Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

The coolest wine shops in America have it all

What are the coolest wine shops in America? Glad you asked! Here are some exceptional entries

Mark Stock
By
Vino Veritas Wine Bar and Bottle Shop

The coolest wine shops do so much more than just sell wine and spirits. They introduce visitors to a new favorite varietal, answer your many queries, and set the mood with some solid ambience and a good playlist. Many function as bars, pouring flights of wine or hosting wineries for intimate tastings.

Like a good record store or thrift shop, a good wine store is a place to get lost in. You can enter with a list, sure, but you’re likely leaving with much more after sampling something remarkable in house, seeing an eye-catching label, or heeding the advice of a sharp shop worker. In the best wine shops, it’s pretty easy to become a usual.

A woman's hand reaches out to select a bottle of red wine from the shelf of a wine shop

The coolest wine shops nail the recipe. Too big, and you can scare customers away. Too small, and you’re knocking over bottles and wondering what you’re missing. If the staff can’t turn you on to something fun and new, they’re not doing their job (they get to taste everything, you know). If the staff is too fussy, they’re missing the point of wine — that it’s a fun drink meant for all, a means to great conversation and perhaps an even better meal.

Related

Granted, there are a lot of great online options these days and, in a lot of states, you can shop directly from the producer. Keep doing that; the little wineries especially will appreciate the DTC business. But if you’re looking for a great wine store near you, we’ve got some stellar choices. These are places that back the wine up with stellar personalities and a compelling vibe.

Recommended Videos

Here are the coolest wine shops in America right now.

Compline Wine Shop

The scene at Compline Wine Shop in Napa.

With vinyl spinning in the background, Compline offers the perfect backdrop for sniffing around some wines. The entire shop is kept at cellar temperature, ensuring every bottle is in pristine shape. It’s sommelier-owned, but it feels more like the well-appointed living room of your favorite music-and-wine-junkie friend. The Napa shop has a great glass pour program and offers mini flights in house, all to the rich sounds of the resident hi-fi Cambridge Audio sound system. Rock ‘n roll.

Dame

Wine samples at Dame in Portland.
Facebook/Dame

Portland’s Dame is an oasis for natural wine. The oceanic blues and greens of the interior put one at ease, and the wines available are full of intrigue. The place functions like a restaurant but is a wine shop at heart, with a good bottle list (available to enjoy there or take home), a wine club, and some tasty snacks and pasta should you want to pull up a chair and stay awhile. Visitors are pretty much guaranteed to come away with a new favorite orange wine or funky Rosé after visiting.

The Austin Wine Merchant

The storefront of The Austin Wine Merchant in Texas.
Facebook/Austin Wine Merchant

A bit of a classic, The Austin Wine Merchant has been at it since 1991. That’s well before the surrounding Hill Country had the wine fame it’s enjoying now. While a bit more “by the book” compared to the countless cool kid wine operations these days, the Merchant does it right. The selection is fantastic, especially if you’re after Euro offerings, and the staff has a high collective wine IQ. The cool factor here comes in the form of breaking down the barriers that sometimes exist between casual consumer and famed wine regions and making those regions accessible.

Compagnie NYC

Bar Compagnie in New York.
Facebook/Bar Compagnie

What a haunt this NYC spot is. Bar Compagnie is a lesson in how to do it right: Part bar, part wine shop, part educational lair where you can heighten your wine knowledge with “boot camp” classes. The atmosphere is the definition of cool, the staff can nerd out about wine without overwhelming you, and the shop often plays host to rising winemakers from all over the world.

Keife & Co.

The entrance to Keif & Co. in New Orleans.

New Orleans may be known for sazeracs and jazz, but good wine can be had too, especially if you visit Keife & Co. The modern shop is set in a gem of a building, and the bottle selection is tremendous. What’s cool about it? The emphasis on small, independent producers that grow their wine in truly sustainable fashion. Oh, and the details, from the step-up wooden bar ladders to the wine that overdelivers no matter what the price it’s marked at, from the cheap to the decadent. If you feel like indulging in even more, the shop has a great selection of cheeses, specialty items, and spirits.

HiFi

HiFi Wine Bar in McMinnville.

Set in the heart of Oregon wine country in McMinnville, HiFi is a hybrid spot run by the excellent wine label Martin Woods. It’s a wine bar, music-listening zone, and bottle shop set in the heart of one of the greatest towns in the Willamette Valley. It’s heaven for the music nut, wino, and design aficionado alike. There’s nothing pretentious about the place, just a haven for curious drinkers looking to taste the many personalities playing their hand in this remarkable region. There’s a great by-the-glass list, frequent events including DJs, live bands, and importer and local business takeovers. Best of all, the service is always spot-on.

Wilder Wines

Wilder Wines in Vermont.
Facebook/Wilder Wines

Wilder Wines calls Vermont home. The neighborhood natural wine shop is full of exciting picks. You get the feeling the crew is genuinely pleased to share what they’ve found over the years and pass those “a-ha!” tasting moments on to you, the curious wine drinker. They deliver locally, offer curated cases and a club, and feature an airy space to taste and find some quality bottles. You feel like a cool kid when you’re treated to these great finds, the work of labels that are often still up and coming (and likely destined for big things).

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Mark Stock
Mark Stock
Contributor
Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since…
11 of the best sparkling water cocktails to rival hard seltzers
Like hard seltzers? You can make even more flavorful drinks at home with these great sparkling water cocktail recipes.
best sparkling water cocktails fresh spring

With all do respect to the White Claw crowd, there are better hard seltzer options out there. Among them are the recipes you can tackle at home, provided you at least have a few popular spirits at your disposal. After all, while canned cocktails can be delicious, it's tough to top one made fresh, especially when there's citrus and other fruit involved.

Bartenders know that sparkling water is a key ingredient in a lot of cocktails and having some at the ready is always a good idea. Sparkling water can balance out ingredients, add some fizzy texture, and impart a pleasant since of minerality. Yes, it's clear and neutral looking but it pops with energy and is just begging to be in your next favorite cocktail.

Read more
This is how to tell if your eggs have gone bad
The expiration date isn't always a flawless system. This is how to tell if your eggs are still good.
White eggs in an egg carton

We've all been there -- It's Sunday morning, and that Denver omelet is calling your name. The pan is ready, melted butter starting to sizzle, and just as you go to crack a few of those breakfast beauties, you notice that they're a few days past the expiration date. To crack or not to crack. That is the question.

Though the cost of eggs has finally started to fall, we're still paying more for these fragile little delicacies than we're used to, and the thought of wasting even one is more than a little bit uncomfortable. It's important to know if the eggs in your refrigerator have passed their prime.
Do eggs go bad?
Yes, they certainly can. And when they do, eggs can become little bacteria bombs, possibly exploding in the form of salmonella. One or two days past the marked date on the carton usually isn't a big deal, but it's best to make sure.

Read more
Your favorite chocolate bar brands now have vegan options
Going vegan doesn't have to mean giving up your favorite chocolate bars
Dark chocolate bar

Going vegan is a tremendously popular choice these days for a number of reasons, and the big names in the chocolate game have gotten wise to this inevitability. Vegan chocolate candy, a once difficult-to-find delicacy, sold primarily by obscure and expensive online retailers or specialty shops, has now, thankfully, become a grocery store staple.

While vegan chocolate isn't the most well-known variety, there's no real reason it shouldn't be. Cacao beans, which come from a plant, are naturally, obviously, plant-based. It's only after the addition of dairy and sweeteners like milk, butter, and honey that chocolate becomes non-vegan. But by swapping out animal milk for alternatives like nut milk, or honey with other sweeteners like maple syrup, agave nectar, or coconut sugar, chocolate treats can easily be an entirely plant-based treat.

Read more