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.

I went to the Moore Brothers Wine Company at 51 35th st for my retail beverage shop analysis. The moment of truth I had when I first walked into the shop was small. The wine shop was smaller than I expected with a counter in front of the entrance and the rest space occupied with shelves. I told the staff about my purpose of coming here and obtained permission to take photos.

One of the friendly staff called Bill was kind enough to walk me around the shop and gave a tour as I walked around the shop I have discovered a few disadvantages such as lack of labelling. The only tag they have on the shelf was the price, no shelf talkers were used, and no region labels were attached to the rack for the customer. The staff answered my question about the organization of wines; they organize wine by regions. But I discovered that they don’t label the shelf with which country or areas. Imagine a customer walked in for a bottle of red from France and had to look through every bottle to find the one.

I also asked about the source of wine, marketing plan used and how to decide which wine to sell. After given the answer I found that this shop is unique because they work straight with producers and have a long term relationship with them. All the wines are directly shipped from the producer with temperature controlled at 56 degrees through the entire journey. This relationship is a good thing because they can monitor the quality of the wine, and can trace back to the producer if any of their wine were terrible. However, because they work directly with the producers, they have a limited choice. They choose wines mainly based on what the producer instead of primarily based on the demand of the market. For instance, they only had two bottles of wine that is from Spain, and both were white. This method of work directly with producers limited the choice for their customers.

Overall I think the wine shop has more advantages than a disadvantage. They were able to maintain their quality through working with the producer but the wine shop is limited with not a lot of choices and space of the shop wasn’t so big. But since their clienteles are based on the word of the mouth of an existing client, they only do business with the limited customer

This is a bottle of Sparking red wine from Italy. I use this as an alternative to the shelf talkers because the shop I went to did not use any shelf talkers.

This is me standing in front of the sine shop. Entrance was big but the internal space was limited.

This is a bottle of sparkling wine that is not from France. I is a bottle of 2013 riesling from Mittelrhein, German.

This bottle of red is from Vinsobres which I did not know makes wine.

This is also a bottle of sparkling white wine that is not from France. It is from Italy.

Grand Wine and Liquor

For my Retail Wine Shop after looking at my options from Queens I had decided to go to Grand Wine and Liquor store. I went straight from college to this wine store and the trip was easy and commute was only 20mins away from the college. Once I got off the subway the wine store was right across the street and it was very easy to fine. Only thing that was weird was I had to look at the wine store twice because just to make sure it’s was a wine store not some clothing store or something different. From the outside it would be difficult for someone to tell it was a liquor or even a wine store if they didn’t have a sign. Seeing just the windows from far, it could be confused for something else. After I entered the wine store, the store was huge and had a lot of options for wine. As I walked in the employee greeted me with a smile, and was willing to help me with any questions I had. So I walked around the wine store and checked out all the wine to see where everything was placed. After I walked around I approached the employee that was working there, I asked may I please speak to a manager on duty at the moment. The manger on duty was Jamie; she walked out, she greeted me with not so happy look on her face but she was willing to help me with all my questions I had. She was surprised that I just walked in to talk to her without emailing her or giving her a heads up. After all of that she gave me 5-10minutes of her time. I first asked her was how long has this store been opened up for? She answers by replying Jack Battipaglia, longtime owner who opened up this shop seventy-five years ago, it is still up and running. Jack had a huge heart for the community and touched the lives of many people in the community. Jack lived his life with full of love, laughter, and good; cherishing and placing family above all. After speaking to the manager Jamie, she had answered my questions and then walked over to show me all the wines in the store.

Wine #1 ” Shelf Talker”

Wine #1- “Shelf Talker” Bodegas Lan Rioja Crianza- Spain Price $14.99 Intense red cherry color. Aromas of red fruits, strawberry and cranberry framed by fine nuances of vanilla and toffee. Silky and structured on the palate, it has a long lasting and satisfying finish to wine.

Wine #2- Red From Spain- Bodegas Ego Infinito

Wine #2 Red from Spain- Bodegas Ego Infinito

Intense and dark cherry red color with purple edges. High layer. Clean and bright. Dense tear that lightly dyes the glass.

Wine #3- Coppiere Prosecco Italy

Wine #3- Coppiere Prosecco Extra Dry- Italy 

Delicate, persistent bubbles. Fresh, intense, aromatic bouquet on the nose. On the palate it is mouth filling , with rich flavors of white stone fruit.

Wine #4- Red Wine (Region you did not know made wine.) Lanterna- Plava Mali Dalmatia

Wine #4- Red Wine (Region you did not know made wine.)

This wine is from Croatia because a lot of their customers

are greek and eastern european in the neighborhood which love to

buy this of wine.

Picture of the Store

I started my trip to the Chambers Street Wines store which is located at 148 Chambers Street. When I walked into the store, it was pretty shiny by my first impression. I could see each bottle of wine was twinkling in front of my eyes, and it caught all my attention. I was greeted by the employees as soon as I walked into the store. I told them the purpose of why I came there and asked them if I had the permission to take photographs in the store. They kindly said yes and let me ask them if I had any questions.The store was surrounded by different types of wines. The categories were classified by different countries and regions, and each category of wine had a map indicating its location which told me what country and region the wine was from. I found out that was a good way to let the customers know about where each of the wines was from by looking at the map. When I was looking for the shelf talker, I found out there were only a few shelf talkers for some particular wines. For the other wines, it only had the name, region and the price on the label, and there were not many descriptions. However, if you ask the staff, they are all knowledgeable to tell you about each of the wines. Because this was my first time coming to a wine retail store, many things were not familiar to me. Also,a lot of wines were placed around the corner with no labels. I think it was because they didn’t have enough space for stocking the wines. It could be one of the weaknesses of the store. I asked one of the employees for a red wine which was from Spain. He immediately recommended the Torremilanos 16 for me, which is the most popular one in the store. The price was relatively cheap which many people could afford. He also helped me to find the wines which I needed for photographs. He patiently described them for me. After all, with all my appreciation, I brought a bottle of wine which was Weingut Knauss “Pur” Wurttemberg Trollinger 2017 from the store. It tasted very fruity, and the price was kind of low.

Overall, I think this wine retail store was very interesting. The staff were all well educated and knowledgeable. They answered every question that I asked. Also, they made many wine suggestions for me, depending on my taste. I would visit it again if I have another chance.

Montecastrillo Ribera Del Duero – 2016 This is a red wine from Spain with delicious red fruit flavors, and it’s a great wine for burgers.

Casa Coste Piane 2013 Prosecco It’s a sparkling wine which is from Italy. It tastes like dry lemonade with hints of flowers and a refreshing bead.

It’s the shelf talker of Knauss 2017 Württemberg Trollinger Pure. This wine is from Germany, it tastes dry and fruity; also, the wine itself is pretty light.

2013 Cantine Madonna delle Grazie Bauccio Aglianico del Vulture
This wine is from basilicata of Italy. A region which I never heard of it before.

Tannat red wine from Uruguay, a region I did not know makes wine

Sparkling wine from Tasmania, Australia. Not only did I just recently learned that Australia makes wine, but that they make sparkling also!

Sparkling from Italy

Red (Garnacha and Carinena) from Priorat, Spain

Shelf talkers includes everything from name of wine, region, grape, tasting, and pairings

Located in Long Island City, Hunters Point wine and spirits is the perfect mix of the friendly neighborhood liquor store and a knowledgable wine provider.

Walking into the store, you are greeted by the two sales person on the left, where the checkout counter is located. All the liquor is located behind the register, whereas everything else is completely wine. The first room where you first enter has a few selection from different regions presents on the shelf. A small tunnel leads to the room in the back, which is domed and gives off a nice medieval cellar vibe. There is a sink and a station for sampling located in the back also. All of the wine on the shelves are incased in their own wooden section for each bottle, preventing other bottles from being mixed behind one another on top of the clean, organized wooden interior design. Each of the regions are labeled with a gold plaque on the very top of the shelf, and majority of the wine consists of its own “shelf-talker.”

The shop is very orientated towards serving the customer base of the surrounding neighborhood. Marko, one of the sales associate, answered any questions that I presented, and was extremely knowledgable about the wine and the process behind it’s vinification. Unable to make a trip to a wine shop without bringing home some wine, I asked Marko to suggest both a red and white with specific qualities such as a low acidic, floral white and a low tannins medium bodied red. He was able to suggest many different bottles according to my requests, but also narrow things down with contributions based on his experience. Marko was also even able to recommend certain wine due to the way it was made, such as a red that the grapes were let out to sun dry, creating more densely packed flavors and aromas. When it came to finally deciding which white, he ultimately pushed a certain bottle that one of his regular’s daughter constantly buys because of her dislike towards acidity. It just so happens that the regular was also present in the store, checking out at the counter, in which one of the bottles was the very same one he was recommending. When checking out, Marko requested if I would like to leave my name to create an account, this way my purchase history is on file if I would ever need to pull up a purchase that I would like to repeat. One can definitely tell that Marko not only knew his wine, but also the clients that comes into the shop.

Hunters Point Wine and liquor shop as a whole has many strong points. The store is welcoming, organized nicely and appealing to the eye and the senses. They offer a nice variety where one can explore the different wines available and have some tastings to help with the decision making process. Many of the selection are different from the generic ones offered at some other local wine shops (i.e. yellowtail, barefoot, etc…), which is great for any drinkers who are open to explore new options or want to be surprised. Almost half of the wine comes with a shelf talker, which helps non-experienced and even experienced wine drinkers on what to expect within the bottle. Wines are categorized based on region, and offered in all sorts of price ranges. The only thing that could be improved on would be the organization between the red and the whites. Usually being one of the first categories a guest uses to refine the type of wine they would like to purchase, having to look at all the bottles to locate either a red or white wine amongst regions does take some time and can cause people to miss some bottles from the constant eye scanning. Having reds with the reds and whites with the whites within a region helps a big deal. Although understandable that it could take some rearranging with change in inventory, it should be taken into consideration. Overall, the wine shop was a pleasant experience and makes me wish I lived in the area so I can constantly visit the shop to bring home a new bottle to explore every so often.

The retail beverage shop I had decided to go, and visit was the Astor Wine and Spirits, located on 399 Lafayette street. Upon arriving at the store, the outside ambiance blended really well with the other buildings in the area, but also made its presence with a themed window display of wines as well as signs and a flag to allow the location to pop out. Upon entering the store, I felt like I had entered a supermarket made specifically for wines, seeing things that a supermarket normally had such as aisles and signs showing what were in the aisles, a customer checkout towards the exit and a customer service area where they held their tastings and information desk as well as a clearance section. Something I found interesting about the store was that alongside store tastings they also worked with Astor Sector located right above their store in order to teach people about wines and also held more wine tastings tailored towards wine enthusiasts.

For their wine set up, each country was properly labeled with the country in big overhanging signs and then individual signs were at the top of each shelf that held the wine from that region. Each wine had its own shelf talker and there was a separate storage area which held wines that needed to be stored in a colder temperature. Despite this overall, I felt that you needed to know a little bit about wine just to navigate the store where as the selection got more specific, it became more and more overwhelming even with the shelf talkers present near each wine bottle. However, their set up also has some benefits with the addition of things like staff picks and tons of staff members to help out their customers as well as a two information desks where customers can try and find something that fits their tastes.

I was lucky enough to interview one of their employees there during a busy time for them, setting up for their upcoming Italian wine tasting and sale. Jose, the associate we interviewed handled a lot of the guest relations and provided each guest with the information they needed to navigate and find what they were looking for within the store and provided me with a brief overview of how they ran their store.  He explained that their store organized their wines by country then region and then grape variety. These wines came from one of their 25 state distributors who only deal with business in New York state and talked about how they try not to carry bigger name brands such as Yellow Tail, but rather try and support local and smaller producers if they can. Due to this, they carry some unique wines such as the Mia Prosecco their best seller, but also carry some of the staple big-name brands still such as the Veuve Clicquot Brut as it is something that is always requested. Through buying wines and creating relationships with local and smaller producers, Jose explained that they are able to provide both the classic staples that are always requested but can also provide alternatives from these smaller producers to sell more inexpensive and affordable wines for people to enjoy and maybe even buy again. For the most part he explained that over 70% of their inventory is from a local or smaller producer while the other 30% is comprised of the classic known brands and wines. Finally, he explained about their mailing list and class calendar which they try to promote in order to try and educate more and more people about the beauty of wine

Astor Wine and Spirits-Outside of Astor Wine and Spirits located on 399 Lafayette Street.

Shelf Talker-This shelf talker describes and shows one of the best sellers at Astor Wine and Spirits called Mia Prosecco NV made from Glera grapes from Veneto, Italy.

Red Wine from Spain- The Friend and Farmer Red Wine from Spain is made from using a black grape called the Tempranillo grape and is great paired with carne asada and pulled pork.

Sparkling Wine not from France- This sparkling Rose wine from Austria, Sparkling Rose, Erdenlied NV is made from Zweigelt grape and contains a lot of red berry flavors matched with dry and delicate bubbles.

Red wine- The Niepoort Rotulo Tinto, Dao 2016 is a red wine from Portugal, a region I did not know made wine and is made from a Portugese red wine blend which is famous in their port wines. The wine is similar to that of a Beaujolais red wine made with the Gamay grape and pairs well with cheese.

Red Wine- The Chateau Musar Rogue 2001 is red wine from Lebanon, another region which I didn’t know produced wines and is made with a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cinsaut and is one of Lebanon’s famous full bodied wines.