Upcoming VIP Privilege Membership Card The International Man will in the near future be launching its own PRIVILEGE & BENEFIT VIP MEMBERSHIP CARD - named simply 'The Card'. Members will receive special privileges, benefits and preferential rates with selected partner hotels, restaurants, our LUXURY WEBSHOP, and more. Enter your name and e-mail address to receive FREE INFO about 'The Card' HERE.Visit us in Dearborn Merchant’s Fine Wine is Michigan’s leading expert in wine, beer, and spirits. Visit us for Metro Detroit’s best selection, service and advice for beverages and imported goods.Store LocationSales Ongoing wine sales, beer sales, and discounts: mix and match your perfect selection and savings from our extensive inventory.SavingsMeet the Team We invite you to meet our specialty experts. Our goal is to provide you with excellent customer service and knowledge on our extensive wine, beer and spirits selection.Specialty ExpertsFollow on Facebook Follow Merchant’s Fine Wine on Facebook for announcements about new products, wine sales, beer sales, cocktail recipes, local events, free beer tastings, and more!

FacebookFavorite Products & Sales Chilean Wine Sale: Save 20% Off Papua New Guinea Whole Bean Coffee Design Your Own Gourmet Gift Basket Michigan’s leading expert in wine, beer and spirits. April 2017 Wine, Beer, Spirits, SalesHour Detroit Best of Detroit 2016BeerAdvocate Ratings & ReviewsMerchant’s Fine Wine voted Metro Times Best of Detroit 2014 / / / / Chapitre 20 http:// / / One of the largest French online wine merchants. / Online boutique specialising in wines from small independent producers in SW France. An exceptional importer of non-French wines into France! But despite the smart address, this is for online sales only; See All Monthly Picks!Are bottles bathed in sunlight? Light can damage wine. Also not good as it indicates a lax, possibly negligent, attitude toward the inventory. Look at wine descriptions posted under bottles. Are they written by the store’s staff? That’s a positive sign, indicating personal investment and a distinct point of view.

These are vastly preferable to preprinted “shelf-talkers,” with notes and scores from outside critics or periodicals; they suggest a lack of confidence, laziness or abdication of critical responsibilities.Are bottles displayed standing up or lying down? It doesn’t really matter. Lying down is more traditional and preferable for long-term aging, though that doesn’t apply to bottles with screw caps, with no corks to be kept moist. Upright is a little friendlier and less formal. But neither is an indicator of quality. Bargain crates near the door? They often contain less interesting mass-market wines that are rarely good values.Many characteristics are matters of personal taste. Does it matter if stores are big or small? Not really, though as with restaurant wine lists, a smaller, more focused selection will be less intimidating. Big stores have to work harder to offer personal attention. In-store tastings are welcome, but you should never feel obliged to buy. Samplers, a half or whole case put together by the store, are useful.

But even better are sample cases that are assembled specifically for customers. lowest price of red wine in indiaGood stores are happy to do this.best wine to not gain weight More important than the physical characteristics are a store’s atmosphere and point of view. where to buy wine in nice franceIt’s the difference between a sterile and a comfortable shopping experience.best wines to help you sleep At Bay Grape, a wine shop that opened a year and a half ago in Oakland, Calif., upright shelves of bottles bear allusive messages like “She Sells Seashells” on a Muscadet. food and wine best fast recipes

At a rustic wood-plank communal table near the front of the store, Zach Beauchamp, an assistant manager, led a half-dozen visitors in a discussion and tasting of Austrian wines. taken king codes freeA group of women at a small table in front shared a bottle, and a few lone souls took advantage of the free Wi-Fi and pecked away at laptops. It was a classic community gathering spot centered on wine, warm and inviting.The approach has won Bay Grape an ardent clientele. “It’s great when you can have a conversation; it’s less transactual,” said Eliza Kinsolving, who had stopped in for the wine class.At Back Label Wine Merchants on West 20th Street in Manhattan, you won’t get very far into the handsome shop before you are greeted cheerfully and offered assistance. The sales clerk may engage you in conversation to determine your tastes and what you are seeking, or will recognize that you are browsing and don’t want a hovering presence.

“It’s all about hospitality, of course,” said Patrick Watson, who opened Back Label in May 2014. “You don’t have to be Danny Meyer to understand how critical hospitality is to the experience.” Hospitality is more than a warm greeting. It’s anticipating how people shop and what information they want. At Back Label, Mr. Watson arranged the display as if following the progression of wines at a dinner party, starting with bubbly and moving through whites to reds, Old World to New World, subdivided by localities. For a more in-depth perspective, he also displays wines by characteristic — those made from grapes grown in limestone soils, say, or wines with lively acidity. Follow NYT Food's board Wine Reviews on Pinterest. “Displays need to be more personal than ‘Australia’ or ‘Bordeaux,’” he said. Geographical designations are still the most useful, I believe, but a little extra thought is often welcome. Some stores track what their shoppers buy, which is great service.

You can use their record either as a simple memory device (“I had this white wine that I really liked, but I can’t remember what it was. ”) or to build on your experiences (“I really liked that wine. Can you recommend a different bottle that I also may like?”).At her two Unwined shops in Alexandria, Va., Vanessa Moore trains her staff to recognize customers by name and to get to know their tastes. Her shops specialize in small-production, family wineries, and her inventory is constantly shifting, a difficult notion for customers to accept if they are used to widely available brands. It requires winning their trust. “I want my stores to be like I’m entertaining in my own home,” she said. “I want to anticipate what everybody needs to be really happy.” Such eager accommodation is not the norm. About 35 percent of retail wine sales are in supermarkets, according to Nielsen, where hospitality essentially consists of loudspeaker announcements like, “Mop needed in Aisle 4.”

Strolling through a Safeway recently in Santa Rosa, Calif., one of more than 35 states that permit wine to be sold in supermarkets, I couldn’t help but gape at the selection of brand names. Sweets lovers could chew on wines called Layer Cake, Cupcake or Cherry Tart. Romantics could fantasize about Bewitched, Dalliance, Ménage à Trois or Zin-Phomaniac (“You’ll never get enough!”). Self-loathers could take a deep dive into Freakshow and Plungerhead. Such mass-market selections represent the junk-food aisles of wine, filled with vacuous bottles that will leave any wine lover malnourished. Many good wine shops don’t carry any mass-market brands at all, especially if they are readily available elsewhere nearby. The best shops have a guiding point of view and individual, sometimes quirky characteristics. Appellation Wine & Spirits, which after 10 years on 10th Avenue in west Chelsea will soon be moving to London Terrace, sells only wines from organically, biodynamically or sustainably farmed grapes.

Some Good Wine, on West Eighth Street in Greenwich Village, offers a wide range mostly from small producers. The owner, Jeremy Block, has a particular passion for wines from the Canary Islands, Corsica and the Czech Republic.Good shops understand that the best values are around $15 to $25, so they ought to have a lot of good selections in that range. They should have cheaper wines, too, though without pandering. Pinot noirs for $5 may make sense in the supermarket environment of Trader Joe’s, where the strategy is to sell dull wine cheap, like Two-Buck Chuck, but not in a good wine shop. The best merchants can teach you about wine, but they understand that a little information is often enough. Few people appreciate a lecture on soil types or wine chemistry. Like good psychologists, sales clerks must always gauge the desires of their customers. At Bay Grape, the casual, almost playful atmosphere is underscored by rigorous service and a deep awareness of the insecurity that comes with shopping for wine.

Its husband-and-wife owners, Josiah Baldivino and Stevie Stacionis, have both worked as sommeliers — Mr. Baldivino for Daniel Boulud’s Dinex group of restaurants in New York and Michael Mina in San Francisco. They have trained their staff to engage customers in conversation and to ask in-depth questions.No shop will always be able to get you the specific bottle you want, especially with small producers and various government regulations, which give every state its own peculiarities. But good merchants should always be ready to offer something similar. “We really want to get at what people want, so we can say, ‘I don’t have that, but I think you would love this,’” Ms. Stacionis said.State regulations can also shape the atmosphere of a wine shop. New York shops cannot sell beer, unlike those in Virginia and California. Unwined in Alexandria has an excellent selection of craft beers, including six taps for filling growlers, while Bay Grape offers a fine assortment of bottled beers.