We’ll bet that as the snow started coming down, you ran to your favorite grocery to be sure that you wouldn’t be stuck for the next few days without necessities. But we also bet your grocery run has you thinking about the most necessary home staple of them all… fine wine!
A quick jump online and you’d have been warned (by Pursuitist, of course!) that New York City’s iconic grocer, Eli Zabar, recently launched a new e-commerce wine website. So here’s our tip: Start shopping for your favorite Old World Wines while that winter wonderland is falling outside your window.
Last fall, Eli introduced select bottles from his 16,000-bottle cellar to the public at his new market-to-table restaurant Eli’s Table on Manhattan’s Upper East Side of Manhattan. Now, the longtime wine collector is sharing even more bottles from his cellar on a new website — the first time ever putting this expansive Old World wine collection online — which will feature a rotating selection of 400 wines (available to ship to 33 states nationwide). You can also find them available at Eli’s List, his newly-renamed brick-and-mortar wine and spirits shop located at 1411 Third Avenue (but baby, it’s cold outside!)
The new website features a curated selection of wines sourced from France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Portugal and Israel, with a special focus on Burgundy, Piedmont and grower Champagne varietals. His Old World wine collection highlights organic, sustainably-produced bottles — some of which are biodynamic — and all of which are produced with minimal intervention.
Every year, Eli visits the family-run wineries from which he sources his selections, searching for wines with accessible flavor profiles, and, over the years he has built verticals in many vintages from some of the most respected producers in Burgundy and Piedmont in particular. Describing his wine philosophy simply as “drink old wine” — Eli holds onto his bottles much longer than the industry norm, aging them to sell/serve only when he feels they are ready to display the wine’s true character.
After reading all of this, you’ll be wanting to sip some select wine right about now. Delivery is available throughout Manhattan via delivery service — but order quickly, because with this weather, all bets are off!
