Retailers - Washington D.C.

I did try searching the forum as I am sure that this has come up before, but maybe suffered from “user problems” in doing so.

Are there any good retailers for French or Italian wines in D.C., preferably within reasonable proximity to 4000 Connecticut Ave NW?

bassins.com is another place.

I like C-W, and buy the majority of my wine there. But their Italian section strikes me as rather limited. It is, no matter, the closest to 4000 Connecticut.

Thanks - good looking Champagne section at both

In addition would look at Weygandt Wines (site currently down-http://www.weygandtwines.com) and Schneider’s of Capitol Hill (http://cellar.com).

In that 'hood - Weygandt, Bassins, & Calvert. Another +1 on Schneiders, but they are in Cap Hill.

All reputable, with good selections & pricing. No affiliation, other than being a happy customer of all of these guys.

Another nod to Weygandt…Tim always been great to me

Bassins has excellent Italian section. Ask for Tim.

My favorites in DC are:

Bordeaux = Calvert Woodley, Bassins, Pearsons
Burgundy = Schneiders, Weygandt and Bassins
Champagne = Calvert Woodley, Schneiders
Other French = Weygandt (Huge languedoc, SW france, Jura, Savoie, Beaujolais, cremants, etc selection)

Italian: Bassins & for daily drinkers Litteris Italian Store in Northeast

New world, Spanish, Portugal, etc: No real opinion

and on a quirky note don’t count out Chat’s Liquors on 8th st in Capitol Hill. I’ve found some neat wines there.

For older stuff, Schneider’s buys some nice cellars.

Thank you all

On a completely random note.

Where do people think I could find a Mexican wine for Cinco de Mayo? Total wine doesn’t have any, so I am out of ideas.

If I strike out I’ll just get Gruet, at least it’s New Mexico.

If you have time, also check out Wide World of Wines. On Wisc. above Georgetown. Nice shop, nice people, some killer sales.

Eric - I had the latest vintage of Modelo Especiale the other night… it was nice! Bought a whole case.

yeah, I know its weird, but a couple people don’t drink beer, and since its a work thing, I figured it would be better to have wine than tequila. Plus, it would be funny.

My parents were recently in mexico and went to a winery, so they do exist. Talk about unicorn hunting…

http://bassins.com/wine/other_regions/otherregions.php
The 2008 Villa Montefiori Cabernet/Sangiovese is shockingly good and I think better than its $20 price tag. Although I have only opened one so far so maybe it was an outlier. But i did reload after trying the first one.

4000 Connecticut Ave NW is the Intelsat building, so you may just be in town for work for a few days – you didn’t say. If so, with regard to proximity to the building, Calvert-Woodley is literally a three-minute walk (five if you catch the traffic lights wrong); Weygandt is a 10-to-15-minute walk; and the others mentioned here would all require driving, although they are all worth the effort.

Of course you did. I think you only buy in case volume.

Also,

Weygandt is evidently going a bigger tasting/party thingy tomorrow. Probably will stop by the store for a bit.

+1 on Bassins for Italian. There are some good higher end offerings at Wide World of Wines, but Bassins has definitely the best selection by far.

For restaurants, btw, some excellent off the beaten path Italian wines at Red Hen, curated by Sebastian Zutant, and Iron Gate also has a fun list.
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