Wine Shops of Munich

This is one of my favourite wine shops in Munich. Why? Great selection of mainly French wines Good range of prices Very nice service from a charming married couple who, I think, are from Croatia Close to where I live. They will also be honest about the wines - if asked - and will steer you to a better one, if appropriate (without steering you to one which is more expensive). The shop is on Pariserstrasse in the French quarter of Munich. I think it used to be called Liquid or Liquide. At the front of the shop are oils, liquors and chocolates but at the back is where the wine action takes place. They also have wine tasting days.

There is, every once in a while, a wine that knocks your socks off. My wine journey started over 20 years ago, involves ex-pats, a snobby German boyfriend, a trip to northern Italy and vineyards and a stop in Sterzing and a Johnson's wine guide. But my search for the wine that stands out really started about 10 years ago at a wine show, wandering through the sales stands when I smelled a Barbera d'Alba. The sales rep saw the look on my face and sold me quite a bit of wine that year. And for several years after that. However, they sold out of that Barbera the next year and aside from a Chateau Neuf de Pape one year, nothing has grabbed my attention like that since then. So, I've been looking for that experience ever since. And it was finally topped on my birthday. TPWNN found a Tempranillo that was so amazing that I couldn't finish the bottle right away. The sensory overload was so intense that I spent most of the evening, and the next evening, simply smelling it. ...

The Job Hunter knows my Achille's Heel. Wine? Of course, I'll contribute to a blog about wine. So when TJHWNN and I decided on a meet up for pizza and wine, I decided to go old school and visit the local drinks store. There are less and less of these in town, but they harken back to the days before large supermarkets when each neighborhood had a smattering of little shops - a butcher, a baker, a fruit and vegetable store, a stationery store, a pharmacy, a store for water, soft drinks, and beer and wine, etc. Well, you get my point. Actually, my local plaza/square still does have all those, and a teeny grocery store as well. Anyway, my local plaza still has a drink shop. Several years ago, the grumpy old German who ran this and another drink store nearby sold out to two different people. One went bust, the other has been doing a flourishing business. (Interesting sideline, both stores were taken over by immigrants from different countries. I know the store that is still open...

"Let's meet up with friends and drink wine" said a German friend, "on a regular basis". And, because I am good at words, I suggested calling it a "winetisch". This a portmanteau of "wine" and "Stammtisch". The latter word is used to describe a reserved table in a pub where a group of friends meet on a regular basis. The former word describes an alcoholic drink made of fermented gra... you all should know what that is. So, for the last few years (quite a few years actually) we have been meeting, not at pubs but at people's home and drinking wine, often interesting wines. It's a bit like a cheese and wine party but very focussed on wine. To make things interesting I stopped buying wines from the main supermarkets and targeted boutique wine shops around Munich. Which eventually led to this blog.

It's not often that I drink Minervois. No particular reason, it just doesn't jump out at me* Yesterday, however, it was pointed out to me by the co-owner of a very nice little wine shop in Haidhausen. I'll write about the shop in another post. It was a little bit more than I was going to pay but it turned out to be a lot nicer than expected. So nice in fact that it was polished off quite quickly (not just by me, see the Crazy Chicken's reply to the first post) and I bought another this morning. It's a 2012 Borie Blanche, Terroirs D'Altitude, Minervois La Livinière. *No wines actually ever jump out at me. If they did, I would never go to wine shops - I don't need such stress in my life - and then where would this blog be?

... said the friend to whom I mentioned the idea of this blog at a wine party, many years ago. "You should, you really should", she also said when I repeated the idea maybe a year later. But if it wasn't for procrastination where would I get the time to think of these ideas? Hmmm. Anyway I now declare this blog to be officially open. Here's what we will cover: interesting, novel wine shops in Munich wine bought in those shops anything else we damn well like to write about - whaddya gonna do about it, eh? Know of a great wine shop in this city?  Send us a message. You own a great wine shop in this city and would like us to mention it?  Sure, but: we might accept a commercial arrangement or we might not we will mention any such influence in this blog we will be honest about your wine shop and any wine we drink from there but we want to be positive about your shop although you'll just have to accept our writing styles (and accept ...