Brooklyn Wine Exchange

Brooklyn Wine Exchange
138 Court St. (between Atlantic and Pacific St.)
Brooklyn, NY 11201

The more you learn about wine, the more your realize you don't know. Unfortunately, you realize also that the person selling you wine doesn't know much either.

I had read great things about Brooklyn Wine Exchnage's in-store education program, specifically their Mixology Month in February. Upon entering, I was excited by the carefully edited spirits selection, the diverse range of small producers carried from each of the major wine growing regions, and the "Under $12" table, which featured some preeminently drinkable wines such as a Torrontes from Argentina, a Cabernet Franc from Chinon, and a Muscadet-Sur-Lie from France. A salesperson saw that I was browsing the Austrian section, and offered to help.

And then I got less excited.

Not quite knowing the answer myself, I asked a not-so-obvious question: "What does Smaragd mean on Austrian wine labels?" The salesperson mentioned that it had something to do with the vintage, a response I knew was absolutely wrong. The question then got passed to the person at the retail counter who said it had something to do with an "emerald" color. Since the term was on a white wine, I knew that was off-the-mark as well. The store manager overheard this inquiry, and fortunately corrected everyone: it was, in fact, a special classification for dry wines in the Wachau district of Austria, and that the wines had to have a minimum alcohol level of 12.5%. (Smaragd does in fact refer to an emerald-colored lizard that sunbathes on the rocks in the Wachau region, a fact I later found out through).

I later inquired about a purple-colored gin called Averell Damson Gin, which I had no intention in buying given their hefty markup, but wanted to know more about its provenance and taste. Unfortunately, another salesperson offered to try to help me. He mentioned that the gin got its color from being aged in oak, which I knew to be blatantly false, as 1) gin is not typically aged in oak; 2) oak doesn't fix a purple color. After this exercise in misinformation, the famous quote by Abraham Lincoln came to mind: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

I understand that the store has just recently opened, and that the salespeople-in-question were trying to help, but if one doesn't know the answer to a question, just admit you don't know and resolve to find out. I appreciate the enthusiasm of those working at Brooklyn Exchange, but it is difficult to develop a relationship with a wine store, if you can't trust them.