Moving wine to Hampton, VA or DC area

The USAF has narrowed my potential locations for next year to Andrews AFB or Langley AFB area. I will be moved in June/July. I’m somewhat familiar with the DC area and what storage options there are (or aren’t) but have little if any insight into the Langley AFB area.
-Any recommendations on moving/shipping ~500 bottles?
-I only have a small Eurocave and currently rent storage for ~350 bottles, are there any similar places to store wine in either area?
-Any good wine stores in the Langley/Hampton area? (DC I’m familiar with and still order from Bassins…)

This is a rather big undertaking(for me), so if anyone has any helpful tips on shipping 40-50cases of wine in the beginning of summer, please fill me in…

Cheers

-jd

I know Domaine cellars is opening a facility in D.C. They can also handle your shipping.

Yes, I’m looking into them. I think they will be much more helpful if I’m moving to DC. Not sure what they can provide in the Hampton Area. the bad news is I might not know for another 4-6wks and it may be too warm here to move the wine w/o refrigeration by then.

I am from the Hampton Roads area of VA, hopefully I can offer some help.

Wine Storage: There are a few good temperature controlled facilities in the area, primarily in neighboring Yorktown and Williamsburg. Each are about a 10-20 mile drive from Langley AFB. I would personally just look for a place that would allow you to construct your own storage area, as the options aren’t perfect and can get expensive.

Wine Shops: Full disclosure, I work part time at a Williamsburg based wine shop, the Wine Seller.

All in all, the Hampton Roads area is a wasteland for really exceptional wine shops. There are plenty good wine shops in the area including:

  1. The Cheese Shop Wine Shop - Located in the basement of the Cheese Shop, a local tourist restaurant in the middle of Colonial Williamsburg. The buyer(s) are really skilled at what they do and they have the largest inventory and number of facings in the area. This place is hell on earth to get to in the summer due to tourists, so that is something to keep in mind.

  2. Wine Seller - Located in Williamsburg, VA, we are a small store specializing in bringing in more Old World esoteric stuff. Our New World facings tend to be more mainstream, with all the major Cab/Merlot, Pinot, and Chard producers being represented. We do a few good events a month and recently expanded into a full service sandwich shop, where we serve wine by the glass, beer, and pretty damn good sandwiches. Again, I work here, so take this review for what its worth.

  3. Grape and Gourmet: Small shop in Virginia Beach, that mainly has more of the cultier stuff from California and Australia. Smaller Old World selection, as the clientele is decidedly more interested in Napa/Sonoma than any other region. To get here however, you will have to cross over the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, which can make this 35-40 min trip easily over 3 hours in the summer.

There is a Total Wine in the Newport News area, which has a good selection and keeps a fair amount of rarer wine in a temperature controlled unit. Working there for a year while in graduate school, I would stay away from the older stuff not in the temperature controlled units, as I have had a higher proportion of these bottles affected by heat.

For some really awesome shops, I would really look towards visiting Richmond, VA. The distribution is WAY better than Hampton Roads, as many of the better distributors do not distribute east of Richmond.

If you need any help or advice about the area, feel free to pm me. Hope that helps!

Jonathan, great post, thanks for sharing.