Local Wine Bar Gets Artsy

By Liv Stecker

I have never fancied myself an artist. But for one night, it seemed like a reasonable idea to test my inclinations. It helped that the one night included wine and snacks and a bevy of pretty fun ladies.

ChewVino opened in Chewelah in December of 2013. The first wine bar to grace rural Stevens County, it has grown in the last 14 months to include over 100 wines, mostly from the Northwest region and now including some California varietals. In addition to an impressive assortment of boutique wines that are hard to find in major retailers, ChewVino keeps a rotating tap of local beer handy. ChewVino is housed in one of Chewelah’s oldest buildings, originally the Post Office, which has since served as a newspaper print shop, a private residence, and after a little hard work, a wine bar with the ambiance of a European beatnick café and the friendly approachability of a small town pub. From Barrister Winery in Spokane, and China Bend out of Northport, to Middle Sister from California, the wines at ChewVino cover the spectrum of styles and flavors – appealing to all wine types. They have a few local micro brews on tap for the non-wine drinkers in the group. ChewVino also offers a full bistro menu of artisan foods, including pizza and sandwiches. A great switch from the local bar scene, ChewVino provides a quiet, upbeat environment for a get together or a romantic date.

Armed with nothing but a spirit of adventure and backed up by one of my best and most fearless friends, we traveled south for the January version of Van Gogh and Merlot, a wine and painting class that is hosted by ChewVino and put on by a company out of Spokane by the same name. Owner Ulysses Mireles relocated to Spokane from San Antonio, Texas and launched the Van Gogh and Merlot business with the motto: “Learn to paint while you enjoy a drink.” For $45, participants are equipped with a canvas, brushes, paints and a step-by-step lesson in a room full of amateurs and a few sneaky professionals feigning ignorance. The price of a ticket also includes your first glass of wine and an appetizer buffet – if you can find room to juggle a plate of food in your workspace.

The easels are set up cheek to cheek, and the bistro is packed. It’s a sell out crowd and the few cancelations are quickly filled up, plus some, with last minute walk-ins. The theme for the night is a Winter Scene, and I am fairly certain that my inner Renoir is just dying to get out. The red blend that I start out with is all of the reassurance that I need to secure my artistic confidence, and after an hour of socializing with the girls at the table next to us, and realizing our snacks need to be consumed before we can get work done, the lesson begins.

Van Gogh and Merlot is a business out of Spokane that travels to group locations for parties from 5-25 people, bringing everything you need to discover the artist unaware in your midst. For ChewVino, it’s a great way to give people a reason to come together, traveling upward of 50 miles, to try some new wines, meet some new people and learn some new skills.

The painting class splits the group into two, and walks each group individually, step by step through the process of putting something that resembles a winter scene out of water based acrylic paints onto a canvas. Whether the wine is to blame, the natural artistic inclinations of the group, or just good teaching, the result at the end of the night was astonishing. While all 40 women were instructed with identical steps for the exact same picture, the variety of results was vast. All in some way hearkened back to the original print that we were trying to imitate, but each painting had it’s own personality, it’s own panache. From table to table you could see certain trends that could not necessarily be tracked back to the wine choice of that particular group, but perhaps the influence, neighbor to neighbor, of painting techniques.

Above all, the evening was a barrel of laughs. We met new friends and even reconnected with some old ones. We enjoyed the wine and the painting, and while my position on not being an artist remains unchanged, my youngest daughter was wildly impressed with my mad brush skillz, so it wasn’t a total artistic loss. Whether for an evening with Van Gogh and Merlot, which is offered two nights a month now, and usually sold out well in advance, or just for a quiet dinner for two, ChewVino is worth the visit.