Decided to walk to the West Side today to check out a wine shop, Le Dû’s Wines. Great idea. Have been buying wine on the web, which makes sense for many reasons, mostly price in a city like New York with pretty wide selection.
And there are some great on-line outlets. But Le Dû has the other aspect hard to find on the Web, insight. I need all the help I can get.
Wine is kind of a social object, meant to be shared and that sense of sharing can easily include the whole purchase if you find someone helpful. Personally, the folks at New York Vintners have been great in figuring out what I would like, and I get the sense Le Dû would be the same, especially with a founder being a former sommelier (Jean Luc Le Du).
I’ve been to many wine retailers in the City. After checking out movie Mondovino kinda see that wine, like agriculture in general is changing in the midst of globalization and the effort by many to eat as few chemicals as possible. Or at least be aware of what one is eating/drinking.
In that sense, wine can be a mystery as labeling requirements outside of Sulfur (preservative SO2) are minimal. Several retailers in the City are moving to stock more wines made with less chemical intervention from places like Moore Bros where that effort is front and center to Chamber Street Wines and others who’ve expanded organic and biodynamic wines.
Definitely not an expert, but have found the following five to be great resources (kind of in order, but they’ve all been top shelf):
Le Dû’s Wines, 600 Washington Street, New York, NY 10014, Tel. 212.924.6999
New York Vintners, 21 Warren Street, New York, NY 10007, Tel. 212.812.3999
(Web): K&L Wines
(Web): Wine Library (and WineLibrary TV – will love/hate this – I think it’s great)
(Web): Sokolin (they’re in New York so no huge shipping issue)
These five would take me a long way. I’ve found that Le Dû is a winner as is New York Vintners. Real people, service that is helpful when you need it or invisible if you don’t; solid selection and prices I can live with.