wine merchants
There is a shop in North London / They call the Sa-ham-plar / And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy / And God I know I'm one
So there is a shop in North London, and it sells wine. Now just that would not make it special, would it? What makes The Sampler special is not just that it is a cute shop with a dog, that they have a good selection of wine or that they organise tastings and other events. No it is, surprise surprise, the sampling. How many wine shops do you know where on any given day they let you taste a 1978 Mouton Rothschild, premier Austrian dessert wines, some of the top names in German Riesling or some of the finest the US has to offer? At the Sampler you can and it is much fun. And so we went, and had the fun and tasted the Mouton and I fear I shall be back for more.
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy / And God I know I'm one
Back in the very first days of the Wine Rambler, when we couldn't reasonably expect anyone to want to read what we had to say, we started a little series reporting on german online wine merchants. This ran to three or four issues, and in none of them did we mince our words about the pros and cons of the places we featured. Pinard de Picard, one of our most frequent and important sources, and one that we do think highly of, especially had to take it on the chin. Would a revised reissue maybe be in order? But there is not one word of our original review that we should or honestly could change. So that's the thinking-over done. But there is one point we'd like to make: Pinard de Picard has wonderful hand-drawn graphics to illustrate their wines, which they and artist Susanne Lehen-Friedrich have graciously allowed us to use, and which now grace this Wine Rambler reissue. Enjoy.
What could be a better Christmas present than a mammoth tusk? If you too cannot imagine anything better, you are certainly in line with some of the staff and customers of Harrods, the famous London department store.
I visited this temple of conspicuous consumption earlier today, but as I had already organised all my Christmas presents a while ago, I showed the tusk and another £47,000 fossil that also was on sale the cold shoulder and moved on to the wine shop in the basement, eager to explore what delights it might offer - especially with regards to German wine. I mean, where better to go, one would think, than Harrods if it comes to finding something unusual and extraordinary, right?
Sometimes you find one of these local shops that feel a bit like home. For me, Philglas & Swiggot in Battersea is one of them. Located on Northcote Road, Battersea's food and wine shopping street (especially if you count the St John's Road extension), this gem of a shop has been supplying the locals with wine for almost two decades. Now there are two other branches, one in Marylebone, the other in Richmond. The efforts of the team to provide good wine and good advice have been recognised, for instance through the award of London Wine Merchant of the Year in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
Philglas & Swiggot
After the failed attempt to explore wine merchants in Washington, a Wine Rambler desperate to bring some wine stories home from the USA trip moved north to the Big Apple.
I know what I'm needin', and I don't wanna waste more time.
I'm in a New York state of mind.
This posting does in no way claim to be representative of the wine shopping experience in New York. It is just a fairly random sample of wine shops I happened to walk into while exploring New York. And a few comments by a German wine snob about what German wine delight is on offer to the locals.
Well, you went uptown ridin' in your limousine / With your fine Park Avenue clothes / You had the Dom Perignon in your hand / And the spoon up your nose
New York, by Jerry Ferguson
(3) Weinhandelshaus Scholzen, at http://www.weinpalais.de
Product Range: Fairly comprehensive on the South of France, Italy and Spain, good on Germany, a small selection of the rest. Interesting older wines (Bordeaux, Languedoc) at very fair prices come up from time to time.
Pricing: Fairly unbeatable.
Wine prose: None to speak of. Wine descriptions mostly just cite journalist rankings and points. But that's ok, no Parker hypocrisy either.
Upsides: Very competitive prices. The range of wines under 6 € is exceptional, and - as far as I can say - very decent throughout. Since prices are mostly cheaper even than in supermarkets, shipping included, you can stock up on everyday wines without regrets. [read the full post...]
(2) K & U, at http://www.weinhalle.de/
Product range: Europe, and a bit of the world. Very good covering of France and, unusually in Germany, California. Ambitious and original range of biodynamic and all sorts of alternatively made wines. Fairly great turnover, as the program is remade every two or three years and producers no longer worthy of the concept are ditched mercilessly. [read the full post...]
The other day I opened a bottle of a lovely Pinot Blanc from Markus Molitor's winery. After a little search online I found two wine merchants who have this wine in their online catalogue. One of them was the Alpe Adria Weindepot in Austria. I emailed them, only to get a reply saying that it was a) too difficult to deliver wine to the UK; b) too expensive (even though that should be the customer's decision, I think); and that c) they specialised on Austrian and Italian wine and could not offer this one. Strangely though, they still have it in their online catalogue (with other German wine): http://www.wein-online.at/content_weinshop_detail.php?aid=112856&suchbeg... My follow-up email was never answered...