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Vino & Friends
1560 E Champlain Dr.
Fresno CA 93720
Phone: 559-434-1771
Fresno CA 93720
Phone: 559-434-1771
Hours of Operation
- Monday1:00pm to 9:00pm
- Tuesday1:00pm to 9:00pm
- Wednesday1:00pm to 10:00pm
- Thursday1:00pm to 10:00pm
- Friday1:00pm to 11:00pm
- Saturday10:00am to 11:00pm
- Sunday10:00am to 9:00pm
- We close the kitchen 1 hour before closing time.
Wine Seller Fresno
What makes Vino & Friends Special?Friendship! This is a wine store designed with you and your friends in mind. We help you explore the world of wines to identify your preferences and to select wines that match your taste and your menus. It's not always the grape, not the county, nor the label that determines a good wine. Rather, it's the Friendship and the Experience that you share.
About Vino & Friends
Vino & Friends is a locally owned and operated wine store and tasting room. Chuck & Jen Van Fleet have owned Vino & Friends for over 6 years and are focused on creating a diverse inventory that satisfies every palate and budget. Chuck & Jen have been enjoying and collecting wine for over 15 years.
The goal of Vino & Friends is to bring together great wine with good friends. Vino & Friends wants to take the mystery and arrogance out of wine tasting and buying. Chuck & Jen believe wine buying should not be intimidating, it should be fun. Vino & Friends is the alternative for anyone who has ever walked into a big box store and been overwhelmed by thousands of wines you have never heard of and no one to help. We strive to make every buying experience an enjoyable one.
Chuck tastes and hand-selects each and every wine. We don't buy wines strictly on ratings. We have our own criteria and ratings and are constantly on the lookout for the next undiscovered new gem to surprise you. Each wine must be of superior quality. Each wine we offer is an excellent value for the price. Each wine is something our own staff would be proud to recommend to their best friend. Each wine is something we have personally tasted and deemed worthy of your consideration.
Chuck, Jen and our staff are available to help you find that perfect wine for any occasion. Whether it's a big party, the holidays or just dinner at home. Come visit Vino & Friends for your next wine buying, or tasting, experience.
Click here to view our wine collection
Vino & Friends Bistro
The Vino & Friends Bistro Menu offers something for every taste and every craving. Appetizers such as Stuffed Figs, Hummus Dip & Olive Tapenade or Crispy Calimari are delicious and fresh. Add to that a Trio of Bruchetta (10 to choose from!) and you have a lovely beginning to your experience at Vino & Friends.
For dinner, Vino & Friends offers salads, Paninis, flatbread pizzas, pasta and burgers, all with their own special flair. Desserts like homemade Twix Bars with salted caramel ice cream & Banana Macadamia Nut bread pudding are decadent and pair wonderfully with many of our wines or ports. For Brunch, we offer amazing crepes, eggs benedict and omelets to order as well as bottomless mimosas. We are also offering a weekend brunch menu being served Saturday & Sundays from 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Text VINO to 58124 to receive Happy Hour specials!
Click here to view our menu.
Vino & Friends Wine Club (click here for more information)
We offer two wine clubs to choose from:
Black Bag Wine Club:
- Monthly release party with samples and two bottles of wine
- Discounts on everyday wine tasting
- 5% off on all purchases
- Discounts on Wine Classes
- Advance notice of Allocated Wine
- Receive a 100 point bonus when you refer someone
- Discounts on in-home wine tasting.
- The wine are available for tasting on the 17th of each month. The tasting will conclude on the last day of the same month.
- One or Two bottles per month worth at least $80
- Discounts on everyday wine tasting
- 5% off on all purchases
- 10% discount on 6 bottles
- 15% discount on 12 bottles
- Cellar Club tastings will be held on the first Saturday & Sunday of the month
- Discounts on all Vino & Friends dinners, wine trips and special events.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How should I store my wine?
- Wines are affected by heat, light, and vibration. The tricks to storing wine are simple:
- Keep the temperature below 70F
- Keep it dark
- Keep the bottle laying on its side
- Leave the bottle alone
- What does “Vintage” mean?
- The word vintage simply refers to the year in which the grapes for any particular wine were harvested. A vintage wine may include only grapes from the vintage specified, though many regions do allow a small percentage of an adjacent vintage's wine to be added to a blend while still allowing it to be called a vintage wine. Non-vintage wines are generally blends of various vintages, though some wines made in Europe have to label bottles as non-vintage wines due to the fact that the grapes being used are not authorized for that particular region or country.
- What are the best vintages?
- Vintages are very region-specific and there are no universally great vintages, though some have come close. Most quality-minded producers only bottle wines they are proud of, so while the vintage does affect the wines, in many cases it's more a stylistic effect than a qualitative one. The best vintages are the ones that you like. Some people prefer hot vintages that produce higher alcohol, fruitier, and often jammier wines, but others prefer the lighter-bodied, fresher, higher acid wines of cool or damp years.
- Are there rules to knowing which vintages are better for which wine regions?
- The characteristics of a particular vintage are determined by the quality of that year’s grape crop. Improvements in wine making over the years have made vintage year less central to choosing a wine produced in most wine regions. Vintages are more important when collecting more expensive wines, especially those designed to be aged, and in growing regions where a less than satisfactory growing season is not compensated for using innovative wine making technology or practices. If you are interested in learning about specific vintages, reading wine publications and tasting wines from different vintages will help you determine a vintage’s characteristics.
- Why are some wines white, some red, some pink?
- White wines are generally made with grapes with yellow or green skins. White wines can also be made from black-skinned grapes if the juice is separated from the grape skins early enough-i.e., before fermentation. Red wines get their color from being fermented in contact with the skins of dark grapes. Rose’ gets its pink color by either a short contact time with the skins of dark-colored grapes before fermentation or by mixing finished red wine with finished white wine.
- Why do wine tasters smell wine?
- The way a wine smells can give many clues to how it will taste, where it was made, and from what grapes it was made. Also, your sense of smell is imperative to your sense of taste. Most people smell a wine because they find it pleasurable or are interested in the connection between how a wine smells and how it tastes.
- Is it necessary to swirl wine in the glass before you taste it?
- It is not necessary. The reason for swirling wine in the glass is to release its aroma. Swirl if you enjoy taking in the wine’s aroma, otherwise get straight to tasting it.
- I’m not sure how to talk about wine when tasting it. What is wine lingo?
- The reason wine "lingo" was established was to create some common descriptors to use to discuss such a subjective subject. Using these words helps others understand your interpretation of the wine. But it is not necessary to use any prescribed language. You can describe a wine in any terms you want. It is easier if you think of wine tasting terms as those that describe how the wine smells and those that describe how it tastes or feels in the mouth. The following are a few basic tasting terms you may have heard:
- Body, the viscosity of the wine (a wine can be as thin as water or as thick as cream)
- Big, high in alcohol
- Buttery, having an aroma of butter or butterscotch
- Crisp, high in fruit acidity (in a positive way)
- Flabby, not enough acid
- Finish, the wine's aftertaste
- Fruity, the fruit of the wine is made from the grape or another fruit flavor is perceptible
TXT 24
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