Post here: America's Best Burgundy Stores

My job gets me on the road for about a week a month (mostly in the Eastern US) and on these trips I am always on the lookout to do some wine browsing. Since 95% of wine shops sell all the same stuff, finding a good store by chance is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Since my 1st love in wines is Burgundy, I was wondering if I can get some help here. Maybe we can start a directory of the best Burgundy stores in America. Maybe even Internation for our foreign friends and world travellers.

I’ll start and keep the list on this first post.

Northbrook (Chicago suburb), IL - Knightsbridge Wine Shoppe
Ann Arbor, MI - Morgan and York (best selection in AA until Village Corner reopens)
Rochester, NY - Century Liquor & Wines (vast selection, older vintages, magnums, and well priced)
White Plains, NY - Grapes the Wine Company

Big +1 from me. My go to store not only for breadth of Burg selection but also the incredible knowledge base since Kevin, the owner/manager, tastes in Burgundy maybe 3-4 times a year and can speak first hand about most/all of the best producers and knows each vintage from early barrel tasting to in bottle tasting. Probably the only store that I actually go to - that says a lot since it is 20 miles away from where I live (with probably 5 Binnys stores that are closer).

I should also add that another thing that Knightsbridge does well is to get producers in for tastings/dinners both at the store and local restaurants - as well as having tasting events for local importers to show the producers they work with.

On the West Coast:
The Wine Hotel
Woodland Hills Wine Co.

Burgundy Wine Company in New York City has a pretty good list but on the expensive side. Premier Cru in Berkeley, CA. Agree on Woodland Hills in California and also K & L. which has several locations in California. Macarthur Beverages (also known as Bassin’s) in DC.

Nothing in Houston as far as I can tell.

Viewed from afar, Binney’s in Skokie seems decent, Flickingers in Chicago, but don’t know if they sell otc. There are some interesting Oregon stores. Zachy’s in NY has a good selection and, while mostly un-competitively expensive, they have spotty decent pricing on sale items and could be ideal for mindless browsing. Premier Cru’s store in Oakland should be worth checking out - shouldn’t have to worry about late pre-arrivals if you’re shopping there in the flesh. Wine library? - I’ve never been there, but they appear to have a good selection.

Morgan and York have an interesting selection but pricing is a tad high without case discounts. I’m pretty sure Village Corners has reopened, btw.

Austin Wine Merchant

in Austin (in case that wasn’t obvious).

Texas.

+1 on Knightsbridge and Woodland Hills
Chambers in NY

www.nywines.com has a good list on their web site. Don’t know if they have a retail store?

Village Wines in Nashville, TN.

The owner, Hoyt Hill, has a great selection, a passion for Burgundy and the connections to source some very desirable bottles. Also, he can recommend nice burgs at reasonable prices.

+1 on Macarthur in DC

I nominate myself, of Wilmington, Delaware.
:slight_smile:
Ask around for recommendations, i’m good at what I do.
Fwiw, I visit with growers 3-4 times per year. ZERO gray market.

Another vote for Woodland Hills plus Wine Exchange in Orange.

not that they’ll sell it to you–visited there a year ago, lots of great stuff sitting on floor–refused to sell me any because I was an unknown and not a player. True story.
alan

Bizarre, Alan. Both in that your green was not legal tender for all debts, public and private, but also that with your posting history here and elsewhere on the web, no one at a shop that specializes in Burgundy would recognize the name Alan Weinberg.

Not surprising Alan. A lot of their stock was sold before they got it. To the extent that it wasn’t already sold, they often offer it to steady customers prior to making it available to anyone who might wander into the store.

“No Burgundy for you.”

Is it a store or a wine buyer’s club? (Those are illegal in Michigan.) If that is their approach, a different business model would be a lot more customer friendly. Sell it with a listserv. Don’t jerk people around by putting it on the floor - or on a web site, or tweeting about it - and then snubbing them when they ask to buy it. It’s either for sale or it’s not.

Ken,

You have to understand the shop itself. It is not a large store, and has limited, “off-the-showroom-floor” storage. Accordingly, when they get a large shipment in they will often have cases upon cases of boxes out in the store awaiting divvying amongst the folks that pre-ordered. Similarly, after they’ve divvied it up into various customers’ pre-order parcels, those boxes are often set-aside, but out in the open part of the store, awaiting pick-up by the folks that bought them. Accordingly, if you wander in at certain times of year, you may well get an eyeful of some very nice wines that are simply already sold.

Also, while there are many trophy wines that go through the store and are pre-sold, there are tons of incredibly fine burgundies (and other wines) that are available to anyone that wants to buy them.

Exactly. I have been very happy with my purchases there.