When I learned last year that the Contemporary Resort’s new restaurant, The Wave, opened with one of the only (if not the only) wine programs in the country offering all screw-top wines, I couldn’t wait to explore.

Choosing The Wine for The Wave
The choice to make the screw-top wine list was instituted in part as way to avoid “cork taint,” which is a chemical compound called TCA. With it, mold, chlorine, and other organic compounds can combine to produce a musty smell and flavor to the wine, which has been a particular problem with corked wines. (One interesting twist is that, while The Wave promotes a menu and spirit based on sustainable and environmentally-friendly dining, the screw-cap might not be the best environmental choice.)

A second twist to the wine list is that it is focused on wines from the Southern Hemisphere — bottles from Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, etc. This creates a fun contradiction to the Northern Hemisphere-focused wine list of the California Grill upstairs in the Contemporary Resort.

Another Wave Wine Fact: Keeping It Fresh
So you can bet that, as soon as I took a seat at the bar, I started asking questions! I even got a demonstration as the answer to one of my questions: How do they keep all of those wines fresh when they’re serving by the glass?

The bartender was willing to share the secret with me: vacuum-sealing! While this isn’t a new technology to keep wines fresh, it was new to me, and I was duly impressed.

Simply put in this little rubber cork, then suck out the air with the vacuum pump. Brilliant. The best part is, you can snag a wine vacuum sealer for yourself from shops like sharper image.

Relaxing at The Wave
I’ll be putting up my full review of The Wave soon, but I highly recommend heading over to the restaurant’s lounge and sampling some Southern Hemisphere favorites that you haven’t tried before. The cool, comfortable atmosphere and knowledgeable cast members make it a fun spot to unwind after a long day in the parks.

FYI, if you need a suggestion, John Blazon, master sommelier and manager of wine sales and standards for Disney, has said that the Veramonte Reserva Chardonnay from Casablanca Valley, Chile, is a top seller.