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Ah, spring, a time of year when signs of life pop-up around the city, from trees blossoming in Central Park, to cleavage. Also popping up, a new wine bar from the Turks & Frogs guys: The Drunken Horse.

Split into an intimate, glass door'd wooden bar dimly lit by wrought iron-framed paper lanterns & sparsely populated with mirrors/small paintings, plus an equally quaint exposed brick dining room, the retractable glass-fronted Horse is a spankin' fresh grapehooch joint from the well-versed T&F crew; the name comes from a film about a Kurdish youth who smuggles truck tires into Iraq on horses they feed liqueur to keep warm, which sounds hilarious except everyone dies or something. Weighing in at just under 50 carefully-selected, reasonably priced globe trotting vinos (half avail by the glass), the tipple menu hits Champagne, Cava, and Prosecco before moving to the whites like Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand's Clifford Bay, and Pinot Grigio from Italy's Cesari Due Torri, and reds from Jean Bousquet's '07 Malbec (Argentina) to Pinot Noir from Oregon's Primarius -- hey, after surviving dysentery, snake bites, and river forgings, getting a drink would be your primary concern too. Beyond the bottle, a focused selection of cheeses is similarly itinerant (Le Marechal from Switzerland, Farmhouse Cheddar from England...), charcuterie includes prosciutto di Parma and Turkish pastrami, and there're Med apps like eggplant w/ tomatoes & green pepper sauce, a feta-stuffed fried phyllo roll, and grilled cheese sandos filled with pastrami or "dry beef sausage" (dry beef being what happens when two Englishmen don't see eye to eye).

End-of-dinner options max at two on either side, with avail quaffs being two ports from Rozes (a late bottle vintage and a tawny), and desserts comprised of baklava and chocolate truffles, which regardless of the season will help you blossom into more you.

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Embrace your inner wino and check out the menus at DrunkenHorse.net