The store certainly attracts the attention of potential buyers with their bold choice of color.

My retail wine store of choice is BottleRocket Wine & Spirits; located at 5 W 19th Street around the Flatiron District.

What immediately caught my attention is store’s bright purple neon sign and its purple theme color. That gave me the impression of a cool, hip and trendy store.

Something I found interesting is the way they have categorized some of their selections of wine to a food pairing. Some that are shown here are for Meats, Poultry, Seafood, and different kinds of Takeout. There is also one for your value price wines.

Upon entering I noticed the different display stands. Each one can be used to look for a specific occasion wine that a customer may have in mind of purchasing. A sales associate helped answer my questions and explained to me the way the wines were assorted. Instead of being arranged by grape varietals, like most stores, the wines were alphabetically grouped by country of origin. To someone who may still be developing their palate or in need of a wine to pair for a meal, this is a helpful tool.

Once familiarized with  the store’s system of organization I began asking my list of questions.

What is the stores most prevalent demographic?
“We are a neighborhood store that serves towards our local clientele.”

What kind of wines would you recommend for someone developing their palate?
“For the Reds a light to medium body is a good way to start out because of the  lesser amount of tannin. That being said a Grenache or a Pinot Noir from France is a good way to go. As for the Whites , and aromatic Alsace or White Burgundy is a good choice as well.”

The display stand makes it easy for the consumer to identify the kinds of body the reds are. Medium bodied reads are shown to the right; Light bodied reds are shown to the left.

White wines display stand presenting their “bubbly” array of wines.

At Bottlerocket they are all about wine education. Next to each selection of wine is a set of informative tasting notes and suggestive pairing options. They provide free tastings Thursday-Saturday from 5 to 8pm.