A free wine magazine written by young people in Boston - a nice find. I think this is a great idea for mere plebians like me who like wine but don't have the budget, the advanced age and the snobbery to handle normal wine magazines. Hey - they had a feature on how best to spray champagne on your friends - I doubt you'd see that in Wine Spectator. I got my copy through my friend who does their photos (inside link disclaimer!) but I think you can pick up copies in Trident bookstore and some liquor stores around town. There was a useful ratings scheme for the wine indicating which ones would be best to take to house parties and which to take to dinners and dates. Kind of like a cheat-sheet. Annoyingly there's only one issue (EDIT: 2 now) so far but the website seems to get updated frequently. I guess you can't complain too much if it's for free and tells you how to open a champagne bottle with a sword. read more

Second Glass - what a waste! - Party & Event Planning Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

I love The Second Glass! I'm a huge wino, and like the people who work at The Second Glass, I'm not all about being pretentious and snooty about it. Wine is fun (and not to mention delicious) and I support anyone who thinks the same. I volunteered to help at Wine Riot! a few weeks ago, and I had a blast! I got to meet with awesome Wine Representatives, try wine from all over the world, and I got to ask stupid questions without anyone judging me. Also, the people who work at The Second Glass are so down to earth. They work and play hard, and they are all such positive people. If you want to learn about wine, these are the best people you could possibly learn from. Wonderful publication run by great people. read more

I don't understand wine. My knowledge of it primarily comes from Billy Joel songs about there being red, white, and something called rose, which you can apparently have if you like. And all of these are acceptable at an Italian restaurant where people commiserate about failed marriages and Sears purchases. I digress. I recently won VIP tickets to Wine Riot, The Second Glass' major event at Cyclorama. With a far more experienced friend in tow (Dave M.), I came to the event worried that I would have no idea what I was doing. Instead, I got the opportunity to experience wine in a no pressure situation, allowing me to learn far more than I would have at a traditional wine tasting. However, my experience may have been particularly good because of the VIP event status (I did have a chance to go to and talk to many of the distributors/vineyard-types). What gives The Second Glass that last push up to 5 stars is the amount of information they have on good, affordable wine. While I've primarily experienced this in email form, it's still a lot of great information. With picks for under $20, and suggestions for different situations and events, it's an incredible resource. Overall, The Second Glass does what it's supposed to do: make the world of wine a lot less frightening. By the end of Wine Riot, I could judge which of three New Zealand Cabarnet Sauvignons had the strongest taste versus the more subtle ones. While I'll always be partial to beer, it's nice to know the little things for situations where wine comes up. read more

I've always wanted to know more about wine. I tried a podcast a few years ago and didn't get anything from it. I dabbled around a little - but buying a bottle of wine with no real idea if I'd like it is scary and expensive trial and error. I'd gone to a few tastings but not really retained any relevant information. So I sort of gave up and stuck to my comfort zone (the Riesling, et. al.) or just drank booze. Then I found myself on the arm of a wine drinker, a red wine drinker, a red wine drinker who loves wine and wants me to love wine too. And while I *want* to love wine...it hasn't worked in the past. What's a girl to do? Enter The Second Glass and their Crash Courses. They make learning about wine super fun! I've been to two classes and I feel like I learned so much in each one. Louis & Tyler are a great team- they are both total characters and seem to have an endless supply of anecdotes and neat factoids. I've learned not just what I like, but how to drink it. I've tried wines that I would never have picked up, and liked wines that I think I've sipped before and made faces about. I'm all about expanding my palette and learning new things. Also, classes are a great date activity - leaving tipsy is just a bonus. read more

The Second Glass was a fabulous idea and I wish I had come up with it. It's a business that promotes the knowledge of affordable wine through wine tastings (which is how I most frequently come into contact with it), emails, and I hear a magazine, though I've never seen it. What I really like about the Second Glass folks is their focus on being unpretentious about wine. Here's the deal - wine is great, and we can all enjoy it, and it's that simple. We just all have to figure out what we like. I go to their crash courses in Davis Square, which are always a generous amount of wine for $10 ($11 online) along with information about what we're drinking, which inevitably gets more interesting as more glasses are poured. Now, at eight wines a tasting, I am well on my way to knowing myself and my favorite types of wine. Yesterday I went to Wine Riot, organanized by the Second Glass, in which I had 4 hours to sample 250 wines. And a lot of those wines were fantastic. It was a great opportunity to try everything, ask the vendors questions and have quite a bit of fun (especially in the photo booth) And yes I did learn stuff! But no, not really towards the end... In short - very fun, and informative. Makes me feel good about myself. And who wouldn't give that five stars?! read more

Attended "Muscadet, Shuck Yeah!" and I can honestly say I have never attended a more poorly organized event ever. Arrived at 7:30 with my friend, encountered line #1 outside. Waited in that line for about 10-15 minutes, and that was the shortest wait of all the lines I was going to experience that night. After the obligatory ID check, we waited in line #2 for wine. 15 minutes later we got a pour of wine that barely coated the bottom of the plastic cup. I tasted more plastic than wine. Line #3 was for the oysters. Price of admission included three tickets for oysters. The line for this was horrendously long. At least 30-40 minutes for the wait. When we got to the front we could see why - they had one guy shucking oysters! Given the fact that they had sold 400 tickets and each one of those people would get 3 oysters, do you think it might be a good idea to have some already shucked?? And maybe a small army of shuckers?? A second guy did come to help, while we were there, but still. So we get our oysters and there are no condiments - no hot sauce, no lemons, no horseradish, no cocktail sauce, no ketchup, no pepper, nothing!! We got our three oysters, sucked them down and moved on. Line #4 - upstairs for more wine. Another 15-20 minutes. At least when we got there the pour was decent (about 3oz). We commented on the generous pour (compared to the last light coating) and the attendant said she felt sorry for the people waiting in line, so kudos to her for that. Unfortunately, that particular Muscadet was terrible and I couldn't even finish it. Passed hors d'oeuvres were devoured by the lucky folks who happened to be standing outside the kitchen doors when the server eventually came out. They never managed to get more than 3 feet from the door before the plate was empty. The only area where there wasn't a line was for the chowder, and with good reason - it was disgusting. Weak, thin, flavourless, bland - I could go on. Only the oyster crackers were good. We never stayed for the shucking competition, so I can't comment on that. I've got much better things to do on a Saturday night. What an absolute waste of $25. I couldn't wait to get the shuck out of there. read more

What a cool thing to have in Boston. The VIP night in the Federal Courthouse was an awe-inspiring event... so many table, so little time. I did not expect the full extent to which everything was laid out and organized. The WIne Courses were awesome. There was one on the difference between California and French takes on varietals and it was both informing and entertaining. The lovely couple who brought there wines to taste were so much fun - stories, jokes, a little spilled wine... it was great. I liked the food tables that were set up. Didn't love them but I guess the setup makes sense for such an event. The maddened rush in the last 10 minutes to try all the ports that I'd eyed earlier may have made my trip home a bit harder. The photo booth was fun. The picture I have of my girlfriend and I dressed up like French spies is still sitting on my desk. I'd REALLY like it to be possible to get digital copies of the photos taken, especially if printouts have been paid for. It was such a good time at the last wine riot that six more of us have rounded up for the Night of the Bubbles. It wasn't even fair, really. Sparkling wine and cupcakes? My girlfriend didn't know which to freak out about. read more

I attended the "Muscadet, Shuck Yeah!". I don't know who the "shuck" planned this event, but it was horrible. There were so many pointless lines, I thought I was at the DMV. We waited outside to show our ID. We were given 3 tickets for oysters that we had to wait probably 45 minutes in line for. And not the 45 minutes that you hear people complaining about that is really like only 10 minutes, but actually 45 minutes. I mean c'mon. You invited 400 people to your event. You called it "Muscadet, Shuck Yeah!" It would stand to reason that you would have a lot of oysters there and several people shucking them. I mean this only seems logical. They had people handing out very average apps, but they were instantly attacked by the ravenously hungry crowds who were just waiting in line for 3 oysters. None of which had the options of horseradish, red sauce, white sauce or anything. C'mon peeps, at least some ketchup would have been something. To add to it, the wine lines were also very long and the wine was average at best. To make matters worse, they gave you a young child's size pour. If this was a normal wine tasting and there were a lot of options, that would have been fine. But after waiting in a long line for a drink, at least give us a teenagers portion. The only thing that these guys did right was not call it the "Muscadet, clam chowder Yeah". I was excited to see that there was finally no line at the clam chowder line. Then I tried some. Holy no flavor Batman. Talk about tasteless, thin, lack of clams and potatoes chowder. They should have just called it white flavorless water. Thank god they had oyster crackers to get rid of the aweful taste. What a waste of $$$. read more

Thanks to these guys (the magazine is written, published, and all that by friends of mine; consider this your disclaimer) I now know infinitely more about wine than I did mere months ago. Admittedly, I had zero knowledge of wine before, but now I've got ...much much more than zero! It's a great local wine magazine aimed towards the younger crowd of winos, so all the reviews and article are on topics, bars, shops, and bottles that are actually within the purview of the young Bostonite. You should be able to find copies in wine/liquor shops around town, and probably some copies lying around in convenient places like on the T. It's free and it's full of great information that you just might find useful. So why not check it out? read more

Here's my praise for The Second Glass: It (they) made me drink wine. More, they made me upgrade from Charles Shaw into cabernet francs and sherries, sparkling rosés and carmeneres. They made me swirl and sniff. The magazine is great, but better are the crash courses and uber-event Wine Riot. The courses are a lot of knowledge (and a lot of drinks) packed into each session, which at $10 is a steal. I don't know how either the magazine or event plays to real wine aficionados -- they definitely pitch towards a newbie crowd -- but for a neophyte, they're unbeatable, especially since everything (or at least just about everything) they review is under $20. Pick up one of their bottles, scratch off the price tag, and judge everybody else at your next fancy dinner, because for a magazine for younguns who don't know wine from kool-aid and vodka, the taste here is impeccable and wide-flung. Underpriced obscure grapes almost always trump big labels from France or California. So, pick up a copy, or better yet, go to an event. I can't imagine you won't be hooked immediately. read more

I actually don't like or drink wine that much (minus a few eventful evenings with a cheap resisling). But I like The Second Glass! We stock it in my restaurant and people often grab because it's free and it's something new. The covers are always interesting looking and you can read the articles without 20 pages of ads falling on you. It's also great that it's done by some local Boston folks, who I know work really really hard. read more

I attended their "Muscadet, Shuck Yeah!" event last night. While I could tell some of their staff were trying hard to keep the crowds happy, not enough proper planning into the event & its execution that night was poor. I arrived with my husband around 7:35 (the event was from 7-10pm) and after a quick ID & ticket check, we were each given a glass for our wine tastings. We waited in line at the first bar area (there were 3 total) and after about 10 mins, we had our first pour. We then proceeded into the main event space where we saw a line snaking its way from the oyster table around the perimeter of the room past the chowder table and photo area to the front of the stage. *sigh* Time to wait in line. Thankfully, while we were waiting in line, one of the staff came around with bottles of Muscadet to pour which was a saving grace since the room was getting fairly hot and stuffy. We waited in line for about 30-40 minutes before making it up to the oyster table for our 3 oysters. As another reviewer commented, there were no condiments available - just slurp them down and move along. The oysters were just okay. I think I would have appreciated it better if I weren't in a rush to slurp them down and let others have their go. The chowder was pretty thin and lacked salt but they were generous with the portions. The lobster rolls I think were replaced with lobster salad atop a phyllo tart - pretty tasty but you had to wait for a long while for things to come out of the kitchen and unless you were right there as they exited, you were unlikely to be successful at grabbing anything to eat. Also, 2 of the 3 bars ran out of wine which meant one very crowded bar area. The oyster shucking contest was fun to watch but I couldn't really hear what was going on as the acoustics were not set-up properly I think. All in all, the event was just okay. While I enjoyed some of the Muscadet and the lobster tarts were tasty, I'm hesitant to return to another event and wait in more lines for a few pieces of seafood. read more

The Wine Riot is a really fun event that happens in Boston and several other major cities. It is a great way to try wines if you are a novice and an even better way to try even more wines if you are a wine lover. This is my second riot and once again I enjoyed myself. I took a friend to the Saturday Riot, second service. For over 2,000 attendees in a weekend, there was still plenty of wine to go around. Most booths pour between 1 to 2 ounce pours, but with other 250 bottles to sample, you are at least getting a full bottle of wine, which, hopefully, none of you are Frank the Tanks, ha ha! The photo booth and stick on tattoos give the event a whimsical touch. It really lightens the mood along with the good DJ. Add a great selection of food, it turns into a pretty good value for a night out in Boston. My only complaints was the $3 coat check. I have been to other beer/wine shows before at Park Castle and there has never been a charge for a coat check. I could understand if it was for a charity, but it didn't seem like it. Lastly, the venue was different this time. I liked the Riot at the Cyclorama last year. It just seemed more glamorous, but the Castle was alright. I cannot wait till the next Riot! I will be back! read more

Great deal with interesting and knowledgeable events and of course, great wines to try! Can't wait for it to come to NY in the fall

We had high hopes for Wine Riot but were a little disappointed. The event is certainly fun but had a lot of downsides and ultimately was not worth $50 per person: - really too crowded so had to wait at each booth before trying the wine - crowdedness also meant loudness so it was really hard to converse with the people at the booths about their wine; we basically had only 1 meaningful conversation about wine because everyone serving was just overwhelmed and had to pour wines for a million different people at once - most of the wines were priced around $10-25, which is great if you are looking for affordable daily wines but not so great if you wanted to taste something interesting. I would say this event is targeted at people who are trying to get into wine for the first time and just want to warm up their palates. For us, we have had a lot of experience drinking wines but still didn't actually know that much about wines. So we were hoping to learn more about different varietals and wine making techniques and to taste some more unique wines. We ended up just feeling that the wines were more run of the mill. read more

This review is for the wine riot hosted by second glass on 10/23 All the wine you can drink and maybe learn something too? Perfect. I had a really great time, ran into lots of my friends, and tried wines from all over the world. My favorite wineries/companies were the ones where the reps were well-versed in their wines, had favories that they recommended and told you something about the wine. Least favorite were the ones who assumed you were there to get wasted, poured a splash and said nothing (that's you, Greece!) I asked someone to tell me about the wine, and she told me the name of it and where it came from....that's it....I guess she thought I couldn't read My only gripe was that my friend got in line late, they told her they were oversold, refunded her money...she waited 30 min and they let her in for free and kept telling her how 'lucky' she was to get in for free. I wasn't aware that paying for a ticket in advance got this kind of treatment. Overall a great time and lots of fun...and yelp was there representing! read more

Attended my first "Second Glass" event last week at the Boston Wine Riot. What a great concept and what a fantastic time. Many different wines to try and all of the exhibitors and volunteers working the event were super friendly. Also loved the temporary tatoo, which is still fully in tact 3 days later. With all that wine, my only suggestion is to consider some additional food options. There were free samples of chocolate and cookies, and then for a nominal fee, Roxy's grilled cheese and Upper Crust pizza. The Roxy grilled cheese was REALLY good, but there were no tables to eat at and a few additional food options would have been great. All in all a great time and we will definitely return next year! read more

I have attended a few events where Second Glass has been serving up wine but the 2011 Beaujolais Nouveau release party was my first actual Second Glass event. I ended up getting free tickets for this but would have gladly spent $25 for unlimited wine and food (hellooo macaroni & cheese grilled cheese from Roxy's). The space was great, the staff was friendly and excited, food and drinks were top notch, and there were lots of fun little extras -- a dress up photo booth, postcard making station, and a pedicab waiting outside to bring me home! After seeing how well this event was run I'm definitely going to try to attend the Wine Riot. read more

I attended my fourth Second Glass event this past weekend (my 3rd Wine Riot!) I thought it was great, per usual. There were a ton of featured wines, a fair amount of food (including free samples from Cabot Cheese, yum), and long lines for the bathroom. The prices have only gone up by $5.00 per ticket since my first Boston Wine Riot! three years ago, so I can't complain about that. It's still a decent price for the amount of wine I am able to consume over the course of four hours! read more

Went to their Muscadet\Oyster event. What a MISTAKE!! Lines everywhere-they had 2 people shucking oysters for 400 people;then after waiting 45 minutes to get 3!! Oysters they had NO!! condiments[hot sauce;lemons;cocktail sauce;vinegar] NOTHING. Couldnt find the lobster rolls? or crab cakes? and the CHOWDA? tasted like dirty water with a few potatoes. How about a little salt[salt is inexpensive. Now to the Muscadet-a delicious white wine from the Loire valley that should be drunk YOUNG!! So why do you have 2006;2007 vintages?? Leftover wine nobody will buy? Without a doubt SO!! you charge $25 for wine nobody would buy;for 3 oysters with NO condiments[imagine going to Fenway and getting a hotdog with no bun or mustard!!!!!!!!!!!!] and horrible chowda and hidden lobster rolls. NEVER go to any of their events;they do not care about their guests;only about THEIR pocketbooks read more

I went to Wine Riot a year ago in Boston. I've tried to "like" wine on several different occasions to no avail. Upon winning a contest, I was awarded tickets to Wine Riot. I have never encountered more pretentious hosts than at this event. I was constantly barraged with questions about why I was there if I did not like wine. I won't ever return, paid or otherwise. read more