For the casual-yet-discerning wine drinker, perusing the jumbled aisles at the liquor store can be an antiseptic and uninspiring experience. And yet it's easy to feel intimidated and tongue-tied when approaching specialty wine retailers.
Enter our new favorite wine store: Best Cellars.
t only takes stepping through the door to know that this is going to be a different sort of wine shopping experience. Large windows and recessed lightening keep the space well-lit, and the open floor design leaves plenty of room to move around. Soft-toned woods and swatches of warm color create a sense of comfort and calm.
The majority of the wines are displayed along the walls with the individual bottles tucked into their own back-lit 'cubbies.' The overall visual effect is sensual and inviting.
Best Cellars separates their wines into eight categories that have little to do with region and everything to do with mood and personal preference: Fizzy, Fresh, Soft, Luscious, Juicy, Smooth, Big, and Sweet. Entertaining descriptions by each wine draw on tastes and experiences that will be familiar no matter what your background. The well-trained staff is upbeat and very approachable - though they are just as likely to ask you about your favorite summer fruit or whether you prefer cream in your coffee as what you'll be serving for dinner.
There are seven Best Cellars located along the East Coast, most notably in New York, Boston, and DC. They also sell online and ship to those states and regions.
Each store stocks about 100 wines at a time and inventory turns over roughly every three months, so there's always something new to sample. And with most of their wines priced at $15 or less, there is certainly no reason not to. As their mission states, Best Cellars aims to keep their wines "delicious, diverse, and affordable," and we think that's right on the mark.
This is by Emma, who is up for one of our new writer positions. Welcome Emma!
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Comments (7)
Sounds like a WineStyles.
Fresh Direct uses them. I HATE their categories! What the heck is the difference between "Lucious" and "Juicy?" What if I want something juicy AND smooth? What if I just want a bottle of sangiovese or pinot grigio? It's not even broken up by red and white, and I can't find sancerre at all, which is just wrong.
Fizzy I get. The rest of it is just Wine Stupid.
I love this store, and to be honest, most people (me included) are wine stupid. And in this store, that's okay.
Wow. Another polarizing post - this is the Durian of fermented beverage topics. Nice write up, Emma! I think one of the key concerns with many people who hesitantly approach wine is simple terminology. Bringing in common language resolves that gap and allows people to identify what they like. It has nothing to do with the wine - only with how it's described.
Wish there was one in California, but then we've got Napa, I guess... :-)
Here's a post<a> about buying wine from Fresh Direct, who uses the online version of Best Cellars.
I walked into a wine store near my house and was floored to find that they had done a similar type of set-up. I would consider myself a "casual-yet-discerning" wine-drinker, but have always found the price-point approach to be a reliable guide to wine: $10-20 per bottle is likely to result in something drinkable. If it doesn't, remember the winery and avoid it in the future.
With the adjectives, I find it hard to locate a wine I've had before - would it be juicy or smooth? Who cares anyway?
These categories are ridiculous. If I were a winemaker, I'd be offended at the cubbyholing. It's worse than Trader Joe's!
I would guess that most of the people who read this blog are in New York City. It doesn't take much time or money to take full advantage of the amazing wine stores we have here, such as Astor and Warehouse downtown. I have a cabinet full of bottles in the $8 to $12 range that are reliably good, bought under advice from excellent salespeople.
I am all for making wine accessible, and I am no wine snob. But there's more to a glass of wine than "juicy." If you want juicy, drink juice!