Midfield Wine Bar - Wine & Spirits Magazine

Midfield Wine Bar

by John Szabo MS • July 6, 2016

photo by Derek Flack

In Little Portugal, Midfield Wine Bar is the other west-end destination for sommeliers prowling on their nights off (you’ll often see the Archive staff there). Launched in 2012, the wine bar got off to a slow start, but in the last year, it’s established itself as a bona fide wine destination with a by-the-glass list surpassing 60 selections at any time, including top-end wines on Coravin (Amphore Arbois from Tissot and Abe Schoener’s Scholium Project Androkteinos alongside classics like Rimauresq’s Côtes de Provence Rosé or Castello di Verduno’s Barolo Massara), with a heavy leaning toward organic and biodynamic wines. Vinyl on the turntable, casual bistro tables and chairs, and dark wood create an intimate neighborhood vibe, which in turn inspires the menu, an eclectic mix of seasonal wine-bar classics like crisp-skinned duck confit and saffron-rich bouillabaisse, all under $20.

This review appears in the print edition of the August 2016 issue.

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John Szabo MS

Website

John Szabo MS is the Toronto-based author of Volcanic Wines (Jacqui Small Publishing 2016), co-founder of Volcanic Wines International, and partner and principal critic at WineAlign.com. He’s also part-time grapegrower on the limestones of Prince Edward County, Ontario.

This story appears in the print issue of August 2016.
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David joined Wine & Spirits in 2021 after immersing himself in the world of wine at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally from Boston, he graduated from Boston University with a degree in English and completed a master’s degree in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College in 2021. Prior to working at the magazine, he served as an editor and staff writer for the music blog Sound of Boston and worked in scientific publishing. Aside from wine, he loves basketball, arguing about Taylor Swift’s best album, and everything Greta Gerwig touches.

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Corey Warren moved to New York in 2015—fifteen years too late to join The Strokes—after earning a degree at Cornell in Comparative Literature. He started polishing glasses at Betony and threw himself into the restaurant world. Later, while a captain at Aquavit, he began working part time in the Wine & Spirits tasting department. Now, in addition to running tastings, he serves as critic for the wines of the Loire, Southern France, Argentina and South Africa. Corey likes almost anything bubbly, from Miller High Life, the Champagne of beers, to Champagne, the Champagne of Champagne, but he’ll drink anything once, and loves finding unique wines.

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After graduating with a degree in journalism from the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Patricio Tapia attended Bordeaux University in France, where he studied for a diploma in wine tasting and winemaking. Since then, he has visited wine regions around the world and authored several books, including his annual Descorchados, a Chilean wine guide; The Wines of Colchagua Valley; TodoVino and Wines for Great Occasions. Tapia is also the South American correspondent for The Oxford Companion to Wine, The World Atlas of Wine and Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book. For the past three years, he’s been a host on the El Gourmet channel in South America. At Wine & Spirits, Tapia is the critic for the wines of Argentina, Chile and Spain, and regularly contributes articles on these regions.