Store Trek is a regular Voice column
profiling
new stores and businesses in Noe Valley. This month we
introduce a wine shop
that’s creating a buzz near the corner of Church and 24th.
Owner James Mead (right) and manager
Rebecca Rapaszky are ready to
pour you a taste of their latest offerings at Noe Valley
Wine Merchants on 24th
Street. Photo by Pamela Gerard
Noe Valley Wine Merchants opened its doors on
March 17, St.
Patrick’s Day. “We figured it would be good luck, considering
the proprietor
[James Mead] is Irish,” says manager Rebecca Rapaszky.
Two months down the road, the store is toasting
its early success.
Located in Urban Cellars’ former home on 24th
near Church Street,
the shop carries craft beers, “artisan spirits,” and more than
450 wines,
ranging from Chidaine Touraine sauvignon blanc to Volver
tempranillo to
Bishop’s Peak pinot noir.
Mead says the business, like Rome, is divided
into three parts—a
neighborhood retail store with tasting bar, a cellar building
for collectors,
and awebsite through which customers can buy
online.
However, “first and foremost, we’re a local
bottle shop,” says
Rapaszky. “We serve the needs of Noe Valley’s daily
drinkers—people who want to
enjoy wine with every meal.”
Because most of their customers are looking for
“food-friendly”
wines, Rapaszky and Mead often give advice on pairings.
And if you take a bottle home, they’ll ask for
your review. “We
want to hear all about it the next week when you come in or
two years down the
road, whenever you decide to consume it,” says Mead, the
longtime owner of
Ansley Wine Merchants in Atlanta, Ga.
Mead says San Diego–based beers from Mission
Brewery and Stone
Brewing Company have “really been hitting” these days, along
with imported
beers from Belgium. A six-pack of Mission Brewery is $9.99;
Belgian brews run
$8 to $15 for a 25-ounce bottle.
“Rosé also has been flying off the shelf,” says
Rapaszky, who
chills every pink in stock. “When the warm weather strikes,
customers know they
can run in, grab some picnic bottles, and run out the door.”
Prices for rosé,
from dry to sweet, range from $10 to $15 a bottle.
The store holds wine tastings on Saturdays, and
on Tuesdays and
Thursdays from 5 to 9 p.m.
“If it’s hot, we open three bottles—a rosé, a
light crisp white,
and a medium red,” says Rapaszky, who formerly managed the
Vin, Vino, Wine
tasting bar in Palo Alto. “If it’s breezy, if it’s cold, we’ll
open something
heartier, just to suit people’s moods.
“We do throw beers into the Saturday tasting,”
says Rapaszky.
“We’re trying to open something different every weekend.”
Noe Valley Wine Merchants’ customers are very
tuned in to local
brands, says Rapaszky. They want to support local winemakers,
she says.
“Anything that is produced in and around San Francisco, if not
California, is
very popular.”
Before opening the shop, Mead looked as far south
as Glen Park and
as far west as the Inner Sunset. But 24th Street hit the spot.
“Everything hit
here. We’re right on major lines—buses load and unload here,”
says Mead, who
can walk to work or ride his bike from his home on Folsom
Street.
Mead spent three months renovating the
1,060-square-foot space.
“We went down to joist and studs.” He chose a robin’s-egg blue
for the walls,
and blue-grey hardwood floors—to make the wine stand
out, he says.
Rapaszky says customers appreciate the light that
pours in from
large storefront windows. “We’ve had a great response
[especially] from the
women of Noe Valley,” she says. “They come in and say, ‘It’s
so open and bright
and airy. It’s not just another dim sort of liquor store.’”
After selling wine for 30 years, Mead says his
philosophy is
simple. “People tend to overcomplicate the wine business. At
the end of the
day, it makes your food taste better.”
Noe Valley Wine Merchants is open Monday through
Friday from 11
a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday
from 11 a.m. to 6
p.m. To hear about discounts and special events, sign up for
the shop’s email
newsletter at info@noevalleywinemerchants.comor
visit the NVWM
Facebook page.
