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Shopping with Confidence
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By David Rosengarten
The same ease you reach in dealing with sommeliers in restaurants should be reached when dealing with The Wine Merchant. It's easy to think your way into this: Some stores sell hardware. Some stores sell stationery. Wine stores sell wine, and of course their owners and employees know a lot about the merchandise. Even a wine expert would be foolish not to listen carefully to what wine merchants have to say about the wine they stock.
You must first ascertain that the wine merchant has something to say to you personally. Many merchants run fine, well-stocked stores but may, unfortunately, have entirely different taste in wine than you. When I'm considering adding a shop to my wine-buying itinerary, I start asking questions like, "What would you recommend for steamed lobster?" If they get off on the massive-white-Burgundy, galumphing-California-Chardonnay track--completely passing up the crisp, sleek wines that I think actually go with lobster--then I know it's not a shop for me.
If you don't know your palate yet, size up a shop by taking the merchant's advice several times as a test. Be as honest and specific with the merchant as possible--how much you want to spend, what your preferences are, etc. If the merchant's selections fit your taste and your pocketbook, you've got a shop.
There are other ways to predict whether a wine shop is going to work for you:
Storage. Look for evidence of care in storage. Any store that loads its sun-drenched storefront window with expensive bottles of wine is not a store sensitive to its merchandise. Snoop around and try to see how wine is kept in the back of the store: air-conditioned basement (good) or hot stock room (bad).
Turnover. Estimate the shop's volume of business. A sleepy store with bad storage means bad wine within a few years. Your odds of getting wines in good condition go up when a store is bustling and turnover is high.
Dedication. Look for evidence of idiosyncrasy. There are millions of wines out there, but some shops focus only on big names, major brands and standard shippers. This is laziness. When I see a shop stocked with all kinds of zany, little-known wines, I know that somebody cares.
Your taste. Look for strength in wine you like. If you're a California maven, don't get excited about a shop that has a strong France/Italy bias. Talk to owners and see where their interests lie.
The Real-World Wine Guide Table of Contents
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