Before the relatively recent times of being able to ship wine to my home state, I frequented a couple of local wine shops for wine purchases for many years. And though I still visit and buy from these local stores, I have purchased more and more of my wine online over the past couple of years. Despite this, I recognize that I am fortunate to have a wide selection of interesting wine at all price levels available to me a short drive from my home. I am also fortunate in having a local “wine guy” who is extremely knowledgeable, experienced, and down to earth. Not everyone has such a resource. If you do too, and want to give them a “shout out” and a thank you, here is your chance.
Joe Godas, Curtis Liquors, Weymouth MA. Joe manages to put together a varied and well curated wine selection from all over the world amidst what we used to call a package store (aka “packy”). Easy to talk to, unpretentious but also opinionated, with knowledge at stratospheric levels. A fine wordsmith too!
Thank you, Joe.
Interesting post as my local wine guy in Charlotte sold his shop back in the spring. While this doesn’t exactly qualify as “local”, proximity doesn’t exactly mean what it used to in these times. I live in Charlotte, but about three years ago my wife and I benefitted greatly from meeting and spending some quality time with Andrew Turner at Valley Wine Merchants. Andrew owns a great shop in Newberg, Oregon and has become a great friend that I do business with often. While located in Newberg, Andrew carries a well rounded selection of wines from around the world and keeps extensive notes on customers tastes and reaches out will some nice finds. Overall a great guy and someone that you want to support.
Not “local” in a strictly geographic sense, but I have to recognize Martin Steinley from this board. Great recommendations, lovely selection, friendly and nice, and most importantly we share a similar palate. I have no qualms trying something from him that I’ve never heard of before. Also he does this part time, and everything is smoother and more professional than full fledged wine shops, even big ones.
Do you mind sharing where you shop in Charlotte? I have a couple of smaller retailers that I like (Bond street wines, Assorted Table, Foxcroft Wines, Arthur’s wine shop), but haven’t generally found anything that I’d consider a “go-to”, so make most of my purchases online.
Phil Bernstein at Bassin’s. Always a major help to me when I’m looking for something different. And there are several others in the store that are quite good but I forget their names. (The Italian wine guy especially)
In Seattle, Dan McCarthy and Jay Schiering of McCarthy and Sciering are both excellent.
Agreed. Phil at MacArthur Beverages/Bassin’s. Never knew his last name until now.
The Vineyard Wine Shop in Denver (Cherry Creek, specifically). I mainly interact with Nate (GM) and his team (Peter, John, and a couple other guys I don’t know as well). It’s always a fun experience. They have some really cool and interesting stuff and, of course, plenty of serious bottles as well. They really took the time to guide me along and share their knowledge along the way. I consider them all friends, not just the guys at the wine shop.
From a brick and mortar shop point of view:
Michael Quinlan at Table & Vine in West Springfield, MA - been my local go-to guy for over 20 years
Joe Huber (at several places in southern Jersey over the years) used to be my other go-to guy, but he sadly passed away this summer.
Dan Posner at Grapes the Wine Company in White Plains NY. I shopped at his original store in Rye. He was the guy that invited me to Wineberserkers back in the day.
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I am extremely fortunate to live close to Wine Watch in Fort Lauderdale. This shop is a real gem. Andrew Lampasone is the owner. His wife Toni is the chef in the adjoining wine bar.
The 1st time you go plan at least 1 hour to view all the inventory on display.
You will need a GPS to find the place as it is off the beaten path.
Additionally the wine events are once in a lifetime(ha).
November 19… DRC vs Leroy.
November 21…Gaja truffle tasting.
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While I was living in Houston in part of 2018 and 2019, I used Specs almost exclusively. The variety of wines and their service was always outstanding. Only con was lack of older vintages as everything seemed super new. Yes, you could go to the order window and find older vintages but took some work.
Shoutout to Ryan at Golden8Wines. Incredible at sourcing wine that one can’t readily find, awesome prices, love his offerings, and one of the nicest guys in the business.
Really wish I started buying from him from Day 1. Been referring him to everyone, especially SoCal locals.
hmmm, I’m thinking that this thread is awfully slim because other people think like me: if I shout out on the board to my local guy that other people don’t know about, I’ll be bummed when they go there and create more competition for all the hard to find wines.
I’m not in LA anymore, but always enjoyed working with David OG, Sharon, and Diana Turk at KL, and still work with Bryan Thomas from Vins Rare
Some things are more important than wine. Like supporting a business that provides you great joy year in and year out. Plus, where did we find all these great retailers? I’m willing to bet that someone referred most of us at some point or another to these merchants.
Edit: to say that I may have sounded harsh without intending to. It’s a human impulse to protect sources that you may have for difficult-to-find wine, and I feel that too, but I still think it’s important to give recognition to people and businesses that deserve it.
I am also in Charlotte. Shawn at Foxcroft is great. He usually bounces between South Park and the new store in Waverly. Super knowledgeable. Matt and Matt at the WineStore. Young guys killing it with a great small footprint store design. I think they are up to 4 or 5 stores now. Don’t let the size fool you. They can source most anything and at great prices. The South Park and Blakney locations are where you will find either of the Matts.
I mean I’m happy to share, but being in NYC, what’s local to me is pretty well known to the rest of the board already. I figured something like a shout out to the folks at Chamber St is not really what the spirit of this thread is about. I suspect many berserker on large metropolitan areas are similar.
lol