The scene on a recent Wednesday night at 58 Degrees and Holding Co. looked like a typical night at the midtown wine bar. There were lots of people, lots of chatting, and there was lots of wine.

But for a guy like Chris Voight, who was sitting at a tall table, talking with people around him, just being there made it anything but normal.

"I'm not really a bar guy," he said. "And I'm a wine ignoramus."

Yet there he was, holding a glass of 2006 Crios Syrah/ Bonarda, a 50-50 blend of the two red grapes from Argentina, where Bonarda is the second-most-grown red grape.

You want to talk about a man out of his comfort zone. Voight was sampling a blend he'd never heard of, from a country he barely knew made wine, and he was comparing the taste with friends.

Voight is a primo example of what's been going on in wine bars and restaurants throughout the region. Wine tastings – particularly Wednesday-night wine tastings in the wine bars – have been drawing more and more people out to play and sneaking in a little wine education to boot.

"The feel of this place isn't a bar," said Voight, a Carmichael resident. "It's just comfortable, and I keep learning the names of wines I've never heard of."

A couple of his friends, Brenda Naron and Alisa Lee, were nearby, also talking about the wines. They both said they started going to the Wednesday tastings for the easy social atmosphere and ended up coming back regularly to learn more and to talk with people about wine.

"You can have real conversations, and I learn from everyone around me," Naron said.

Many of the wine bars in the region, including L Wine Lounge and Urban Kitchen in midtown, Wine Konnection in El Dorado Hills and Back Wine Bar in Folsom, have picked Wednesdays for this little trick.

One of the reasons so many wine bars do Wednesdays is they're trying to stretch the social week (although a few, like the Winestyles in Rocklin, are going with Thursdays). Generally, hump day is a stay-home night for lots of people, and the wine bars figure it's both good business and a good little communal move to get folks out and mingling.

"We're already busy on Friday night," said Jeff Back of Back Wine. "Our Wednesday tastings have turned into a regular social event. I try to get people to try new wines and on some days I do a little PowerPoint (projecting wine information on TV screens), but really, it's mostly a social event."

Grady O'Bryant, who runs Sacramento Wine and Nightlife Tours, organizes the "Wine Down Wednesdays" at Mason's across from Capitol Park. He has found that his events also have developed a partial business-networking air to them.

O'Bryant brings foothill winemakers to his Wednesday tastings, which is another form of networking, because, as he says, it gives the wineries some exposure to people who might not get up there to taste.

Most of all, the events are smooth, happy little introductions to wine, in as low-key and friendly a way possible. Generally, the wine bars offer four or five wines for $10. Usually, they start early, like 5 or 6 p.m. Sometimes there's food, sometimes the wineries pour the wines, and sometimes the wine bar folks pick a theme and pour the choices themselves.

What's consistent everywhere is how comfortable the feel is, and how it's very hard not to learn a little about wine at these things.

Last Wednesday night at L Wine Lounge, wine director Jonathan Klonecke was pouring and answering questions about wines from Neyers Vineyards in Napa.

In between, he said their Wednesday tastings tend to inspire more of those questions than usual.

"A lot of people are usually hesitant to ask," Klonecke said. "They think they don't know enough and don't want to look dumb. But at these, everyone gets really excited when they find something they like, and the atmosphere is so relaxed, everyone engages. Even when they don't like something, they have no problem telling me."

A few feet away, Rachael Lankford was tasting Neyers' 2006 Old Lakeville Road Syrah and liking it. She was also liking the feel of the evening, and the chance to talk wine. She works for the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau, but she's friends with Klonecke and has spent enough time in the restaurant business to know a decent amount about wine.

"This is still a great opportunity for me to get out and socialize and to learn something, too," she said, "When you have someone like Jonathan doing the tasting, it breaks down all the pretensions and it's just fun."

Later in the evening, after the tasting, Lankford and Klonecke and another friend, Jeffrey DeVore, the wine director at David Berkley Fine Wines & Specialty Foods, were at one end of the warmly lit bar there, and they got to thinking about the event.

Lankford was saying how so many people who like wine don't get to talk about it much, or to learn about it in a way that's not just a lecture. These tastings, at places like L or 58 Degrees or Back Wine Bar, are partly an answer to that.

For newbies there's no pressure in the casual atmosphere, but there is a chance to sample good wine. For the experienced, it's a time to talk and taste without the risk of boring friends.

DeVore said such gatherings have helped create a buzz around wine throughout the region.

"That's what Sacramento has become."

Call The Bee's Rick Kushman, (916) 321-1187. Listen to him Thursdays at 8:40 a.m. on NewsTalk 1530 (KFBK) and 8:50 a.m. on Armstrong & Getty, Talk 650 KSTE.