As 2025 comes to a close, the news and culture sphere is ripe with best-of lists and year-end wrap-ups. It got us thinking about our year and where we traveled or (for the purpose of this column) what we drank. With the news and events this year, we feel lucky not to have ended up like our nominee for the mascot of 2025, that drunk raccoon from Virginia.
We actually were lucky: to travel, to taste amazing wines and to meet people who share our passion for hospitality. Passionate wine professionals usually resonate with a specific perspective, and that perspective can best be seen in their independent wine shops.
We took our annual pilgrimages to New Orleans and Chicago (in fact, we went to both twice), but we added San Francisco and Birmingham, Alabama, to the mix domestically. We also went to Austria and Hungary at the beginning and end of the summer, respectively.
The international trips were for wine experiences, and they were revelatory, but they were curated and had tight schedules. In this column, we wanted to focus on our free time in the U.S. and what we look for in other cities, as well as around our hometown.
When we travel, we seek independent wine bars and shops, and so should you. Folks in these businesses tend to be passionate and knowledgeable, and learning while you’re imbibing is doubly fun. Take, for instance, the Golden Sardine wine bar in San Francisco. Across from the world-famous City Lights bookstore, it is named for one of the unsung Beat poets, Bob Kaufman. It doubles as a poetry bookstore and has an irrational amount of Riesling for sale.
If you are a fan of Sarah Pierre’s Three Parks Wine Shop in Atlanta or our own, The Lark, in Athens, you’ll love Leslie Pariseau’s Patron Saint in New Orleans. All these shops emphasize the small producer and the sustainable practicing winemakers. Patron Saint gets bonus points for being housed in the same building as their sibling business, Saint Pizza. Grab a pie and pop a bottle.
In Chicago, we wanted a bottle of wine to enjoy in our hotel room, near Grant Park. Printer’s Row Wines services its namesake neighborhood, much like Elemental Spirits does for Atlanta’s Poncey-Highland. Plus, with Chicago’s more liberal alcohol laws, its small selection of spirits doesn’t prevent you from enjoying a glass of wine while you shop. These folks were championing natural wine producers, but also had some of our favorite classic producers, like Domaine Tempier.
Speaking of a natural wine focus, a food conference took us to Birmingham, where we sought out Golden Age Wine, a shop in the suburb of Mountain Brook. They had an impressively large selection of Alpine wines, especially those from the Jura region. That kind of specialization is unique and educational.
In the new year, we hope you get to travel, and when you do, we hope you seek out the small shops. And at home, resolving to shop small can transport you to places you want to go, even if it’s through a taste of that destination’s wine.
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