I opened a grand cru burg for a friend visiting from the Twin Cities. He is interested in going down the rabbit hole.
I think that outside of a good tasting group, the best way to start learning burg is to establish a relationship with a trusted merchant, preferably a person within a shop.
Is there a good burg focused shop there?
TIA
Honestly the Twin Cities is kind of a weird market for Burgundy. It doesn’t seem like a lot of Burgundy makes its way into the Great North.
I’d probably recommend France 44 in Edina, Thomas Liquors in St. Paul, and South Lyndale Liquors in South MPLS. All have very knowledgeable staff and a decent selection. I just hosted the owner of France 44, Rick Anderson, at our winery this morning for a tasting. Excellent guy!
Absent of recs in the TCs, Knightsbridge in the north suburbs of Chicago is still great, and I wouldn’t think that shipping that short a distance would be terribly prohibitive from a cost standpoint.
Hart Davis Hart is based in Chicago and would also be a great option. They also have a fair number of bottles with age on them. RIP disposable income though.
Strangely, or perhaps not, wine is just not that big of a thing in the Twin Cities. I’m in the area and have been to virtually every wine shop. Some are decent like France 44 or Surdyk’s but none with the depth of selection that you’d want, definitely none that specialize in Burgundy (my favorite). Prices are also quite high buying in person, possibly due to lack of competition. There’s really no great way to buy specific bottles here except for online. Maybe you can recommend some Burgs to your friend and they can seek it out online?
It’s quite a peculiar market. I’m from there originally and sell my wine there. I used to walk into North Loop Wines and there would be 1er Cru Raveneau sitting on the shelf. 1010 Washington wines used to have Roulot on the shelf. I was just there back in May and I visited two stores that had Bereche at 25% off because they couldn’t sell it.
Nice! That used to be my shop as well when I lived in the area. Definitely not the largest selection but some interesting stuff here and there. Yeah I think the demand here is just too thin for a deep Burg inventory to make sense 
Im not a burgundy or pinot fan at all really so idk if the selection or pricing is decent, but it seems to me that haskells carries quite a bit of burgundy.
HDH is no longer located in Chicago; my understanding is they moved to Delaware.
These comments are general and not focused burgundy because I’ve never been a huge burgundy shopper.
In the Saint Paul area, I would recommend Thomas Liquors or Solo Vino. Both are small shops that are great on education.
On the Minneapolis side, I like South Lyndale and Westside. Westside is newer and small but is thoughtful about what they bring in and could help access more than their current selection on request. That request could be “I want a mixed case of burgundy” and I bet they would do a good job of it. I’ve never spent much time at either for tasting/education so can’t comment.
I like France44 for the cheese shop and used to use them for offsite storage. Their prices tend to be high, even by small brick and mortar standards.
Finally, I have very little experience with Burgundy but would love to expand. If anybody is interested in a burgundy focused offline in the twin cities, respond to this and I can try to coordinate.
Twin Cities guy here who is super interested in going down the burg rabbit hole.
I’ve historically spent plenty of time at places like Surdyk’s, Haskell’s, Solo Vino and Thomas Liquors..
Moreso these days I “accidentally” developed a 300 bottle cellar just by enjoying Willamette Valley pinots and joining their respective wine clubs.
But the burg bug is new for me - and I’m definitely looking for ways to explore it a bit more. I’ll swing through several of the suggested spots and see if I’ve overlooked some great options..
All that said - I for one would be quite interested in a burg focused offline.
I live in Minnesota and the retail options to buy burg are bleak.
Surdyks will have a small handful <10, not great prices. The liquor store in Wayzata has the little fancy wine room in the back with some decent burgs but the prices can be as much as double the guys on Wine-searcher. FYI - the wine storage place in Wayzata is a bargain if you need offsite storage.
I’ve managed to put together some 700-800 bottles of burg and there are guys at the storage facility in Wayzata that have ten times that amount, but you just have to order it from out of state retailers or auctions and have it shipped in. It’s pretty easy,
What did you open for him, Brady?