WINO – Wine Institute of New Orleans

O WINO, you have stolen my heart!
When you are given a blank card and told to fill your glass as many times as your heart’s content from the over 120 bottles of wine on display, you truly will know bliss. And this can be a dangerous bliss when you come to pay at the end, but that’s not to be concerned about because this place is awesome.
My friend and I split a cheese plate they offered here as we sampled wines from $ 12 — $ 120 per bottle and enjoyed every pure blissful minute of this.
Self serving wine bars need to be more of a thing!

Fun experience. Its a great chance to wines that you haven’t had the guts to purchase an entire bottle or glass. Really good selection of wines from all over the world. Good service as well.
My only complaint would be that things were definitely marked up quite a bit. A bottle marked at say $ 35 was something you could buy at the grocery store for $ 25 — sometimes with even more of a margin. But, for the ambiance (lots of light, music not too loud) and the fun of the tasting, worth a visit!

This was a really fun experience. I don’t think I would come here just to drink glasses of wine, but I do think its a fun place to mingle with friends and taste some new wines. Can get really pricey if you’re not careful but I really enjoyed the ambiance.

I really like WINO because I feel like you can drink wine and its also an activity. The activity of course is just trying a bunch of wines which is about as active as I like to get on a Saturday night. They give you a card to use and thats what activates the pours and you pay at the end. You can get a tasting pour, half glass, or even a full glass. Of course, you can get a bottle if you really ended up digging something. I really enjoy the opportunity to taste a bunch of different wines and find it a lot of fun. It’s also cool to see what other people in your group think of the same wines since personal taste varies so much. The staff pretty much leaves you alone and don’t really try and sell you on any of the wines, which I’m perfectly fine with. If trying different wines is your thing, I’d definitely give this place a go. Parking can be a pain, but thats a given in the WH district.

Love sampling new wines. Staff was friendly and attentive. Great place for a couple of drinks.

Such a unique concept which allows you to taste wine that otherwise would be priced out of reach (well, at least for me!).
Great customer service as they help you understand the process and answer your questions. Can’t wait to return!

Great concept, and well executed. You can sample 1,2 and 4 ounce pours from the over 100+ wines on tap. Want to try a wine without buying a bottle of it? This is your place!

This place is the place to be for all winos! It’s a magical place with 120 wines on a tap that you serve yourself. Great service and amazing wine!
If you love wine to any degree, you NEED to come here!

This was great. Get a cheese tray and sample all the wine you want and pay when your done. I wish we had one where I live so u could do a couples date here. Awesome.

100 wines by the glass to self serve with chip card. Pay when finished trying anything you want. Why can’t they have this in NYC? Great ambience In low key neighborhood. Come in and taste like a professional.

Stumbled upon this place not because I was drunk (sadly) but we were walking back to our hotel from Cochon. Upon entering, I saw bottles on bottles on bottles of wine lining the room. An employee, Stevie (I’m pretty sure that’s her name) kindly greeted us and thoroughly explained the process of tasting the wines. She was so very nice and friendly that I couldn’t refuse to try out the wine tasting process. For me, I love variety, and this place gave me the perfect opportunity to try out favorites (sweet wines) as well as $ 100+ wines that I would never, ever desire to purchase (unless it tasted like the sweat of angels). I am no wine expert. When it comes to alcohol, I will drink anything that will get me drunk with the least caloric intake and minimal hangover the next day. Yes, I am still in this phase of my life and probably will be forever. But I suppose that if I wanted to refine my taste and try to get some class some day, I would come here to discover my inner wino deep, deep, deep down inside me. If only I didn’t have to take 2 plane rides and a taxi to get here!
It was fun to walk around the shop, read the descriptions, press the buttons, and have the wines pour out like I was filling up at a soda fountain. Five stars for the novel experience, and for leaving tipsy after only 4 pours!

Beautiful place. Nicely maintained facilities and impeccable wine storage.
Tasting available. Everything has prices listed, so there is no guessing game.
Full bottles available for purchase.
Great place for a date night. Vegans are limited, but they do offer cheese plates, beer, and spirits here as well.

Loved it there is nothing more to say give me wine, manchego and hard French crostini. Marry me now.

Rip off! My friend paid $ 150 for a great bottle of wine. Next week it was lowered to $ 110. She had her receipt and they refused to refund the difference. Now we find the same bottle online for $ 50. I know they need a little mark up but 100−150% is restaurant prices. Lost our business…

WINO is a great concept on paper and fun to drop in every once in a while. If you’re looking to try something different, whether on a date or with a group of friends, it’s perfect. It’s a bar, but far from the typical bar experience. It’s certainly a great way to sample new wines, exotic wines and really pricey wines that you would most likely never pay for by the bottle. You have to keep track of why you’re doing though. It’s really easy to walk from bottle to bottle sampling away without keeping a close eye on the price cards on the dispensers. When you go to turn in your wine card and cash out, it can be a bit of an eye popping, heart stopping moment.

Great bar, great customer service, great wine variety. My organization hosted a reception in San Diego at a similar wine bar that also offered self-​dispensing wine, and we had such excellent feedback that we decided to do it here at WINO. Man, is this a great idea. Drunkenness was mitigated with very tasty charcuterie plates, olives, cheeses and breads. Staff was very friendly and accommodating. They moved around the place so that you barely noticed them replacing bottles when they were empty.
Host your company party or reception here. You won’t regret it.

You can’t beat WINO (Wine Institute of New Orleans… clever) for wine selection. The long and short of it:
1. So Much Wine. Wine bottles literally line the walls of this place. Pretty much every type, flavor, or bouquet they have a bottle or more of it.
2. Price. It racks up. You can pay for 1 of 3 size pours at every bottle. If you’re goal is to get only small pours and taste a bunch of things you’ll still end up with. $ 30+ bill. Still it’s worth it if that’s what you want to do.
3. Tastings and Classes. This is where the real good stuff is here. For around the same price as a night of varied, uninformed tasting you can go to an official tasting and figure out what you really like (and maybe impress a girl or 2 later by actually knowing what you’re talking about).
4. Food. They serve a few munchies that go well with wine. Makes sense.
WINO is pretty much the only place to try a large variety of wines in NOLA so if you’re feeling winey and adventurous your mind should already be made up!
Overall Grade: B–

As a wine fanatic, I was SO SO excited to see a cool wine geek place like this in New Orleans. My experience was limited but positive.
WINO is unique in that it is primarily a wine education center but also offers small plates and a ‘self service’ option for wines during regular business hours. For anyone who has not been to this type of venue, it’s pretty simple — you trade your ID for a wine «debit card» at the front desk, insert debit card at desired station and you have the option of pouring yourself 1oz, 3oz or 6oz pours (at varying prices of course). At the end of your adventure you simply bring the card back to the counter and pay. Easy peasy.
The cool thing about this is it’s NOT just for wine nerds like me. The self service aspect makes it easier and less intimidating for people who are not so familiar with wine — you’re offered descriptions to help guide you and can be noncommittal and try 1oz of something if you’re unsure.
My only qualm with this place was the owner’s complete and utter lack of enthusiasm and positive attitude. I would agree with former posts describing him as slightly abrasive. I know you’re a New Yorker dude, but c’mon, it’s New Orleans — lighten up. You catch more flies with honey. I’ll note however that the other employees I did interact with were more pleasant.
Regardless, I will absolutely be back the next time I visit ‘Nawlins, and hopefully it will be for a wine class!

Can get kind of pricey.
Showed up at 1:00 when they were suppose to open and owner said they weren’t open due to arriving late.
Owner was ok kind of abrasive for being in customer service.

This is one of my new go-​to spots! With 120 wines on tap and reasonable prices, this place makes for a great meet up spot. It has an okay atmosphere but let’s be honest… we all just want to drink as many wines as we can. They also have pretty good prices on bottles of wine if you want to take some home with you.