This wine bar is great for me: a member of the flakiest generation that has ever walked the planet. 

I've a confession to make. Call me a plebeian, but I often scoffed at wine presentation rituals at restaurants. They always seemed a bit awkward, performative, and laden with stiff-collared snobbery from 19th century France or something.

First, the young diner – let's give him a nickname "CharsiuCharlie" – browses a wine list cooly, and after some deliberation picks a bottle that, chances are, he knows next to nothing about. Then comes the presentation ritual. The waiter steps back out with the chosen bottle, presents the label, and diner nods his approval. They uncork it. The waiter passes the diner the soaked cork for inspection.

The diner inspected but – lo and behold – he did not sniff the cork. Congratulations, he passed the test! Sniffing was a classic amateur mistake. The diner knows what he's doing. He was once a cork sniffer, yes. But after browsing an article in a highbrow wine magazine last month, he now knows better than to embarrass himself in front of his date.

With those amateur years of cork-sniffing firmly behind him, the diner confidently nods to the waiter who proceeds to pour a bit of wine into his glass to inspect and taste. Then he noses and noisily slurps up the wine into his mouth to aerate it...

There are good bases for all that wine appreciation rigmarole. But tell others that you are a wine aficionado, and many would take away the impression that you belong to a rarefied club of snobs who wouldn't sit back and enjoy their wines in a more casual, relaxed environment.

So imagine my pleasant surprise after discovering this new wine bar where you can comfortably taste and enjoy a wide variety of good quality wines in a casual, approachable environment. I have no worries about breaking etiquette and looking silly here. Nor do I worry about breaking the bank.

You can actually taste an entire cellar's worth of wines without breaking the bank.

Tucked into the corner of town is a new casual wine bar / gourmet grocery store concept which calls itself Vin Geek. "Vin" is the French term for wine, and is accurately pronounced something like "vuhn". But these are unpretentious wine folks who just pronounce "Vin" exactly the way a typical English-speaker would ("veen").

It was early evening on a Wednesday when two pals and I headed down to Vin Geek for a midweek drink. There's no need for long introduction. Step into this place and you are immediately face-to-face with its most important attraction. I'm talking about its 24-bottle automatic wine dispenser. 

Do 30ml "sips" just to taste a wine, 90ml if you somewhat fancy it, 150ml if you really like it... Entire bottles are available for purchase if you want to take it home and cook it breakfast the next morning.

Suffering from commitment issues? I often have trouble finishing a full glass of the same wine. No exaggeration when I say this wine bar is perfect for me: a member of the flakiest generation ever to walk the planet. 

What's unique is that you get to take small sip here and there before committing to an entire glass, choosing from a large range of very decent wines from the Old World and New World – with Rosés, Reds, Whites and Orange. 

Scan a code with your phone, choose the amount you'd like, then hold up your glass to the dispenser. You could do 30ml sips just to taste a wine, 90ml if you somewhat fancy it, 150ml if you really like it... Entire bottles are available for purchase if you want to take it home and cook it breakfast the next morning.

It's worth mentioning that their 30ml tasters are about S$2.50 to $3.00, so you can truly actually taste an entire cellar's worth of wines without breaking the bank. That's if you can physically get to 24th bottle. I messed around with a Rosé, a couple of Whites and a Red. By my seventh pour, I began feeling the buzz. I've also found a very tasty and complex Californian Zinfandel to last the night. 

15-20 minutes of messing around with the wine dispenser really helps pass the time until the cold appetiser was served.

Vin Geek's answer to the charcuterie board is to pair your wines with an unusual assortment of sustainably sourced seafood (Scout tinned fish and mussels), sourdough croutons, matzo chips (a kind of crispy Jewish flatbread) and pickled onions and carrots – in place of the European cured red meats and pickled cucumber. Again, this dish is actually something of a tasting set.

Each component can be separately purchased, so if you like a particular thing you've tasted here, you'll find it in Vin Geek's gourmet grocery section. These are some artisanal groceries I should say – their cheesemonger has selected every kind of cheese from across UK and Europe. A variety of gourmet jams and preserves. Authentic Italian dried pasta. And Savini Tartufi's range of Italian truffle cream, truffle oil and salts. 

Then comes the hot appetisers and mains.

The menu is straightforward – nothing to rack your brain over. We ordered their most popular Crab Cake and Jamon Ham Croquettes. The bite-sized morsels of tasty ham and mozzarella tasted as good as they look – creamy, moreish, savoury. The Crab Cake is the clear winner for me – it's savoury, refreshing with a mild Thai-inspired spicy kick.

Remember, we're at a wine bar, not a chargrill steakhouse. The food shouldn't overpower the wines here. Their ribeye has been grilled to just the right extent that the meat is browned to perfection, the inner section blushing medium rare without a single charred bit. Tender, sweet, buttery. Pairs well with a strong-bodied red wine.

Like any wine bar worth its salt, Vin Geek does have a certified sommelier in-house, offering curated wine collections from the top range. Yet it's easy to feel at home here – like we've become buddies with an approachable wine sommelier. Perhaps it's because of the warm decor and breezy attitude of the wait staff. Mayhaps it's the tongue-in-cheek wall captions that cannot be taken too seriously. They title their rare wine collection The Big D*ck Energy Collection which consists of Champagnes, high-end Bordeaux wines and Super Tuscans. The copywriter must be having a field day.

By sundown our bellies were full with wine and steak. There's one last thing I need to do. I turn to the young waitress with a solemn (and Asian-flushed) face and told her I was "ready for commitment". But there's no need to alarm her manager about a weird male customer who had too much to drink – I was referring to a bottle of wine.  

This Rombauer Zinfandel (still available from Vin Geek's online store here) was my favourite tipple of the night. This one is bold (at 15.9% abv) and has great depth with a mix of fresh red fruits like raspberry and plums, integrated with some sandalwood, vanilla and mild oakiness . And yet with so much depth its tannins are very slight, subtle and round, with none of that sticky tannin dryness I avoid.

Rombauer Vineyards, Zinfandel 2019 (Image Source: Vin Geek)

As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And find it I have. I'm bringing her home to meet my mother. 

@CharisuCharlie 

Vin Geek

Pacific Plaza, 9 Scotts Rd #01-04/05/06/07

Open daily (11:30am - 10pm)

Food Menu available from 4pm

Website: vingeek.sg | IG: @vingeeksg | FB: Vin Geek 

For bookings, please visit this link. 

Vin Geek is a brand-new 52-seater wine bar and retail concept that is here to translate wine culture for everyone – one red, white or bubbly glass at a time. Vin Geek reinvents the wine journey with spunk and character; through witty yet relatable wine categories that taps on feelings and moods - an easy-to-grasp concept that makes it more approachable for regular joes. Because no one should feel intimidated by a bunch of grapes.