As the Valley revels in the near perfect Fall weather (cool nights and balmy, sun-drenched days), our thoughts turn to a crisp glass of chilled vino. Hey, it’s 5 pm somewhere, right? That said, why settle for a luke-warm glass of Chardonnay that’s probably been open for a week, when you can have a perfectly-preserved tipple poured out of a wine tap? Yes, believe it or not, the wine tap is suddenly très chic.

For years, seeing the words ‘wine on tap’ usually meant you were in a dive bar or some greasy-spoon restaurant. It always reminded us of The Chuckbox, the classic, charcoal-fired burger joint in Tempe, where the wine ‘selection’ consists of two spigots sticking out of the wall, and your choices are red or white. However, recently we’ve started seeing sleek-looking wine contraptions at some of our fav upscale haunts, including Postino Central and even the historic Hotel San Carlos. So we decided to do a little drinking investigating.

Turns out, like most things vine-centric, this trend started in California’s wine country. Based out of Sonoma County, Silvertap Wines is the leading proponent of these so-called “free flow wines.” Each Silvertap wine system stores the juice inside a chilled, recyclable metal keg pressurized with nitrogen, so it never mixes with oxygen or other contaminants that eventually turn wine into vinegar. Even better, it’s the greenest way to drink, since a wine-tap eliminates the need to create and ship wine bottles, not to mention all the trees saved by eliminating corks, wine labels and cardboard shipping containers.

It’s cheaper, eco-friendly and keeps the wine fresher longer, says Postino’s Wine Director, Brent Karlicek. In fact, Postino’s been able to save about “25 percent ounce-to-ounce over a bottled example of any particular wine,” he says. Which is good for your wallet as well the business’, as it brings down the overall cost of wine. Sounds great and all, but we’re going to have to do a little more investigating. At 5:01 this evening, perhaps?

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