Archive Wine Bar - Wine & Spirits Magazine

Archive Wine Bar


photo by Leila Ashtari

Archive is the place where Toronto sommeliers go to drink. Since opening in late 2012, this 28-seat wine bar on Dundas West has hosted as many sit-down tastings for winery principals and beverage professionals as it has late-night parties. Front man Joshua Corea, a former high school science teacher, and brother Joel offer a cost-defying inventory of 300 labels, of which over 50 are available in 3- and 5-ounce pours, the higher-end selections via Coravin. This is where Corea especially likes to play, with wines like La Vista’s Côtes Catalanes, Viñátigo’s Vijariego from Tenerife and Hauck’s Kunststück, a weissburgunder-auxerrois blend from Germany’s Rheinhessen. The blind flight is especially tempting at $23. As per the Zeitgeist, selections heavily favor the organic and biodynamic: “I’m drawn to wines made with low levels of “modern” intervention, but I’m not dogmatic,” says Corea.


This review appears in the print edition of the August 2016 issue.
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John Szabo, MS, has been traveling to Hungary since the late 1970s—first to visit relatives, and later to start J & J Eger Wine Co., where he makes kékfrankos with partner János Stumpf. But his day job is writing about wine and researching the world’s best wine bars.


This story appears in the print issue of August 2016.
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