Are you ready for a wine weekend? Don’t lie. The 13th Annual Vinoklet Art & Wine Festival is tomorrow and Sunday (Sept. 10-11) featuring local artists and, wait for it, Vinoklet wines.

One Friday after Uncorked! At Whole Foods Adam and I went to O’Bryan’s Wine & State Liquor Agency to cash some lottery tickets his parents had given us – and stumbled upon yet another wine tasting. Unfortunately they were closing up, so we vowed to return the following week.

O’Bryan’s has a wide selection of drinks and related tools, combined with a really friendly and knowledgeable staff. One thing I particularly like during a tasting like this is people who really know a lot about the item(s) being featured and can answer lots of questions about them.

According to the gentleman serving the wines, the wines are chosen by the owner and particularly the owner’s wife, and they serve cheese and crackers in a small lounge-type room off the main shopping area. Sometimes there is a general theme around all the wines, and other times it’s just wines they particularly liked that week – and none of them ever go over $20 a bottle.

A Bottle or Two opened up about eight months ago in Symmes Township, and it’s taken us eight months too long to find and pay them a visit. They boast a wide selection of wine as well as carrying craft beers, and they have a very interesting array of different wine tastings.

Today we wandered in for their Thursday special tasting – 5 wines for $5 between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. They have a very fascinating system for their tastings – a machine that contains the bottles with a glass front so that you can see the bottles, and has a special lid with a tube going into the bottle. By pressing your glass on the lever at the bottom, it will suck the wine from the bottle and dispense it into your cup – turning it into essentially a “wine fountain.” It worked very similarly to how soda fountains work. According to the gentleman guiding us through the wine tasting – he seemed to be the owner but I am not sure – the special fountain can keep the wines good for 30 days, although he quickly assured us that the wines are never in there that long.

A trip to the wine department at any store can be a little intimidating if you aren’t sure what you like. There are so many bottles, different types of grapes, different regions and a huge price range. You could buy a new bottle or two every time you go to the store but that can get expensive – unless of course you are okay with the extra expense and the possibility of wasting anywhere from $5 to $100 on a bottle you don’t like.

Well, Whole Foods Market has a nice solution to this, one that includes a lot of food! I’m not sure if every location does it, but the Mason Whole Foods hosts Uncorked! every Friday from 6-8 p.m. For $5 you get a nice little wine glass and a sheet of paper telling you about the wines you’re about to try. Then it’s up to you to navigate the store and lines to discover the wines and meals offered up for the week. I highly suggest bringing a friend or two – and chatting with the employees too.