Description
Two 40 South’s cellar reportedly has more than 12,000 bottles of wines stacked floor-to-ceiling and at least a few barrels from which 10-cent tastings are offered, but the reason you want to go is for 32 bottles in particular. The 16 whites and 16 reds in question are hooked up with tubes to a monolithic, computerized, vending machine that separates the formal dining room from the bar. Yes, Two 40 South has relegated the world’s most uppity beverage to a contraption one associates more with frozen yogurt and bad coffee. Your server presents you with a key card similar to what you get when you’re checking in to a hotel. You then join the other customers who are hovering around the dispensers, tapping their chins as they mull typewritten tasting notes. When it’s time to make a choice, you grab an appropriate glass from a rack dangling above the machine—a wider goblet for the reds, a narrower one for the whites. Then you insert the card as though you’re about to pump gas at a Chevron and push the button for the portion size as though you’re picking the octane—either a squirt, a half or full glass.
