The blessing of a good wine shop
There are good wine shops and bad wine shops. Among their various attributes, the good ones have a broad selection of interesting wines from interesting places and — important add-on — a knowledgeable staff whose members can talk intelligently about their wares and can steer you in the right direction. The bad ones — well, you know. Their shelves are full of the stuff the distributors tell them to buy and their staff is not really sure whether Morgon is the name of the boss’s pet or a place in Beaujolais that produces good wine. My office in New York is close to an excellent wine shop called Flatiron Wine & Spirits. It is a big shop on Broadway at 18th Street and it boasts a large, expert and helpful staff.
