Heights Chateau

When I first visited Heights Chateau located on 123 Atlantic Avenue. I was a little nervous because although I study wine, I felt that maybe I would be overwhelmed by all the options. When I first walked in, the register was right in front of the door, witch was interesting only because it was so close to the door. The wine geeks/employees greeted me, and immediately I walked into the store looking for what caught my eye(which by the was everything). All of the wines where organized, where France was on the right side of the store, hard liquors/spirits where towards the back of the store, there where also, islands that included south African wines, and Italian wines. The wines where separated by regions so it was really easy to find what you where looking for. The wine store, to me resembled a bookstore. They had stairs connected to the shelves, just in case you wanted wine towards the top of the shelves. I loved the woody, dark feeling of the store and I couldn’t help but be very tempted by everything I laid my eyes on. The South African wines section was the most interesting to me, because I never thought South Africa as a winemaking country. Wine making in south Africa seems like a mystery, until now. wine making as a history back dating to the 1700’s. producing high alcohol wines because of the hot climate.

I found some of the staff to be really helpful; at least two of the staff asked me if I was okay and needed any help. I mentioned that I did have a paper to write and if it would be okay to ask a couple of questions. The woman was very open, I asked:

Can you tell me about how you got involved in the wine industry?

Shh don’t tell anyone, but I fell in love when I was younger. my parents let me drink wine with them and it opened my eyes. Then I started to work as a waitress in the restaurant industry and loved everything about wine.

Tonight I’m serving fish what would you recommend?

Well, any region that is next to water is good, with fish. A Pinot noir or a chardonnay from California would do too.

She was very helpful and recommended I try Sourgal Moscato d’ASTI 2017, because I like sweet white wines. I also brought a Willm Gewwurztraminer 2016, Alsace, I really loved both, they where light, and sweet and aromatic. They where very affordable too, which is great for a struggling college student; between 13-20 dollars. I spent about 45 minutes there just walking up and down the aisles, and not once did I feel pressured to leave.