After more than a year of my wine self-education experiment I can say I've visited quite the variety of wine shops in the metro Boston area.  Huge and small, pricey and cheap, helpful and not.  I thought it would fun this morning to say a few words about what works and what doesn't.

Top thing I love:

If some of the wines (say 1 in 10) have a card taped in front telling something meaningful about that wine then I love it.  I'll go down each ailse and actually read about 1/2 of those and usually my final selections are from labelled wines.  However, this can turn into a negative if they label ever single stupid bottle of wine because there's no way I'm going to read 1000 of those cards so then I'm largely left to figure out on my own which are the really good ones.  In fact if everything is labelled then you learn to distrust the labels themselves because you know they're doing a hard sell on even their cheapest wines.  No one puts up a card honestly saying this is a cheap boring wine and probably not worth it's price.  So the moral of this story is label a handful of the wines and make the labels really mean something.  Then I'll keep coming back, keep reading, and keep trusting your labels.

Top thing I hate:

Pushy sales people.  I don't mind being asked if I need help or if I know what I'm looking for but if I tell them I want to look they need to go away.  Not everyone walking into a wine store has a specific brand, specific grape, or shopping list in mind.  I often tell them the looking is a big part of the fun and most of them get it, but others want to chat with you and then you can't really be studying the hundreds of wines to choose from.  Frankly sometimes I think they assume everyone is a shoplifter and that pisses me off not only because I'd never do that but I'm usually fairly nicely dressed after work and my behaviors would clearly show any idiot that I'm studying their displays to make an intelligent decision.

Other thoughts:

I like lots of selection, the bigger the better, however, I hate when they pack the aisle so close together I'm afraid to move for fear of knocking something over or I can't get around other shoppers because there's no way to fit.

I understand why cheap mainstream wines are the best sellers but even a small neighborhood wine shop should have a handful of something special or unique.  It's actually uncomfortable for me to go into a shop and then realize there's nothing there I really want to buy because I come to that conclusion after going down every aisle and really looking and after that sort of time commitment I just feel I need to pick something, anything.  But a majority of my harshest wine reviews so far were from these "mercy purchase" encounters in which I pretty much said "I give up, what the hell" and bought something I otherwise would have skipped.

I like if an attendant volunteers  a small bit of knowledge or trivia about a wine or grape, but I hate if I already know before they finish the sentence that they really don't know what they're talking about.

I like if wine stores have a diverse clientelle shopping there but I hate if they let panhandlers or drunks hit people up for cash.  There's a store at Downtown Crossing in Boston which I stopped going to (not listed below) because some teen punk and his girlfriend were going person to person in the store and asking for money, and I know the attendant saw it and still they didn't do anything about it.  I stopped looking and left before it was my turn to get grilled on cash.  Actually this isn't unique to wine stores, I feel the same about beggars inside supermarkets or any business, and the same if they camp right at the door of the store so you have to run a gauntlet in or out.  I'm not against helping the desperate but there are other ways to do it besides cash on the spot and I don't think people going about the basics of daily life should have to pay a beggar tax everywhere they go.

I think wine tastings are worthwhile events which they should continue, however, to this day I have never joined one because I don't want wine on my breath when I'm out in public unless I'm coming out of a nice restaurant.  Also too often they do tastings in a part of the store where it interferes with others shopping.  I've watched tastings and sometimes the guests don't buy that wine, or any wine, they just came for free wine.  Meanwhile people fully intent on buying cannot get around the throng of people to find something worth buying.

I prefer stores which specialize in wine and have only a standard minimal choice of beer and hard liquor, OR, stores that have easy groupings of their product so the wine shoppers don't have to keep dodging the other shoppers.  You know I've bought a lot of wine at the large Kappy's in Medford and in general I like that store and am happy they grouped the wine in one area, however, the far wall is the coolers where they keep the beer so inevitably when I'm there looking at wine labels I'll be dodging party animals who are constantly headed to or from those coolers and hauling enormous cases of beer.  They can have their beer but they don't care squat about me reading a label and I don't care squat that they're planning on getting wasted that night.

I prefer stores where I can reach what I want.  Seriously, if I cannot get a bottle without asking for help I'll either take the display bottle within reach or I'll go pick something else, and since I want to be a good citizen I almost never feel comfortable taking the display bottle which just means I won't get to try that wine.  I mean it would be different if the wine was something very special because then I'd go out of my way and ask for help.  But I'm buying wines in the $10 to $20 range and most are not so special to warrant having to get extra help in order to try them.

I think every store selling alcohol should check IDs of every single buyer who comes in regardless of apparent age.  Even gray old men should have to show ID.  Personally when I'm in checkout I automatically pull out both my license and my credit card.  I'm clearly over 21 so other people in line may look at me like "duh, you don't need to show that" and that's why I think everyone should have to show their ID.  It's a practice which should be encouraged and more widespread, not discouraged.  I'd say showing ID is also that one little reminder to the buyer that they're actually procuring a controlled substance and they need to be responsible with it.  It also helps to cut down on credit card fraud.

Now about some specific metro Boston stores.

Places I consider special to go to, either because they're a little out of the way for me or they often have unique selections and are worth the trip are: Wine Cask near the St. Mary's stop on the Green B line in Brookline; Wine Bottega in the Italian North End of Boston further down on Hanover Street; Cardullo's in Harvard Square Cambridge MA; Russian Village in Washington Square Brookline MA; and Pampelnousse (spelling?) up in Salem MA which I've only shopped at once but they had a small selection of interesting stuff.

Mainstream large liquor stores which are all on my occasional rounds include: Kappy's in Medford near the Mystic River; Martignetti's in the North End; the trio of Marty's, Blanchards, and Brookline Liqour Mart out around Harvard Street on the Green B line Brighton MA, Supreme Liquors in Central Square Cambridge.

Small to Medium neighborhood stores which I circulate through include: in Boston's Back Bay - Best Cellars, Bauer's Wine and Spirits, and DeLuca's Market.  In Boston's South End - Wine Emporium.  In Boston's Kenmore Square - Wine Cellar.   On Boston's Beacon Hill - Charles Street Liquors, and Beacon Hill Wine and Spirits.  In Boston's North End - Hanover Street Liquors.

I also occassionally look in grocery stores like Stop and Shop in Malden Square or Harvest Coop in Central Square Cambridge but generally the majority of wines at supermarkets are pretty much cheap and average.  There are exceptions, sure, and the convenience of location is great, but you're unlikely to make a neat discovery at a supermarket.

I want to note that although wine can be bought on-line and at a discount I have yet to do that.  I have a hard time getting deliveries at home and frankly having wine delivered to work is doable but feels a little weird.  Also I really enjoy the personal touch of picking up a bottle, reading it's label, and comparing it with it's neighboring bottles to make my choice.  Also it's become a second hobby for me now and much like my first hobby (art painting) I'd much rather see a supply in person and make the choice in person then just itemize it from a catelogue and wait for it to show up.

A final thought and then I'll sign off on this.  I bring my own bag to wine stores and at check out they're always surprised I did that.  Why are they lagging behind supermarkets in encouraging people to use reusable bags?  I'd think wine stores, with their products almost all universally the same size, would do well to offer a cheap reusable bag designed to carry a number of wine bottles safely.  Just put a display of them by the register and you'd be surprised how popular a sale item that might be.

Thanks for reading.-John