In a world where new bars are hyped before they even get their liquor license, the pre-opening buzz can be deafening. In spite of the noise, these three bars met BB’s high expectations.

Bridge Urban Winery and Tasting Room
Concept: A tasting room for Greg Sandor and Paul Wegimont’s North Fork winery, Bridge Vineyards, and a retail store for their rotating selection of 30 Hudson Valley, Finger Lakes, and North Fork wines. Name also refers to their dead-on view of the Williamsburg Bridge, and the “bridge” they’re building between New York State wines and the New Yorkers who rarely drink them.
Reality: A beautiful, industrial-chic space where the “tastes” of select vintages, sold individually or in flights, are actually generous pours of surprisingly good wines, like a 2002 Broadfield Merlot and Bridge’s own 2001 Merlot (get over your “Sideways” bias). The owners’ fun, down-to-earth personalities makes this an unintimidating place to learn about local wine and cheese — like the pungent, Batch 35 from Sprout Creek Farm in Poughkeepsie. Also on the menu: crostini, and by Friday, panini. In two weeks Sang Lee Farms salads and local cheeses will be on sale, and this fall, Bridge will become a full-fledged urban winery when they ferment and age part of their 2008 harvest in-house. Open Wed.-Sun., 2 pm-12 am, 20 Broadway near Kent Ave., 718-384-2800, bridgevineyards.com

Beer Table
Concept: An intimate, South Slope “alt” pub for 30 with small-batch brews handpicked by former beer importer Justin Phillips, who has visited many of the breweries in person (or intends to).
Reality: Bench tables and stool seating give this tiny bar a warm, communal vibe, where Phillips and wife Tricia, a schoolteacher by day, preside like hosts of one big beer tasting party. The bottle list intrigues — a $13 Orval is described as “full, spicy, frothy, bitter” — but the beers on tap and cask are more affordable ($6-8), and just as interesting. (The fiery Allagash Curieux, aged in bourbon barrels, was one recent offering.) The $16 cheese and charcuterie plate constitutes the limited food selection, but upcoming events like the pizza and beer tasting with Pizza A Casa’s Mark Bello this Sat., March 8, 1-3pm, make up for it. Also promised by the end of the month: Justin’s own Schlenkerla sausage, made with Flying Pig Farms pork and the smoky malts from its namesake brewery in Bamberg, Germany. Open daily 5 pm-1 am, 427 B 7th Ave., 718-965-1196, beertable.com

Weather Up
Concept: Speakeasy-style cocktail bar on Prospect Heights’ booming Vanderbilt Ave., with classic drinks prepared in the style of Milk and Honey master mixologist Sasha Petraske, who trained the staff. No food now, but come May, they’ll serve oysters in their 650-sq.-ft. garden.
Reality: The first classic cocktail bar in Brooklyn with a straightforward drink list that won’t give you a headache, or a heart attack from the sticker shock. All seven drinks on the current list, like the delicious Presbyterian, a smooth, gingery rye cocktail, are $11, and so expertly mixed it’s worth the splurge, and the time it takes the bartender to hand-chip the ice. Drinks come with a metal straw, an unmistakable Petraske stamp that you can buy (rather than steal). The bar is not a total Manhattan import though: Both Kathryn Weatherup and partner Matthew Maddy, who designed the jewel box space with its brass bar and gorgeous subway tiled ceiling, live nearby. Open Tues-Sun., 7 pm-3 am, 589 Vanderbilt Ave., no phone or site.

Photo of Bridge Tasting Room by Michael Harlan Turkell.