One of my favorite countries we did so far

House selections

Tasting table

The retail shop that I ended up going too was Heights Chateau (Fine Wines and Spirits). This shop was really convenient because its located near the school at 123 Atlantic Avenue. Upon walking up to Heights Chateau I was a bit intimidated because although it didn’t look like a huge place, it still looked really diverse and complex and I just didn’t know where to start.

The first impression i got when I walked into the shop was that it made me feel like I was not only in a place that sells wines but also a place that takes pride in what they do and they interact with their customers and try to educate them within these interactions. The decor and layout of the place was really clean and it has a rustic feel to it, I noticed that they used barrels for decoration which i thought was a nice touch. I also noticed that there were more people there than I expected and it turns out they were actually having a wine tasting which they have every Thursday-Saturday.

It did not take long for me to be greeted by one of the staff members Rebecca, a woman who has been in the wine business for twenty years. Rebecca was really willing to help me and to answer all of my questions. She has worked as a restaurant director and a sommelier and has been interested in wines since she was a kid due to her mother planting different fruits and vegetables, so I knew that i was in good hands.

I asked Rebecca how they choose the wines they sell  and she told me that Alex the manager and Omar the director have appointments with different distributors and they hold wine tastings amongst the staff that way everyone can be a part of it. When I saw that they didn’t have the wines grouped by the varietal, I asked how the wines were displayed/how they chose the set up of the store? The wines are categorized first by country, then by region and then from white to red, north to south.This way it makes it easier to understand and to find what you are looking for. I also learned that they pride themselves on having diverse wines, being open minded on the types of wines they choose and having good quality wines that are inexpensive so there really isn’t one wine that they would classify as their most popular. In fact, when i asked Rebecca if there were any trends she’s noticed, she said that lately they’ve been having a lot of customers who are going for the more non traditional wines and being more open minded. Instead of the traditional French wines, customers will buy one from China or any wine from their new world selection (Africa,Australia,etc…).

Now it was time for me to buy a bottle of my own.I asked Rebecca how much people normally paid for everyday wines and she informed me that for everyday wines people will pay from $10-$15, for celebrations $15-$25 and for gifts $25-$50. My last question to Rebecca was what red or white wines she would recommend for a beginner and she told me that she wouldn’t recommend a specific bottle but that a beginner should start with a white wine,not too acidic or dry, maybe one from italy. She walked me over to the tasting so that I could buy from there. Chris was the one doing the wine tasting and he taught me that old wines have more flavor because they use more skin and that even though all of the wines we were tasting seemed really complex that they were all unbaked but had all of that powerful flavor because of the skin. I chose a wine from Portugal which has 28 different grapes from the same vineyard which Chris thought that they just planted different grapes for job security because at least they knew that something would be sold out of the 28 grapes.

Overall my experience was really pleasant and informative. The staff were all really nice and willing to help me.