Traveling for work to DC and looking for a recommendation in Georgetown area or near the Capitol. Thanks.
MacArthur Wine in the Palisades (a neighborhood on the Western edge of Georgetown) is my go-to in DC. It is not walkable if you are staying in Georgetown, but a very quick drive with a car (or a very cheap Uber/cab). Have lunch or dinner at Blacksalt next door while you are there. http://www.bassins.com
On the Hill, Schneider’s is a good store and easy to get to if you do not have a car. http://cellar.com
Pearson’s and Calvert Woodley are also relatively close.
+1 on Schneiders. Most of the older bottles are not on the shelves. Ask to look in the back wine room, or check the stocklist online or ask them to look for you while you are at the store.
Another yep on MacArthur and Schneider’s.
If you head up this way, Weygandt is a must.
Would recommend Weygandt and MacArthur.
By far, the closest decent wine shop to Georgetown is Wide World of Wines, straight up Wisconsin Ave, maybe 1 or 1.5 miles from M Street. It is all up hill, but on a nice day it is an easy enough walk. It also has a very nice selection, and frankly, a much better selection of wines on the floor than Calvert or Schneiders
It is also much, much closer to Georgetown or the Capital than MacArthur, which is at least 3-4 miles away from Georgetown and at least 6 miles from the Capital in Palisades. Schneiders is just blocks north and east of the Capital – an easy walk – but easily 6 miles or so from Georgetown, and Calvert is about the same.
If you go to WWW (and I strongly encourage that you do), be sure to go downstairs and look at the old stuff. Some very interesting bdx, burgs and CA cabs (although the selection has dwindled a bit in the latter category recently)
All of these are nice shops for different reasons. But if you are going to browse, WWW and MacArthurs are vastly superior to the others. Weygandt is a very nice store, and has (shockingly) a great selection of Weygandt imports, so it has very deep selections in its areas of specialty
Pretty much all you need to know is in Neal’s post. MacArthur’s is far and away the best for browsing. It is about 2.5 miles from Wisconsin and M St. in the middle of Georgetown, so a good hike, but it should be easy to Uber out.
All of these places I would suggest visiting the website, as many keep items in the back (or Schneider’s has an offsite warehouse).
Wide World of Wines has a rare wine room downstairs. Schneider’s has something similar in the back.
My favorites whenever I visit are (in no order):
MacArthur Beverages
Pearson’s Wine & Spirits
Wide World of Wines (on Wisconsin Ave, no website)
Calvert Woodley Wine & Spirits
Weygandt Wines
Schneider’s of Capitol Hill
Anyone from DC if I’m missing anywhere good, let me know.
I’d love to hear about new stores.
pricing at WWW ain’t what it used to be when Elliott was dumping his stock but still worth a visit. Cleveland Park wines in…Cleveland Park has some interesting stuff you don’t see in the larger stores.
Cool, haven’t heard of Cleveland Park.
Will need to check them out.
What are their areas of strength?
they’re pretty full service-booze as well. Not a huge inventory but worth a visit.
Sorry; they are DQ’d for using autoplay on their website. DQ is automatic and irreversible. Shame, that
Cleveland Park Wines is not worth checking out. Their storage is not good and their prices aren’t competitive either. Decent place to buy liquor or beer, though. If you’re in Cleveland Park just go to Ripple and drink off the list or pick up a couple bottles at Weygandt.
Wow, thanks all for the recommendations. It’s been very helpful. I’m planning to go to either Bourbon Steak or District Chophouse for dinner on Friday and wanted to grab a nice bottle to bring.
Cheers!
Preston
District Chophouse is ok, but there are better steak places in DC.
Here is a link to a list of corkage policies for a large cross section of restaurants in DC:
For steakhouse wine, you would do well at WWW or Bassins. I disagree with the counselor that WWW is much closer or more accessible than Bassins. Both are on bus lines and neither metro accessible. Bassins is scarcely a mile further. I buy from both. Good Bdx selection at both. Schneiders is good but further. Also, for the record, I live adjacent to Georgetown Hospital.
The suggestions above are definitely good w/r/t quality of stores and Noah’s point about the bus accessibility bears repeating.
The bus system in DC is very good, especially during non-rush-hour times and google maps will help you figure out which line you should be on and where. Conviently there’s a ~2hr transfer window, so you might be able to go from Georgetown to Palisades and back on one fare, if you have a SmartTrip. Also, you have/are getting a SmartTrip, right? Don’t be the rube with the paper farecards.
I have a tight window from my conference from National Harbor, MD to Georgetown. I will most likely take a taxi or Uber.
You might want to investigate the water taxi. I suspect it may be faster than a car. The boat is slow but it is a straight shot, no lights! And a beautiful trip. Worth investigating anyway