This one is hard. Nick ran a store on Long Island called Pops. A really lovely person, he was a member of Winos of Westchester, a private wine tasting group for some years. I remember he introduced us to Grange and the newly released 1982. He had a great palate, a quirky sense of humor and a real love of life. One of the great characters of the wine world.
Very sad.
I never knew Nick personally, but Pops was a true class act, no doubt because of him.
Briefly put: 1982 Bordeaux futures were my first real wine purchases. I bought a significant amount, all through Pops as I was living in Manhattan at the time. I wound up moving across the country not too long after, boxed all my papers up and put everything in storage in my new home. I got very busy with work at that time and literally never thought about the wine futures I’d purchased again. It was only approximately 12-15 years later that, like a lightning bolt hitting me, I remembered I’d made the purchases. Having no idea where the original paperwork would be - this was pre-internet - I rang up Pops and said: “You’re probably not going to believe this, but…” There was not even a moment’s pushback. They looked into their records, rang me back, let me know they no longer had the wine but that they would either find it all for me on the open market or refund me at current value.
As classy an operation as it gets. RIP Nick.
I was an in-store customer for almost 30 years. The sale of the shop may have marked the end of an era. I can think of only one other independent in Nassau County that is primarily a wine shop. The other stores are all clones of each other, with little if interest. Great respect for what Nick built and maintained for so long.
I went into Pops a few weeks ago , hadn’t been there for several years . I was so looking forward to checking out the dark, dingy consignment section to see what could be had .
Except it was basically gone, along with the charm and character of the store . Damn !!! RIP. Hopefully Nick never saw the changes.
I rarely made it to Island Park (and ironically it was usually Sunday when I did, and this was back in the Blue Law days). On the rare occasions when I did make it, Pops was a must. I agree with Bruce that the store has lost its luster these days.
Greg, I don’t know of any independent wine store in Nassau County that’s still worth mentioning, except for a tiny shop in Sea Cliff. Which store do you have in mind?
Wow.
Something similar happened to me. I tried to order Haut Brion 1989 futures, but just missed them. When the wines arrived, and although trading for double, I got a call from Nick saying he had an extra case which I could have at the futures price.
I forgot about Sea Cliff. Michael Amendola has a terrific off-beat shop. I was thinking about Raeder’s in Albertson. The former manager of Pop’s shifted there when the sale occurred. Same family has owned it forever.
Ah yes, Raeder’s. Nice selection and a wonderful place for cherry picking. The buyer does a great job of harvesting from dusty corners of distributor’s warehouses. It makes sense that he came from Pop’s.
Just saw the email from yesterday and sad news indeed from a store where I too bought a good deal of Bdx at sharp pricing and was always treated like a valued customer.
Does Raedrer’s do consignment stocking/selling?
Sad to hear of Nick’s passing…He was a class act…Bought quite a few Boredough and Cn DP from him back in the day…1990 vintage was the end of it for me but it was quite a pleasant journey and Pop’s was a pleasure to deal with.
Sorry to hear this. I too got some random odd ball deals over the years. I think I finished up the last of some 99 Voge Cornas picked from there within the last few years. They had a goofy catalog / web site as I recall but it was always fun shopping there. I think I went in to the physical place once, and was surprised since I was expecting something like Sherry Lehman, given all their older bottles in inventory, but it was much more modest.
My wife spent many an hour sitting in the car waiting for me to emerge victorious from Pop’s. Two memories: on one visit the shelves were nearly bare and Nick apologized and invited me to go into the storage area where nothing was off limits; another time there was a phone call from a rep of the Grateful Dead requesting three mixed cases of wine. They were appearing at the Nassau Coliseum and needed provisions for an after party. The employees of Pop’s were struggling to come up with enough different bottles so I offered to help and they agreed! So there I was picking out wine for the Dead. Pop’s: no wine store remotely like it.