Red Room Lounge In Downtown Austin To Host Cabernet Day

July 12th, 2012

Red Room Lounge

The new Red Room Lounge is a great addition to the Austin nightlife scene. The cozy, 40 seat venue offers a relaxed atmosphere that at the same time feels very hip and, most importantly, offers an amazing selection of top of the line wines.

Founded by the owner of wines.com, the space was used as storage space and a set for shooting videos for wines.com. But, it’s such an excellent space that the idea arose to form the wine lounge which opened about a month and a half ago.

Red Room has about 8-10 different wines available by the glass. For bottles, there are 500 labels and 2,000 to 3,000 bottles in stock, so they most likely carry your favorite! The sommelier, Bill Elsey, is always at the lounge and loves introducing customers to new wines. In fact, Bill is quite the expert as he is the reigning Texas Best Sommelier, an annual contest put on by the Texas Sommelier conference (and a very cute sommelier – always a plus!).

Wine decor at Red Room Lounge (Photo Credit: Leslie Silver)

Bill can vouch for every single wine at the lounge, quite the feat. Because of the relationship with wines.com, the selection is really impressive and it gives us Austinites access to amazing VIP bottles as well. Bottles start in the $25 range and go up into the thousands. A nice offering is the option to buy a bottle and have a few glasses at the lounge, then take the rest home with you.

The lounge does not serve food and there are no plans to do so in the future. Bill says he’s not a cook or food expert, but a wine expert so they really want to keep the focus on what they do best. Guests are welcome to bring in their food or have it delivered (pizza delivery has been popular).

I tried a Spanish Provecto Garnachas Moncayo 2010, at Bill’s suggestion, and would definitely get the same on my next visit, it was perfect! The wine is available for $8 a glass or $26 a bottle. A few of the more unique options they offer include the Marc Hebrart Cuvee de Reserve Champagne for $17 a glass and $68 a bottle and the Knipser Spatburgunder (loosely translated to German Pinot Noir) for $15 a glass or $42 a bottle. These two delicious wines are not easy to find, so they’re high on the recommendation list for patrons.

Red Room will be celebrating Cabernet Day on August 30 with a social media twist. Guests can tweet from the lounge or follow the lounge and wines.com from all over the country to compare cabernets. Then, be sure and come by the lounge the following week to try the fan favorite cabernet.