Vyne Wine Bar

Following my first successful Groupon dining deal at restaurant Eau de Vie, the second deal I bought was for a half-price wine flight with snacks for two at wine bar Vyne.

The wine bar on Prinsengracht is the sister – and almost neighbour – of Envy delicatessen and seafood restaurant Nevy. The names are all anagrams of the same four letters.

Fittingly, Vyne is devoted to all things oenological, featuring around 90 wines by the glass and several hundred by the bottle. Many of the bottles are stored in an eye-catching wall of climate-controlled fridges.

The Groupon deal comprised a flight – three half glasses of white or red wine picked by the waiter. R. chose the reds, a Spanish Rioja, a Greek Aghiorgitiko, a grape variety I wasn’t familiar with, and an Israeli Bordeaux blend.

Image of Vyne wine bar Amsterdam It was an exotic-sounding mix but sadly all the wines were full bodied, high in tannin and ultimately tasted dis- appointingly similar – and not particularly spectacular.

My whites were better, although the first, a Spanish Verdejo, had little depth and I left most of it in favour of a honeyed Italian and a golden, complex Chardonnay from the South of France.

Accompanying the wine were shot glasses of gazpacho soup with a good vinegary aftertaste, steak tartare on toast (one of the few things I don’t eat so R. ate them both) and two plump prawns deep fried in kataifi, a Middle Eastern pastry that resembles shredded wheat cereal when cooked.

The Groupon deal cost €14 per person instead of €29. I was happy to pay €14, although I don't think that all the wines chosen were representative of what Vyne has to offer – I’ve had some excellent wines from South Africa and Morocco on previous visits, for example – but I would have felt cheated if I had paid twice the price for what we got.

Vyne is owned by Bert van der Leden, the Amsterdam restaurant mogul also behind Mazzo and Brasserie Witteveen.