Wine! Wine! and some culture at the SFMOMA

Lending to my fascination, near obsession with all things red wine, my friend Melissa and I hit up the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's How Wine Became Modern: Design + Wine 1976 to Present one rainy Saturday in December. The exhibit opened November 20, 2010 through April 17, 2011 and was surprisingly not busy for a rainy day in the city. The exhibit was great, but we could have used some wine tasting to go along with all our education. The exhibit is a combination of artwork, a "smell wall", installations of cheeky wine bottles, architectural models, historical artifacts and a collection of Riedel glassware and some very creative and not-so-useful decanters and carafes. The exhibit aims to educate the visitor regarding wine making, globalization of wine, popular media, and glassware and winery design. My favorite part was the "smell wall", an assortment of bottles resembling old perfume bottles which you could pinch to get a whiff of the wine. I really didn't think my smeller would work properly, but I was able to smell out the difference between a Pinot Noir and Merlot, thank you very much. Another highlight was the wall of wine bottles from angel/heaven themes to the devil and back. I was surprised to find there were so many interesting labels out there, definitely not your run of the mill grocery store bottles. The exhibit takes about a half hour to explore, depending on your fascination with wine, plan on more time if you are really in the mood to learn about soil composition.
Don't forget the SFMOMA Perfect Pairings: Special Offers

Save your ticket stub or use your annual membership to receive discounts during the run of the exhibit. You can get banging deals at local wineries in and around the city offering two-for-one discounts and even complimentary tastings. Put your knowledge to work!