MAB Fine Wines and Spirits, By Laura Storch

                I recently visited a liquor store called MAB in my hometown. It is a place I have driven by countless times but have never been in prior to today. I am somewhat familiar with the average liquor store one could find in any shopping center but I never really had experience in an establishment that was of higher sophistication. That is, until I visited MAB.

As soon as I walked in I was impressed by the sheer size of the facility. It was enormous, but had more than enough products to keep it filled. I was immediately greeted on arrival and I explained my reason for being there. I was offered help but decided to just walk around and see what seemed familiar to me now after having taken a wine class for several weeks. The warm atmosphere and décor as well as organized layout made this process very easy. They stocked everything based on the style of wine (red, white, sparkling, etc) and where in the world it was from. I walked around the entire facility to see it all. They kept a select few wines refrigerated and had a little area designated for tasting, I saw the remains of one.  I focused my attention to the regions we focused on in class, primarily California and France. I was impressed with myself as I read the labels and made sense of the information presented on them. The prior trepidations I had of feeling a bit awkward in this unfamiliar setting had definitely ceased. I also saw a very wide variety of pricing. MAB focuses on fine wines and spirits, but with that in mind I saw items that were absolutely affordable. I saw bottles that went for about twenty or twenty five dollars and bottles that went up to about one hundred and fifty dollars. There were definitely more bottles from the twenty to fifty dollar range than there were of more expensive selections but it was hard to imagine someone not being able to find something that suits their needs at MAB. In addition, the store was filled with information on wine as if they were designing a customer guide that assisted a less experienced customer make the proper selection. It was absolutely something I benefitted from, and once again was glad to find myself familiar with a lot of the information they gave out about grape varieties and viticulture and things of that sort.

Overall my experience at MAB was overwhelmingly positive. It is an establishment that is welcoming to any customer. Whether it is someone familiar with wines and spirits, or someone who like me was a bit more new to it and feeling a bit awkward, MAB creates an environment where all are welcome and all can find something no matter what their budget is. If I were to make one suggestion it would be to maybe have another person or two working there, when I went in I only saw one worker who had to assist customers on the floor as well as work the register. Granted it was a Wednesday afternoon and someone else could have just been on break, it seems like it would maybe make everything run a little smoother. I would absolutely return to MAB and recommend it to anyone.

These are a few pictures I took of MAB. Above you see what was a wine tasting and the other two pictures show two of the main sections devoted to wine