Upon visiting Morrell & Company’s store located at 1 Rockefeller Plaza, it struck me as if I have been there before or at least have seen it. That is of course because it is just a few feet away from the iconic Rockefeller Center Ice skating rink. Amongst the well-known flags and the tons of people, I had walked into Morrel Wines and was greeted by the manager, Michael Shef. Mister Shef was one of the most hospitable and friendly people you would want to meet, ready to guide me around the store and answer all of my questions. We had then sat down in his office and I asked a few questions regarding wines and Morrell’s overall business practices. I had started off with “You have been in business a very long time, what is your mission statement? What do you believe makes you different from other wine and spirit retailers ?” Mr. Shef responded with “We have been in business for seventy-five years so we have longevity on our side. We have a lot of relationships with multiple suppliers from the U.S and overseas. Also having the privilege of doing business with certain purveyors that others wouldn’t have the opportunity to because of our longevity.”

Mentioning that they deal with vineyards from France, Germany, Italy as well as Jerusalem and other European and American countries, they sell rare whiskeys and spirits as well, worth thousands of dollars. I couldn’t help but wonder, “Who is apart of your customer demographic?” He responded “All kinds, mostly tourists during the holiday season and corporate people. We are fortunate enough to be in a location in which we supply wine to a lot of offices and businesses around the Midtown area as well as having a drag of tourists during the holiday season coming into the store and wanting to buy wine. So we have a lot of people coming in to get some wine for business parties and other occasions.” I had then asked, “If you ever discover a wine fault or defect in a certain batch of wine, what are the steps you take to ratify it?” Michael said, “If we know immediately, we will get rid of it, or if a client comes in and says it, we will swap it out for a new one. If they don’t trust it, we will try and find something else to give to our customer. If its a case of batches we will have to pull them off of the shelf and have a conversation with our purveyors.” Micheal, being in the business for a great amount of time, has worked mostly in front-of-house positions prior to becoming a sommelier.

Then we had taken a look around in search of the bottles of wine that I needed to take photographs of. In terms of the attributes of the store are first, Morrell & Company is a seasoned business. As mentioned earlier on, they have been in business for over seventy-five years, making them practically a household name in terms of New York wine and spirit stores. Making them a well-known brand and having a reputation for providing exceptional wine and spirits. They also have a fabulous location, amongst some of the wealthiest businesses and corporate companies in the Midtown area. With NBC a few blocks away and tourists within blocks of them, Morrell is fortunate to receive a heavy fluctuation of people looking for their wines. An aspect of their business that could be considered both an attribute and a weakness is that the store is relatively small. It could be an attribute in a sense of that it is more intimate, focusing on the customer and the customer knows that they are receiving small stocks of quality wine. It also can be deemed a weakness in that it is small enough that they do not have enough space for stock and certain wines are unavailable or has a high chance of never receiving that vintage again. Good news for the business in a profit sense but bad news for the customer who lost out on an amazing Chablis or Cabernet Sauvignon from a great harvest.

Overall if you want to visit a quaint, well-known Wine and Spirits store while in Midtown, Morell & Company is the place to go. They have some of the nicest wine and it is sold by the nicest people. You can also visit the Morrel & Company Cafe that is attached to the store. Where you can stop by to eat after buying a bottle of wine, they also offer wine tastings and go into further detail on their website, morrellwine.com. The store overall is a relaxing, attractive and amazing space to visit for a person who studies wine or happens to be in the market for some rare, pricey whiskey!

This is a space in the store in which the most expensive wine and spirits are stored. It is a temperature controlled environment and it allows the bottles to keep fresh and refrain from losing their quality

This is a “Shelf Talker” that is describing the Muga Red wine to the customer. Describing the harvest year of 2012, its price being 42.00$ and it is a special selection bottle.

This is from Bodegas Muga S.L in Spain, with a vintage year of 2012.

This is a Sparking Wine from Roedrer Estate in Anderson Valley, California USA. With a vintage year of 2011

This is a Sicilian Red wine that bears the Denominazione di orgine controllata standard of quality wine making. At the time, I was unaware that the Etna part of Sicily was involved in making wines. This bottle is also a 2016 harvest, using the Guardiola grape.