Are flights taking you for a ride?

A bite of cheese, a sip of wine. The idea of little tastes to go with wine is so universally appealing that the explosion of wine bars in this town is no surprise. It’s big fun to be able to go out without investing in a full-on dinner.

So when the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel announced the opening of Eno, “a wine, cheese and chocolate sensation” several weeks ago, it sounded like good news. How swell to be able to enjoy such a luxurious spot set above the gorgeous beach at Dana Point without spending an arm and a leg.

Not so fast.

If you’re not careful, you can easily spend a small fortune at Eno. Take a seat at the sleek bar with a pal, order a flight of Pinot, a flight of Syrah, a flight of cheese to match each and three chocolates apiece, and you’ve spent $115 -- before tax and tip. Make it a flight of Meritage and “lasting Laguna reds” instead of the Pinot and Syrah, and you’re talking $162.

Not only that, but if you haven’t eaten lunch or dinner first, you’ll probably leave hungry.

All the flights come in threes -- the wines, the cheeses and the chocolates. The wine pours, according to Michael Frumin, assistant manager, are 2 1/2 ounces each, “or about a glass and a half altogether,” he says. There are 14 wine flights, including one called “drawing a blanc,” a Sauvignon Blanc flight for $16, and “no imitations,” a Champagne flight for $125. At the latter price, the wines must all be superstars, right? Wrong. Sure, one is the Krug Grand Cuvée, which retails for about $120 per bottle. But the others are a nonvintage Besserat de Bellefon (misidentified on the list as Bellefon de Besserat) brut rosé ($33 to $43 per bottle retail) and a nonvintage Canard-Duchene brut (about $35 per bottle retail).

Each $17 cheese flight has three wafer-thin slices -- 1 1/2 to 2 ounces total, according to Shannon Latting, a wine steward -- served with quince paste, Marcona almonds and bread. Each includes three cheeses with something in common: “mild mannered,” “bold flavors” and so forth.

One flight, “roaming goats,” has three selections from Cypress Grove Chevre: Purple Haze (which retails on Cypress Grove’s website for $5 for 5 ounces), Humboldt Fog ($18 per pound retail) and Midnight Moon ($17.25 per pound retail). At the $17 that Eno charges for 2 ounces, that’s some mark-up.

The chocolates are bon bons from Jin Patisserie in Venice, three for $11. (Jin’s website sells them for $1.70 apiece in a 20-piece box.)

The mingy portions might make sense if the experience was really educational or brought hard-to-find wines, cheese or chocolates to the bar. “It’s not a bar,” says Holly Smith, Eno’s sommelier. “It’s a tasting room. Because we’re so much more sophisticated than a bar. We’re a tasting room or a cheese wine and chocolate sensation.”

And it’s true that Eno offers courses through its “Eno-versity” series, in which Smith, a certified sommelier, leads classes alongside featured winemakers.

But that doesn’t mean a sommelier will necessarily be around to answer questions if you go in for a flight: Smith is the only certified sommelier on the staff. If you’re interested in learning anything about the wines, you’d better hope she’s working that day. On a recent Sunday night, she was off, and no one could tell me the source of four of the five items on the $22 charcuterie plate, let alone why I should be happy about paying $34 for tastes of three Red Car Syrahs. The menu describes them as “Three Syrahs so complex you may lose your train of thought!”

What were we talking about?

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Small Bites

• Highland Park has a new gastro pub, the York, opened two weeks ago by former bartenders Ryan Ballinger and Gabriel Byer. Executive chef John Winkel, previously sous chef at Ford’s Filling Station, offers a short menu; thefull bar offers a selection of cocktails, local and imported beers on tap and in bottles, and a rotating roster of wines by the glass.

The York, 5018 York Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 255-9675, theyorkonyork.com.