Wine Shop Interview: Le Tastevin

Posted by | Posted in Interviews | Posted on 04-06-2011

Each week, as regular readers know, Terroirist poses 16 questions to a winemaker. Because the series has been so popular, we’ve decided to expand on the concept and introduce bi-weekly interviews with wine shop owners. To kick off this interview series, we are starting with a relatively new wine shop, Le Tastevin. Owned by Timothy Clune and Hannah Choi, the shop is located in downtown Alexandria, a thriving Northern Virginia neighborhood right outside of Washington D.C.

Through social media we reached out to family and friends to find out where they go to find their favorite wines.  After a great response, we have a number of wine shop owners lined up for our interview series that you can check out every other week. With deference to our family, we are starting with our sister’s recommendation of a boutique shop opened by a former classmate.  So without further ado, the start of the Wine Shop Owner Interview Series…

How did you end up owning a wine shop?

We had talked about it often in casual conversation. Hannah was already very familiar with Old Town Alexandria, and thought that we could fill a hole on King Street with a true full-service, boutique wine shop. We started poking around for locations, and stumbled across this one. Our landlord chose us out of three potential tenants, and from that point forward, it was full steam ahead!  Miraculously, we opened our doors less than two months after we signed the lease.

What makes your store unique?

Probably a combination of customer service and interesting inventory. We try to make ourselves and our wines easily accessible and understandable to everyone who walks in the door. Instead of organizing by region or varietal, we have our wines arranged by flavor profile and body style. This encourages people to try new things that they may not have considered or even known about before, or to ask questions if they want some guidance. Both of us are happy to chat with anyone about anything wine-related, whether it’s for 30 seconds or 30 minutes.

What are the biggest challenges in owning a wine shop?

Doing it all, just the two of us!  We have to be owners, sales associates, janitors, bookkeepers, office managers and much more, all on a daily basis.

How do you stay up to date on wine news and trends?

Reading, reading, reading!  It’s easy for us because we are both wine geeks who will devour any information that’s out there. Whether it’s online or print publications, old encyclopedias, or novels, if it’s about wine, we’ll read it!

What wine regions or varietals are you most excited about right now?

Right now, we’re ready for some warm weather and some appropriate wine to go along with it!  We are eagerly gearing up to combat all of the rose naysayers out there!  We are bringing in dry roses from all over the world: Chile, Spain, Bordeaux, Virginia, etc… On the white side, we just got in a great little Txakoli, perfect for a day in the sun. We’ve also had the pleasure of meeting and working with a great Austrian importer, who has been a wonderful resource. If you’re in the mood for something red, we just brought in a Zweigelt and a Blaufrankisch, both light enough to enjoy on a beautiful Spring day.

Where do you look for new wines – and how do you decide which ones to sell?

This is probably one of the hardest aspects of the job. We work with a few distributors who taste us on new wines all the time, about 30-50 a week. Space is very limited in our shop, so we have to use a very thoughtful selection process when bringing in new items. Only the best of the best make it through, maybe one or two of those 50. It can be tough at times, but our process seems to be working – we’ve gotten a lot of great compliments on our inventory.

Tell us about some of the best perks you’ve taken advantage of as a retailer when traveling to wine regions.

Unfortunately, being new business owners hasn’t allowed us any free time to travel just yet. We’ve received a number of invitations though, and are looking forward to taking advantage of these opportunities sometime soon.

Do you stock old and/or rare wines? Which currently stocked bottle excites you the most?

Since we are still pretty new, our old/rare selection is small, but slowly expanding. The oldest item we have in stock right now is some 2000 Bordeaux. As for the most exciting bottle, probably the 2004 Vega Sicilia Valbuena 5, or maybe the Methuselah of 2009 The Rhon red by Arnoux & Fils.

Are you a collector? Tell us about the wines you bring home.

Yes, we both enjoy collecting the classics: classified Bordeaux, Cote-Rotie, Sauternes, Port, etc. We’ve got some Amarone and Rioja too, amongst others, and are looking forward to expanding our collections with many other styles and regions.

What’s the wine that got away? In other words, has anything ever passed through your store that you wish you had held onto for yourself?

We’ve only been open for four months, but two things already come to mind: 2003 Graham Beck Cuvee Clive and 2008 Flor de Pingus. We had a very limited number of each, and sold them all before we got a chance to take any home.

What was the last wine you opened for a special occasion?

2000 Chateau Brane Cantenac at Christmas.

How can a customer signal that he or she is knowledgeable about wine, so you steer them to something a wine geek would appreciate?

We make sure to interact with every customer that walks through our door. Based on our years of experience in the food/beverage & hospitality industries, we can get a pretty quick read on an individual’s knowledge/needs. But we encourage people to tell us exactly what they’re looking for, even in very generic terms. Just come in and say, “I’m looking for something wine-geeky,” and we’ll do the rest.

If a customer presents him or herself as not knowing that much about wine, do you steer them to interesting and unusual or recognizable? Why?

Both. Sometimes people are open to trying something new and are willing to trust us right off the bat, sometimes people want to stay within their comfort zone. We try to offer people both options and let them make the decision for themselves, based on the situation that they’re shopping for.

Any tips for finding a good bargain?

Get to know and trust your local wine shop. Let them get to know you and your palate, then let them do the work for you!

Do you advertise scores from publications like Wine Advocate, Wine Spectator, or Wine Enthusiast when bottles you stock do well? What’s your take on the current push back against scores?

We’ve created our own POS cards where we display our personal tasting notes for each bottle. On the cards, we do note scores from publications. Ultimately, however, the scores are just one additional piece of information that we provide to help our customers in their selections. Push back against scores has always existed in some form or another, and that’s a good thing – intelligent and informed debate encourages people to continue learning and trust their own palates.

Do you have any special events – like weekly tastings, winemaker dinners, or classes? How much do they benefit your business?

We have tastings twice a week, Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons, and are about to start a series of classes this week. In addition, we like to hold various special events whenever we can. Just in March, we had winemaker Giuseppe Vajra in the shop for a special tasting, and we also hosted an artists’ reception for three local photographers. The events have been great for business – we embrace every opportunity to meet the locals in our community and show them our passion for wine!

Comments (5)

  1. Love the idea!

    I especially liked questions: “How did you end up owning a wine shop,” “Where do you look for new wines – and how do you decide which ones to sell,” and “Do you advertise scores?” I’ve always thought about working in a wine shop or maybe owning one someday, so this is kind of a fun way to live vicariously through someone else.

    My wife and I will be moving to Sonoma County this summer after graduation so I can start a harvest internship, so if you can find any good wine shops out there (Santa Rosa, Healdsburg, Sonoma, Sebastopol), I’d love to hear about them. Thanks for the great column idea, don’t give it up!

  2. Hi Cody,
    Thanks so much for your comment. I also fell in love with this interview series when it was presented. I will work on finding wine shop owners to participate in the areas you suggested. Good luck with your move and harvest!

    Cheers!

  3. […] Wine Store Interview Series […]

  4. Eric Anesi, owner of Gauchezco Vineyard and Winery, Mendoza Argentina will be at Le Tastevin Tuesday, June 21, 4-8pm. Winery portfolio tasting and bottle signing.
    http://www.gauchezco.wordpress.com

  5. Eric Anesi of Gauchezco Winery will be at Le Tastevin on June 21 for bottle signing and portfolio tasting.