Wine Bar DiVino

Wine Bar DiVino’s tagline is ‘not hip and trendy, but cosy, atmospheric and affordable’. Starting out by saying so emphatically what you’re not is an interesting marketing approach but one I find oddly compelling. I’m often disappointed by wine in Amsterdam bars – there’s still much more attention paid to the hop than the grape - so I just had to check this wine bar out.

Wine Bar DiVino is on Boomstraat, a quiet, mostly residential street off Noordermarkt. The tile floor makes the small, split-level interior feel as cool as an Italian casa, while on the pavement, rustic (read weathered) tables are a perfect suntrap long into the evening.

Wine Bar DiVino was opened in May 2009 by Ewout van Dijck, who imports his wines and food directly from Italian (organic) producers. The wine list runs to nearly three pages and comprises red, white, rosé, sparkling and dessert wines. Non-wine drinkers are plied with Limoncello, Amaretto, Grappa, Campari and Peroni beer.

Image of Wine Bar DiVino in Amsterdam House wines are often, and inexplicably, featureless easy drinkers. DiVino's house white, a 2008 La Prendina Pinot Grigio bianco from Lombardy (€4), was described in such glowing terms – ‘a real Pinot Grigio’, ‘proud of’, ‘always a good choice' were just some of the phrases used - that I couldn’t pass it over. It was extremely pale in colour, light and refreshing, and indeed a good choice.

I moved on to one of the pricier wines (€7), a Velenosi Villa Angela Passerina. It had a deeper yellow colour than the first wine and, according to the menu, grapefruit and citrus aromas. I couldn't detect the first; rather, it had something seductively musky and heavy, like vanilla.

Among the red wines was a 2007 Sicilian Etna Rosso DAM DOC. It is made from the Italian Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio grapes, which grow exclusively at the foot of Mount Etna, and only 5,000 bottles are produced per year. It was aromatic and velvety, with distinctive earthy tones.

A small, regularly changing selection of homemade pasta dishes and regional specialities is available, alongside antipasti. We ordered DiVino’s excellent mixed cheese and meat plate, which included Prosciutto, wild boar salami, capocollo (a slightly sweet cured meat) and a hard, tangy ricotta.

If ‘not hip and trendy’ means carefully selected wines and lovingly assembled dishes, I’ll buy it any day.