Beaujolais, by contrast, needs more explanation. A tremendously accomplished region of Southern Burgundy focusing on the Gamay grape, it is not in fact 100 percent Beaujolais Nouveau. Thank goodness. And thank goodness we're given the new Tofino Wines Laurel Heights for making believers in rosé from Beaujolais.

The wine in question is the 2014 “Les Griottes,” from Martine and Pierre-Marie Chermette of Domaine du Vissoux ($14 by the glass). It’s an energetic rosé bursting forth with candied citrus and rose petals in a slicker body suit than your usual light sipping version. Tofino’s description nerds out on the facts like one-day maceration, the clay and limestone soils, the wild yeast fermentation. Last I checked, it’s wine. And it’s rosé. And that’s what you need to know and what Tofino really wants you to know, despite calling this “a wine geek LOVE story in a glass.” Tofino wrote that description with only a little sarcasm, but they're not looking down on anyone for not knowing what the soil in Beaujolais is composed of.

The fact is we certainly drink wine at restaurants and there are still more than you think who bypass the hops and Negronis for a glass of red or white, though not caring much beyond that. Wine bars exist in the city. Unfortunately most tend to be snug, cozy love seats with awkward jazz, and menus and bartenders that seem to act as if wine is this scary subject you cannot possibly comprehend. Tofino's menu breaks everything into flights and the descriptions make wine seem as elementary as spelling “c-a-t” (yummy Zinfandel tastes like berry and bushes!). Why does wine require tasting notes and everything we eat doesn’t? Why does wine have to seem so out of reach, which in turn makes the wine industry seem out of touch?

Thankfully I’m not the only one who thinks this way. A handful of winning wine bars (Terroir and Les Clos in SoMa, Union Larder on Russian Hill for starters) are doing exactly what they’ve done for decades or centuries elsewhere: drink good wine with good conversation and a few bites, forgoing the pompous fluff or the kindergarten education profile in an intimate middle school dance ambiance.

Husband and wife team Mark Nevin and April Sack are behind the concept, both from different areas of the wine and food industry — Nevin on the importing side, Sack on the pr side. The name comes from a town in British Colombia where Nevin frequently camped in his youth and where he and Sack often visit on vacation. The name has nothing to do with Fino Sherry, except that the Spanish cartographer who the Tofino Inlet (namesake of Tofino the town) was named after actually was from Cádiz, Spain — smack in Jérez, the region of you guessed it, Sherry. It really is a small world when it comes to wine.

Tofino Wines is a grand hall, everything wine bars aren't. It’s City Beer for grapes being equal thirds wine bar, a few tables for consuming wine in an open space where voices reverberate like in a Gothic cathedral, and then the retail section that already is at the tops in the city with the likes of K&L and Biondivino, particularly for the younger, risk-taking winemakers of California and France. All in all, the capacity in theory is 32, but I imagine double that can squeeze in for events. The space feels somewhere between a plantation home and an elaborate entry foyer to an English country estate.


Don’t be like me and plan a full dinner at Tofino, unless a lot of bread and not a lot of protein is your diet for the week. The best bites come on toast (called crostini but far thicker than those usually are) at double the price of The Mill’s $4 toast if that’s important to you. The bread isn’t Josey Baker but just as noteworthy being from the Richmond’s Marla Bakery. Crostini (2 for $8) come slathered with salted butter and topped with pickled red onion and two sardines is a perfect match with practically any sparkling wine or white wine. If piquillo peppers appeal, get the version with goat cheese and olive tapenade for sure. Cheese lovers will rejoice at a grilled cheese offering, a cheese plate, and a burrata plate. What, you thought a wine bar wouldn’t serve cheese? A charcuterie plate and smoked trout pâté are worth keeping an eye on if something more than marcona almonds is necessary.

Do plan a full evening of wine drinking. Commence with a Loire Valley sparkling Cremant, move to the Jura’s Arbois Blanc blend of Chardonnay and Savagnin aged under yeast for that oxidative smoke and umami punch a Palo Cortado Sherry provides, and finish with a Cabernet Franc made by ‘s very own Broc Cellars from grapes in Paso Robles. Speaking of Sherry, Tofino as a tidy list of them worth delving into. Somehow my prediction last summer after San Francisco hosted the wonderful Sherryfest that Sherry would become a huge deal in our city hasn’t really become reality. This summer it will!

The glass pours aren’t cheap with nothing under $9. The aforementioned Arbois Blanc was the highest at $16 (and so worth it). Part of me wants Tofino to also offer half pours at 2 or 3 ounces, or even a flight or two, though it’s the restriction to by the glass, the carafe, and the bottle that helps this wine bar seem like a watering hole rather than a seminar. Bonus points also to the menu’s wine descriptions for only casually mentioning tasting profile notes, instead focusing more on the structure of the wine, and the backgrounds of the vintners and regions.

Oh and there are three beers on draft. Get wine. This particular intersection could be whatever Middle America suburb instead of middle of San Francisco with Best Buy, Target, Trader Joe’s, and the big Mui depot. Except we’re San Francisco and we want our organic Sangiovese anywhere. Maybe even at Best Buy soon. Let’s definitely “cheers” to that. 

Tofino Wines, 2696 Geary, 415-872-5782.