Constance Wine Room

Good: Talented pianist & some singers stop in Some nice quality wines available.
Bad: Seems mostly to be a local meat market for insiders. Noisy.

awsome place. must visit. customer service is great. Dexter and Shane knows their wine. i live so far away… but i want to take all my friends there once

A great place to have a glass and a chat. We were waiting for our reservations next door and a friend of ours was waiting at the bar. We walked over and she had glasses of red wine ready for us. We cheers together and enjoyed the live piano music as we talked and gossiped. The ambiance was rustic, mellow and classy. We stood by the bar the entire time, but only stayed for a glass. I saw people sitting at the tables by the window and waiting for tapas — it was busy for a Friday night! I didn’t have a chance to check out the menu but I am excited for the next time I am in town.

Lovely people and lovely wine!
I love the ambiance here. Im here on a Thursday and there is a jazz pianist. I love it.
Today they had a tasting from Manzoni wines. Since I love Port wine I have to say that was my favorite.
My favorite wine flight was the Oh wines. So delicious!

Honestly, I can’t see how this place get’s five stars. I work in the wine business and know a little something about wine, but our server did not. He knew nothing about the wine flight we ordered, was slow to the table and just down right clunky. He told us that the cava on the menu was from Italy.
Also, do not spend the extra $ 12 on the «cheese» plate. We received a large ice cream sized hunk of goat cheese, some store bought crackers and grapes with seeds! Crunch, crunch! No napkins, forks, places. We had to lick our fingers after each bite.
Oh, the wines they served were down right terrible.
Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.

I have a wonderful time everytime I am here. The manager Dexter is always available and making sure everything is going smoothly and everyone is having a good time. They have live music (piano) and often encourage people to join in if they choose. Truly a great time if you love wine.

Rustic, chic yet lively Wine room serving great wines accompanied by amazing piano music. We tried two of their red reserves and absolutely loved it. There is an option to order appetizers from neighboring greek restaurant ! Service was fast, ambiance was great and view of the street were lovely. Perfecto i say !

Great wine bar on Ocean Ave next door to Dametra Café. The two have a partnership and I think it’s a great idea. The bar has awesome wines at a fair price.
While you are waiting to eat at Dametra it’s great to have somewhere warm you can drink and choose a bottle of wine for dinner. They have live music almost every night and everyone is very friendly.
If you are having dinner at Dametra or just want some good wine Constance Wine Bar is the place to be.

Great place to try some unique sparkling wines.

The idea and concept of this place seems like it would fit nicely in Carmel however I would have to say that it is very poorly executed. It’s all very confusing from the start, there is no noticeable storefront sign indicating that the operating business is actually Constance, we had to ask the staff if we were in the correct location. There are hardly any seats at all at the bar and we weren’t sure if it was a tasting room or just a bar. We choose to do single taste from the menu and during our tasting, the staff could tell you the name of what they were pouring but nothing more. It was pretty loud which is not necessarily conducive for tasting. Worst part, some one ordered food from next door and they served an entire meal to them which I normally wouldn’t mind but the food that was ordered was FISH. The entire room smelled like fish, it was so pungent I couldn’t even taste my wine. When finally got someones attention to settle our bill, the employee took my card to the back room to run it, which kind of freaked me out with scares of credit card fraud.
Don’t think I will be back until I hear of changes.

I love this place! Definitely a charming and romantic place to have a drink. Everyone is so warming and it is always social and fun. Dexter is a great host, he knows how to make everyone feel like they’re home and well taken care of. I’ll be a regular.

The people here are amazingly friendly. The service here is topnotch. I came here with friends and felt so welcome and at home. The vibe is awesome and the food is delicious. Definitely one of Carmel’s treasures. The owner Dexter is extremely inviting and will take great care if you. Can’t wait to go back!

Great new wine bar on the main drag in Carmel. It straddles the space between trendy and cozy quite nicely. There is a laid back vibe and doesn’t feel too old (like many places in Carmel). The staff and the owner, Dexter, are very helpful and really great people to chat with about wine, the area, etc.
Nice selection of local and international wines (including a South African pinotage). Their bottle prices are also market rates, which is nice. I would highly recommend!

Just so happens we stumble into this wine room while waiting for a seat at the Greek Restaurant right next door.
Dexter was a pleasant and charismatic gentleman that greeted all his customers in the wine room. This establishment puts everyone in a comfort where all worries go out the door as you walk in and purely ENJOY the moment right in front of your eyes.
As you sit and enjoy your glass of wine from the the list, live music is provided for your experience and to get you into a groovy jazzy mood. Nose the glass, then swirl the wine around while you watch those legs run down the side of the glass, as you picture the grapes that produced the wine you’re about to taste…
While we were there, we were able to experience a piano soloist and a jazz group with a muted trumpet, percussionist and piano.

A nice little shop with exceptional wines & very nice staff. Just decided to stop in after shopping in Carmel & I was glad we did.

I am quite skeptical when it comes to trying new wine bars. This place pleasantly surprised me: interesting wine list full of local wines (and by local I mean Central California: Monterey) with a couple of surprises from South Africa. Very intimate atmosphere, piano (even piano man!), very friendly local folks you’d enjoy chatting with and knowledgeable bartneders. A very classy place. Great spot to wait on your reserved late-​evening dinner in one of the Carmel’s nicest restaurant. and if you’ve been to Carmel you know you need to make a RSVP ahead of time and still wait.

Pretty good wine bar, right off the main drag (Ocean Ave). The wife and I were looking to get saucy and wandered into Constance, which was fairly empty at the time. Our bartender was super friendly and gave some great recommendations for places to check out, namely the killer Mediterranean spot next door (Dametra Café).
If you like zins, the sexual chocolate blend is fantastic.
Apparently the wine scene in Carmel is only a 2 – 3 year-​old phenomenon. That’s total madness if you ask me given how perfectly wine seems to «fit» with Carmel’s vibe. Madness!

It’s not what you’d expect from a wine bar, it’s more like all the good stuff and none of the stuffiness or corporate imagery.
Constance Wine Room is like a big family who actually likes one another, getting together to celebrate something awesome with some really great wine.
Walter W. reviewed the wine room in an earlier review, and I am quite sure that it was my Opus One bottle he was referring to, as I believe I am one of two people who have purchased a bottle from the space: the bottle was for drinking later, I assured them it was not to be drunk at the time, and they did want to put some pomp and volume into the idea of a big bottle being purchased. As for the proper techniques: Yes, if we were to be drinking it that night, we would have specified that the staff hold it delicately, in the same position, uncorked it and decanted it in a similar fashion to keep the sediment at the bottle’s interior shoulder so we could enjoy the nectar of the God’s properly without filtering, sediment or jostling.
We enjoyed the presentation much more when everyone got to see such a nice bottle purchased (I tend to be a bit vain at times, sorry).
There is an excellent Sommellier that pours here at Constance Wine Room, himself a boutique winemaker named Nate Castillo, who properly presented a bottle of the same Opus One later in the week for us to consume at the Room. I was impressed by the care and attention to detail he used on our purchase. The bottle’s are hard to find and Walter and others are correct when they say that Dexter and his people have an excellent selection and a great vibe.
It’s eclectic, mellow but not stodgy; there are very talented pianists and singers on a regular basis and I have met several celebrities there (big names) who seemed to be grateful as I am for the great new concept without the hype and without the commercialism of normal wine bars.
It’s on par with the lower Napa Valley wine Rooms price wise, but even with the best tasting experiences outside of strictly estate/​maker rooms. Here I don’t feel pressured to get only a single label and I know these guys are going to treat me well.
It’s the type of place you go for a nice evening out when you want to feel special.
Highly recommended. Warning: you’ll fast become friends with the staff, so be forewarned :)

Enjoyed a nice time with friends at this great wine room in Carmel. The ambience was excellent, awesome service, live piano music and friendly staff that made us feel at home.

Constance Wine Room is a brand new wine bar in Carmel. So new in fact that they are still hanging paintings on the walls and there’s no sign out front. Even without being clearly marked, it’s easy to find in downtown on the corner of Lincoln and Ocean.
There’s live music most nights and they even let me sit on the bar and play a song on the house guitar. If you’re hungry you can order from the menu of Dametra Café which is right next door and have it delivered to your table.
But who cares about any of that, it’s about the wine and atmosphere, right? The wine selection is full of great options like the SLO Down Wine’s 2010 Sexual Chocolate and where most wine bars makes me feel like I probably should have dressed up more and pretended to care about my investment portfolio, Constance instead offered a zero pretense vibe that should be accessible to costumers of all levels of experience.
I have a feeling that this place is going to grow in to a popular destination for locals and tourists alike, do yourself a favor and check it out.