The husband and wife team started the shop with the intention of applying their backgrounds in hospitality to wine retailing. Not only is the shop warm and inviting and the staff extremely helpful, but the team has attempted to lessen the ill-effects of too much choice in the way they've structured their shop. They call it "drinking progressively." As you move from one end of the store to the others, you move from a "body" profile of 1 to 10. The team has grouped the wines based on the power of flavor, mouth feel, weight, etc., so that a customer can state their preferred wine experience and be guided to a section of wines of different types that will all satisfy the customer's preferences. The idea is that you will be able to explore varietals, regions, and producers all at different price points, all according to your palate.
With the combination of attentive, helpful staff and an intuitive organizational structure, the impact on customer experience is impressive. The experience is easy, quick, painless, and guaranteed to land you with a bottle you'll enjoy. Next time you're in Boston I highly recommend stopping by.
With the combination of attentive, helpful staff and an intuitive organizational structure, the impact on customer experience is impressive. The experience is easy, quick, painless, and guaranteed to land you with a bottle you'll enjoy. Next time you're in Boston I highly recommend stopping by.
I love this concept. I think you're right that structuring the wine purchasing process in this way can do a lot to improve accessibility of wine. When I first moved to New York, I was really put off by the fact that you can't buy wine in grocery stores there. But I soon came to appreciate the value-add of the wine shop. I loved a place called Slope Cellars in Brooklyn. You could walk in, tell them what you were serving for dinner and they would find the right wine, for whatever price range. I suppose a lone brick-and-mortar wine shop isn't exactly the kind of disruptive innovation that's going to change the wine industry. But at least for me, it has played a huge role in how I interact with the industry. So next time you're in Brooklyn, I suggest you stop by Slope Cellars.
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