Despana Vinos y Mas

Despana Vinos y Mas
410 Broome Street
(between Cleveland Pl & Centre St)
Manhattan, NY 10013

1/27/11

This place will probably be appreciated more by the Spanish wine enthusiast, rather than the casual wine drinker, but it is a testament to the quality of Spanish wine that it can support two exclusively Spanish specialty wine stores in NYC.

Despana Vinos carries more than 400 still and sparkling wines and liquors, all sorted by appellation and style. The store covers all the major wine producing regions (denominaciones de origen, or DOs) in Spain from Rias Baixas in the rainy, northwest to Jerez in the hot, Mediterranean south.

Despana Vinos has the deepest txakoli, cava, and sherry selection of any wine store I've seen in the city. There are at least 10 producers of txakoli (you know, that wine where the bartender pours the bottle from about two feet high into your wine glass), 20-30 producers of cava, and a sherry selection divided by varietal (Moscatel, Pedro Ximinez, Palomino) and style (fino, amontillado, oloroso). They also have those rare bottles of Vega Sicilia, Pingus, and Malleolus that appear next to three and four digit numbers on Michelin-star restaurant wine menus.

The store is still in soft opening mode, with their grand opening celebration on February 24th. But if you eat at Despana Foods, there is absolutely no reason to pick up a bottle to go along with your food. My all-time favorite pairing: sherry with jamon iberico.