One night while getting off of a mid shift, I decided to visit a local wine shop in Downtown Brooklyn. I chose to explore Heights Chateau, 123 Atlantic Avenue. A fifteen-minute walk from the Barclay Center. I had a few options for transportation. I could take the B63 bus, the four or five trains one stop, a $4 uber or preferably walk. All being around twenty minutes of travel time. I walked down Atlantic Avenue to get a feel of the neighborhood. There were a few medical centers, old churches ( even an abandoned church that creeped me out), and thrift stores. These places were mixed in with new restaurants, a Trader Joe’s, and clothing stores like Urban Outfitters. As I reached Heights Chateau, the shop was the brightest on the block, the header is big and bold, and the outside was a mix of glass and black wood. As I walk in my focus is directed towards the big round counter that is in the front center of the store. To my right side, there are Italian wines going up the wall and down throughout the Aisle. To my left is the same set up of a different region of wines. I am approached by Lourel, an employee at Heights Chateau. I explain to her that I am a college student analyzing wine shops and if it was okay if I asked questions and take images of the store. She was aware of the project already and gladly assisted me. We started off with a brief background of the store. The owner is Italian, hence the display of Italian wines in the front of the store, he opened the store 30 years ago by converting it from a furniture store into a wine shop. The vineyards they would purchase from are M.S. Walker, Touton, USA Wine Imports, and etc. The store has a wine cellar downstairs that store more of the expensive wines, ranging from $100- $1,000. The store has a Wine of the Month Club, where you can receive two bottles of wines a month. Membership varies by the number of months you wish to join for. Ranging from a three-month plan to a twelve-month plan. The store is broken down into regions and then grape variety/appellations. Prices are shown below each wine. The store layout reminds me of a supermarket with the aisles and region signs posted.  The shop carries regular liquor as well. The store is targeted towards customers who either study wines or know what wines they like to drink. Not much interaction is needed towards employees unless it’s for minor questions and suggestions. The shop is a mix of traditional, industrial, and french country theme. I found interesting is that they had a Sake section with over 10 varieties. For those who may not know, Sake is Japanese rice wine and the places I’ve commonly seen them are in Japanese restaurants. Before saying my goodbyes, I purchased a 2015 Trocken Riesling from Germany, which I’m excited to try. I would go back to Heights Chateau because the atmosphere is quiet, the employees are knowledgeable, and the set up is mid modern which made me enjoy my experience. 

This is Lourel a shelf talker. Her future goal is to become a Sommelier in a restaurant. In Heights Chateau their shelf talkers are wine advisors. They taste every new wine that the store has. They assist customers by asking about price points, pairings, and wine preference.

A 2016, Llenca Plana, Montsant. Red wine from Spain. Priced at $14.99.

2015, Mountain Red, Thelma. A South African red wine. There are six grape varieties in this wine. Priced at $14.99.

2016, cava, Raventos i Blanc, de Nit. Sparkling wine from Spain. Priced at $21.99.

For this Retail Wine Assignment I decide to visit Thirst Wine Merchants in Fort Greene. it was a very small wine shop that is hidden on the Greene Ave. Nel who was the only person there at the moment, helped me out with a few questions. I had the task to look for  specific wines, and he helped me out through the process. Like mentioned before, this is a very small wine shop. There was no one in there, so it was very easy to ask questions to Nel. He was explaining to me that they only specialize in Natural wines. By that he meant organic and biodynamic. Nel also mentioned that they only work with small wineries that’s why the prices are not so high. This wine shop supports small biodynamic farms because it assures the quality of the grape. Thirst Wine Merchants Shop agree that organic wines are way Better than any other wines because they do not contain any chemicals or pesticides in them.

I noticed that as I was walking around, the Wines were all arranged by country and region. that’s when my search for wines became easier. Because most of the bottles were dark, I really had to read the labels carefully to determine what kind of wine it was.

Because we always try different wines, I enjoyed German Wines very much. In fact, I liked Silvaner very much, I decided to buy one. It’s really fruity and Nel mentioned that it has stone fruits and it is very light.

Wine I decided to buy
Silvaner

Pictured here is the Red Wine from Spain, Nas del Gegant. With the vinatage of 2017 and made of a blend of Cabernet Franc, Carignan, Grenache and Merlot. A good food pairing with this can be Grilled lamb or rice with any meat. 
Nas del Gegant

Morphos 2018, is an American Sparkling Wine from the Oyster River Winegrowers. This sparkling wine consists of dry cloudy flavor. It has been said that this Wine still continues to ferment even after being bottled.
Morphos 2018

We have studied about wines in Italy. But never knew that wine was made from Umbria, Italy. This is a white wine with a vintage of 2017.
Margó Regio Blanco

Here we have what I would say is the Shelf Talker because they did not really have any wines that stood out. This was the nearest thing to a shelf talker. They also had signs up for wines that they only had a few left of, but they were only on display because they were for sale.
Shelf Talker

The retail store that I decided to visit was the Gnarly Vines Wines and Spirits store located at 350 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn. I enjoyed that the location was only a fifteen-minute ride from the school on the Ridgewood fifty-four bus.  Though my map said it was a few steps away from the bus stop the store was difficult to find and easily missed. In a clean kept area, the cluster of stores and many banners can be confusing. I found that the store did not stand out at all, the signs font was small and there are no banners or colors that attract the eye. Upon entering the store the small lobby area was well kept and clutter free. I was greeted with a kind smile and pleasant greeting from the employees and manager at the front desk. The store is small and is well organized, even with a large number of selections it doesn’t feel overcrowded or overwhelming. Shelves of wines, liquors, bitters, and other intriguing beverages are lined along the walls, with one shelving unit in the middle. The shelving is sectioned and labeled by country, region, and type of drink with strips of paper, which with fading should be reprinted. Each wine is placed above shelf talkers that gave information based on producer, country, region and grape variety with a little description of flavor and food pairings.

After being allowed to take pictures and walking through the store, the manager though very busy took the time to speak to me about his store and how it came to be. He told me that he didn’t have vineyard experience and that wine had actually been a hobby, an experience he gained through friends. He decided to open this store for his enjoyment, something he didn’t realize would be as hard as it was. He spoke of having to work with contractors, lighting, hiring, liquor license and much more. I asked him how he advertised his business and he expressed his dislike for spending money on companies that help advertise. For his store, he found it a waste of money. He believes that by word of mouth and establishing relationships with those in the neighborhood he found as the best way to advertise. He advised that future store or business owners shouldn’t be fooled into thinking that all the profit will belong to them. That there are fees that are needed for many things like, repair and expansion. Though he finds himself extremely busy he enjoys his business, I thanked him for his time and left.

This is a shelf talker It describes a Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah from Northern Israel.

This a picture of the inside of the store.

This is a 2014 Dom des Tourelles- Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. I choose this as my red wine from a place I didn’t know. It’s an organic blend of 40% Syrah, 40% Cabernet- Sauvignon, 15 %Cinsault and 5 %Carignan and is made by one of the oldest wineries in Lebanon with spontaneous malolactic fermentation.

This is a Sparkling wine that is made in New Mexico, not France. It is called NV Gruet Methode Chapenoise Rose.

 This is my red wine from Spain. it is a 2015 black Slate Porrera vi de la vila- Priorat, Catalonia, Spain. It is a blend of Garnatxa, Carinyena and a little Cab from the prestigious Priorat appellation.

This past Sunday, I visited Heights Chateau to do my wine retail store analysis because I was in the area and it was the closest wine store to me at the time. Heights Chateau is located in Brooklyn Heights on Atlantic Avenue and Henry Street. The location of this wine store plays a huge part in the store’s high volume of customers. In the area, there are surrounding restaurants, shopping, and most importantly, it is just minutes away from the Brooklyn Bridge.

Approaching the wine retail store, I thought they had a pretty inviting exterior – store name displayed largely over the entrance and see through display glass, displaying different arts, books and wine. According to the stores website, loyal customers are drawn in by the store’s classic and simple design of wine and wood and an ever-changing stock of carefully selected wines and spirits from around the world.

When I visited, there were three workers in the shop and one worker who seemed to be quite young offered to help me and has assisted me throughout my analysis. The wines in the shop are arranged by country and region. The first set of wines that I noticed on my right walking in were wines from France and in this section, were subtitles to separate these wines by the regions of France: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Loire Valley, etc. This was one of the store’s attributes; it definitely made finding the wines I intended to find much easier.

Heights Chateau executes free in store wine tastings on Thursday through Sunday evenings from 5- 8:30pm. This wine store does not keep all of their items on the shelf. Any wine over eighty dollars, except for select few wines are in the wine cellar. The wine cellar carries the shop’s most expensive bottles of wine, ranging from $100- $1000 wine bottles, kept at fifty seven degrees. Most other wine stores do not do this. Chateau carries a Wine Cellar List that is kept at the desk counter for anyone interested in expensive wine bottles.

Red Wine from Spain . 2015 Perica Vina Olagosa made in Rioja 

Sparkling Wine from Cava, Spain. 2016 Raventos i Blanc

Kosher Wine from Israel

Now this falls in the category of a “red” wine from s region I didn’t know made wine. So I missed the part where it said red wine because I was interested in this white wine but there are red wines displayed in the back. I was unaware of the fact that Israel made wine and Kosher at that. This was my first time hearing of such a thing. Apparently, Kosher wines are only from Israel and should be prayed over by a Rabbi.

This description explains information about an Apricot liqueur. This is considered a “shelf talker” that explains how treasured the fruit apricots are. It explains how Austria has an annual summer fest dedicated to the fruit.

One of the store’s weaknesses is not having many descriptions for the wines around the shop as well as not having the pricing up for the display wines for each section.

The place that I went to visit is the Grand Wine and Liquor located in the 30-05 31^st, Astoria. The person that help me to take a tour in the place was Robert J. Battipaglia. He was so kind and help me a lot.

The first thing that I notice when I enter to the place was that the wines were classify by region. By classifying the wines by regions, helps customers to identify faster and it will be easier for them when looking for a specific wine. The place was clean and it was easy to walk by. Something unique that this store have is that they sell wines that are unique and in most cases is difficult to find this type of wine in other places.

In order to have a successful store he use 4 strategies, the first one is merchandising, this means that in order to attract customer he puts high profit items. As shows in the picture below to the left this table is an example of high profit items. The second one is multiple bottle strategy, which consist on a promotion as 2 for $20 and the mix and match color label by giving the customer’s the opportunity to combine any bottle of wine with the same color of match and be able to try different varieties of wine. The third one is a loyalty programs which help customers to earn point every time they purchase a wine. The last one is quantity discount which persuades customer to buy wines in order to get a discount.

The best selling wine in this store are from Italy – Mionetto Procsecco which is on the right, this wine is a sparkling wine which consist of a refreshing flavor of golden apple, honey and white peach. The other one is New Zealand- Oyster Bay is a mix of fruit flavors.

This picture below shows some example of “Shelf Talker” in the store. The entire store provide a shelf talker.  The shelf talker in this place help people to identify the name of the wine, the price of eachwine, give a brief explanation on what flavor the customer’s should expect when drinking this wines and in some shelf talker it can provide a suggestion of  foods that the wine can be combined.