This was our original article on wine buying. For our most up-to-date recommendations on where to buy wine in the Philly region, check out our updated Wine Shop Guide.
Maybe it’s the prospect of all those hours of quality time with the family. Or the need for something to supplement whatever paltry heat the fireplace throws. Perhaps it has to do with tradition: After all, you have to drink something with potato latkes or ham.
Whatever it is, there’s just no getting around the fact that it isn’t the holiday season without a little fermented something in your glass.
But these days, as people all over the Philadelphia area become ever more attuned to quality wine, a gallon jug of Yellow Tail just won’t cut it. This is a wonderful development– especially for those of us in the wine-education business– except for one thing: Wine stores are confusing, often intimidating places.
How are you supposed to know what to buy?
Fortunately, the tri-state area is chock-full of great wine stores. And even more importantly, many of these shops are staffed by people who are just as knowledgeable and enthusiastic about wine as many sommeliers. Here, then, in no particular order aside from geography, is our list of the 10 best places to buy wine in the area. Visit them with an open mind, a willingness to be helped, and a high-limit credit card. Because once you discover the greatest holiday joy of all–buying great wine– you won’t want to stop spending till the good folks at American Express put a halt on your card.
And that’s what the holidays are all about.
- Canal’s Bottle Stop (10 West Route 70, Marlton, NJ)
- Total Wine (2100 Route 383, Cherry Hill, NJ)
- Moore Brothers Wine Company (7200 North Park Drive, Pennsauken, NJ)
- Moore Brothers Wine Company (1416 North DuPont Street, Wilmington, DE)
- Frank’s Union Wine Mart (1206 North Union Street, Wilmington, DE)
- Total Wine (1325 McKennans Church Road, Wilmington DE)
- Total Wine (691 Naamans Road, Claymont, DE)
- FWGS Premium Collection Store (1218 Chestnut Street)
- FWGS Premium Collection Store (1913 Chestnut Street)
- FWG SFWGS Premium Collection Store (789 East Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, PA