Kensington Vine

We went to a local wine bar called Kensington Vine, located at 4191 Adams Ave in the Kensington neighborhood of San Diego.  It's only 3 blocks from my house, and now that we know how good it is, I think we'll probably go there more often.


Happy hour is from 3-6 daily.  They have selected wines by the glass for $5 and selected appetizers for $5.  We started with a Minassian Young 2006 Tempranillo and a wine called Keeper from 2005, both on the $5 menu.

2006 Minassian Young Tempranillo

Both were good, but the Keeper (a Mourvedre blend) was excellent.    The wine bar also has a discount retail store, and we were pleased to discover that the Keeper was being sold at $10.99 a bottle.  What a deal!

A view of the wine boutique from our table.

We chose a cheese plate and bruschetta off the $5 appetizer menu.  The cheese plate was pretty basic, manchego, goat cheese, and dubliner, accompanied by red grapes, grape tomatoes, and tasty bread, but for $5 we weren't going to complain.  The bruschetta was delicious!  Fresh tomatoes and a very good olive oil.

Didn't think of taking a pic until we had devoured two pieces.

Other wines we tried:
Relativity Quantum Reserve 2007 ($5): a red table wine that seemed kind of plain
Four Vines Zinfandel 2007 ($5 on the happy hour menu): very fruity for a zin
Runquist Barbera 2009 ($13): earlier Barbera wines from Runquist were better, maybe this one just needs a little more time.  I was convinced it tasted like vanilla, but Scott thought I was crazy.
Layer Cake Shiraz 2009: I don't remember how much this one was, but it was recommended by the server.

Still a bit hungry, we tried one of their sausage and mushroom thin crust pizzas.

It looks better than it tasted.  It wasn't awful, just not very flavorful.  It had gouda and fontina cheese, could have been improved by a cheese with a little more flavor.

Overall, it was a pretty fun experience.  A nice way to spend a rainy afternoon.