Vino to Your Heart's Content at Swill Automatic

Last Friday, my friends and I dropped by the new Swill Automatic wine bar in the Downtown Arts District. I'd recently heard about the establishment via Daily Candy and was so excited at the idea of a "pour your own" wine bar. The concept is awesome. You purchase prepaid cards and may then taste wine at your leisure via the bar's automated wine machines (see photo below). Each wine bottle is displayed beneath the respective spout, with the price per taste (about $2 per tasting) digitally labeled above. With the press of a button, each selection dispenses about 2 oz of wine--a perfect amount that allows for multiple wine tastings compared to the traditional amount of wine glass tasting done at vineyards. Often finding myself looking completely clueless when called upon to order wine at company socials or business dinners, this place seemed like the perfect place to do some exploring!

I loved the bar's method of displaying its wines. Very classy and simple.

Unfortunately the actual wine dispensers weren't in operation yet, so we instead had two rounds of manual tastings of a variety of reds.

Cups galore for our tastings! The boxed wine was organic and quite tasty (check it out here). After trying 6 reds, we settled on a syrah wine, which had a slight hint of fruityness--perfect for wine newbies.

My friend, Meg, demonstrating the ease at which we could have had some wine.

Wore the famous lace top from Charlotte Russe. This is definitely one of my fave purchases of the year! :)
Buy the dress version here (Thanks, Aubrey!)

Overall, it was a fun and laid back night out with the girls. Although we didn't get the experience of pouring our own wine as expected, it was nice to chat with the staff and I liked the idea of trying out wines without the fear of being judged for not being enough of wine connoisseurs to know what we were doing. We had eaten dinner beforehand, but the bar does have a menu of food offerings. We opted for a cheese platter to nibble on with our wine and would've definitely tried some dessert if we weren't already so full. The lighting was a little bright for a bar, but the place has a lot of potential to be a good option for those looking for some good wine and chill times. We already decided that we're heading back there once the place gets fully settled in. I would definitely recommend a visit here! If you're feeling extra fancy, you can grab dinner at Church & State down the block. At night, the area is more or less deserted, save for these two establishments, but I'm interested to see what it will grow into in a couple of years. Does Downtown LA really have the potential to be a go-to place? I guess it's quite possible if they keep opening up cool places like Swill Automatic around here!