Table & Vine is a 15 minute ride from my house. Much too close if you ask my wife.
I satiated my wine buying needs, in part, by ordering some 2010 Clape Cornas Renaissance from b21, a pretty cool wine shop in Tarpon Springs, FL, about 90 miles away. Great website, and they deliver to Orlando every other week. Plus, I killed the remainder of a Gonon Isle Feray and watched an Everest documentary. My night is full, time for bed . . . .
When all the wine retailers in a metro area seem to offer the same selection, it that a function of the LWS owners lacking imagination and a sense of adventure or the distributor(s) serving that area?
A little bit off topic, but I just moved to Tampa a little while ago. Have you ever been to one of the grand tastings that B-21 has? They seem to have a much better selection than any other retail store around here as well… Total wine puts way too high of a markup on the few good wines that they have
Wine retailers in Napa? Not a problem. In addition to our store, there’s Back Room Wines, which is heavy on French and European wines and the owner, Dan Dawson knows his stuff, particularly French. There’s Bounty Hunter, which was becoming more of a restaurant and mailing list store. The owner, Mark Pope, has purchased the building across the street to move his restaurant operation and plans on returning his current location back into retail/wine bar with a pretty broad and eclectic selection. 1313 Wines, (also Cal Wine), has a comprehensive selection though his prices have crept up to pay for his new building and wine bar. Though not exactly a “retail” store, Benchmark Wine Group is a great resource for older, unusual and harder to find wines. It was easier when Mike Sai still worked there, but we are still able to get some help there. Cellar Collections, a quiet little spot off the beaten path, has a lot of off the radar wines as well as some main stream wines at very reasonable prices. And if nothing else, Safeway Club members get 10% off on 6 bottle purchases and guess what, our Safeway has a pretty good selection. In the time it took me to write this, there have probably been three new wine shops opened in the city of Napa and I haven’t named any of those in Yountville, St. Helena and Calistoga.
After thought: Back Room Wines collection of European wines has diminished in volume over the past few years, probably because people living in CA aren’t very European wine oriented and visitors are here for Napa and CA wines.
Florida is tough. Poor selection, high prices. I struggle every time I am in South Beach now that W Wine Boutique has closed. I was so desperate I asked Michael’s Genuine if they would sell me wines off their list at retail price + whatever markup they thought fair.
Luckily, I live in Southern California and a mere 20-30 minutes from Envoyer and Winex. Also many retailers in CA (WHWC, Benchmark, etc.) can ship GSO overnight for pretty cheap
On the plus side, no state income tax in FL!
That explains why my NY, NJ, NH, and MA friends are moving to FL the minute they retire.
I’d move there now if there was a job!
The Braziliians and Colombians are also 2 good reasons to move there! 
Although McMinnville has become a nice little wine town, there are no wine shops in town. Portland on the other hand has a lot of very good wine shops, from Michael Alberty’s Storyteller, to Vinopolis, E&R, and Liner & Elsen. Even some of the grocery stores are very good, particularly Zupan’s and Market of Choice.
Things are looking up slightly in Fayetteville (NC) with The Wine Cafe in two locations–downtown Fayetteville and Hope Mills. Angie, the owner, is from South America and carries quite a few wines from Argentina and Spain as well as some French and Italian wines. I still use the Internet to order most of my Burgundies and Rhone wines and rely on trips to DC to stock up on German Riesling. A friend on this forum and WLDG told me about Cave Taureau in Durham, NC and to my continuing wonderment, I have found some desirable Pinot Noirs and New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc from Taylor’s BP and Wine Store in Raleigh, also known for “live bait and fine wine.” There’s a relatively new wine shop on South Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh that I haven’t yet visited. Still, I order some wines from places like Benchmark, Woodland Hills Wine Company, Vinopolis, Burgundy Wine Company and Sherry-Lehman. I also order directly from some wineries in California, mainly for Pinot Noir but occasionally for unoaked Chardonnay or Gewurztraminer, Syrah or Zinfandel.
Not off topic at all. B21 is outstanding. Like I said couple of posts earlier, I order a lot of stuff from them, and lucky for me, they deliver to Orlando. My sister in Miami also buys from them, as they deliver there too. They have a conditioned delivery van that drives one every other week to a few major cities in Florida so long as you order a minimum of $150. I asked the delivery guy once whether this bi-monthly delivery to Orlando is that large, and he said it averages 15-25+ cases per. So a brisk little business. I think it is now on the fourth generation family ownership. I work with Rhett B., who has a solid Francophile palate.
Now the funny part is, I have been shopping at b21 since the mid-90s and yet have never once stepped in their store!
I feel the need to defend my friend John. I travel often for work, and those trips are quite busy. I don’t have time to scour all the wine shops in the city I’m in looking for an interesting wine. Columbia Crest Grand estates is very common, and drinks considerably better than it’s price tag. It is a go-to bottle, and I look for it when traveling. If you can’t even find Columbia Crest Grand Estates, that is a sign of problems. I’m currently traveling, and would love to be able to buy some Columbia Crest Grand Estates.
That still seems strange, and perhaps also self-defeating, as a litmus test.
My favorite wine shop in Atlanta, among many excellent ones, doesn’t carry Columbia Crest Grand Estates/ But it does offer a broad, well-curated selection of interesting, tasty wines at all price points. Including (to address the OP’s lament) a good selection of:
- Northern and southern Rhônes
- Loire reds, whites, and rosés (Chinon, Bourgeuil, Touraine, Saumur, Savennières, Muscadet - even Haut-Piotou, Jasnières, and Côtes Roannaises, for cryin’ out loud)
- Grower Chanpagnes
- A couple of dozen different Washington labels
- Classified and unclassified Bordeaux, many of them value-priced
- California Cabernet and blends, but instead of BV, Jordan, Caymus, et al., it’s Arnot-Roberts, Ritchie Creek, Dunn, et al.
- More Beaujolais and Burgundy than a show dog can jump over
Thanks for rubbing that in Mr. Fleming! I often rue the day I moved from Atlanta.
What’s the name of the store, BTW?
De rien, M. Alfert.
Cellar 13.
We are very fortunate here in the DC area with an abundance of great wine stores. The highlights have to be Weygandt Wines and Arrowine, which have a wonderful array of interesting small producer wines from just about everywhere. If you are into bigger name Bordeaux or California Cabernet, etc., MacArthur’s and Calvert-Woodley have world class selections. And, MacArthurs also have a wonderful selection of German wines thanks to Phil Bernstein.
Robert, I think we can all feel your pain. there have been many times that I’ve walked into a good wine shop, ready to buy… just looking for something interesting to jump out at me and walk out with nothing.
Now I must admit, I’m not in the same situation as you where you don’t have an abundance of good retailers. Living in SoCal, we have options. Especially if you’re willing to endure some traffic. This is why I always stop by WineX when I’m in Orange visiting clients and 20/20 & the Wine House when I’m up in the West LA/CC area so I can’t complain there. And there are a bunch more too.
Randy, I have to say, when I’m up in the Bay area and especially when I’m in Napa for a weekend I’m constantly amazed at the selections at the Safeways and even Costco… The selections BLOW ME AWAY. They beat most wine shops around here, anywhere really. One thing is for sure, they beat the hell out of the wine shop closest to me (not to be named).
7.5 million people on Long Island.
Most stores sell mass-produced crap and everything is poorly priced.
The restaurant scene, although slightly better, is also disappointing.
My wine-buying is slowing - or so I tell myself- and I can source most of what I like from Wine Library in NJ, Chambers Street Wines, The Rare Wine Co., Astor, and Martin!
Flatiron Wines and Weygandt are also now on my radar.
+1. I can find more than enough things locally that I never find myself with spare money in the wine budget and nothing that I want to spend it on. As a result, I rarely buy anything online.
Yes they suck, but there are reasons behind it, not necessarily ignorance and greed on the retail side as one might assume.
First, most French wines are touched by too many hands before we can buy them. It ends up a four/five/six tier system and our prices from the distributors are many times, more than retail elsewhere. There are few exceptions and we buy when we can sell at a fair price. We aggressively jump on deals and pass them on to our customers. We are offered gems, but the prices are often so obscene we just say no. Good example, not necessarily a gem, but you get the point; Boillot’s Village Volnay $40 retail in CA, $55 wholesale in AZ.
Another reason is that in my 14 month tenure with my employer I can count on one hand how many requests I’ve received for Lagrein, Godello, Graciano, Poulsard, Mencia, Schiava etc. On the other hand I get daily requests Pahlmeyer, Caymus, Opolo, Rombauer, Silver Oak and generic “oaky and buttery” chardonnay. It’s been said here before and I will say it again that the common wine buyer is only interested in what is familiar, fashionable (points) or really cheap. That’s fine; I always say “good wine is what you like” (couldn’t care less what Matt Kramer says) and I do not look down upon those with different preferences than I. I do not like eggs. That does not make everyone who does wrong.
Access is yet another disadvantage of being in a smaller market than LA or NY. I recently spoke with two importers, one left coast, one NYC. For one I attempted to facilitate a distributor for his lesser known Euro imports. I gave him names and phone numbers and my biased impressions. I even called a couple of the reps to give them a heads up. Result, no interest from our most progressive distributors. Why? See brand names in the previous paragraph. Next I was trying to source a particularly delicious wine from the other importer and finally reached the distributor representing. My browser warned that their website was dangerous and not to proceed. Apparently they don’t come to Tucson and would have to pay a courier to get me some wine and finally they seemed more interested in selling me cured meats and olive oil. Too many hoops to jump through for a couple of cases that I would have to hand sell every bottle. Don’t get me wrong, I enthusiastically hand sell many bottles, but I am limited on how much hand selling I can convince the layers of bureaucracy above me to pursue when they can easily sell through 50 cases of Ferrari Carano w/o any additional effort.
One final story. I asked the distributor representative of a well-known, widely distributed Burgundian Negociant if he would source me several cases of 1er and GC wines that were in the book and available. Caveat being if I sell five figures worth of wine for you in one fell swoop you give me a competitive price. Not the lowest, just competitive. Answer? “No, just buy them from an internet retailer”. ![[scratch.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/4/42a16863a8714da3c1604419e3eb9206bb87aa50.gif "scratch"){kind=small}
Gotta admit I envy the choices you have in NYC, LA and SF. I’d still rather live in Tucson.