Astor: Discovering the Local Wine Scene
Text and photo by Luca Del Fante
During my time in NYC with the TuttoToscana team, I had the opportunity to visit Astor Wines & Spirits, one of the city’s best wine shops for international wines.
The shop is divided according to countries and geographical areas such as Italy, France, wines from New York State, California, Germany, Portugal, and Spain. There are also sections dedicated to sparkling and organic wines. A store corner features cocktail and bar instruments, another is all about spirits and liqueurs.
When speaking to the store staff, I learned that sales are divided into 70% wine and 30% for spirits. Currently, the trending wines are from France and Italy, especially from the Tuscany region. California Chardonnays and local New York wines also perform well. Currently, Spanish and sparkling wines in general sell before German and Portuguese wines. The most popular sparking wines are French champagne and Italian prosecco.
What’s great about Astor is that there is a special section for organic and biodynamic wines. These are stored in a more climate-controlled area of the store. The selection is wide compared to other wine shops throughout the US. The organic wines are always designated by a little leaf so it’s easy to see right away which ones they are.
I couldn’t help asking about the more costly wines at Astor. They can range from 200 to 1000-3000 dollars. The single most expensive wine is a Pétrus that runs at 5000 dollars!
Before leaving the store, I made my own selection to purchase, a local NY wine from Shinn Estate Vineyards from the north fork of Long Island, an area of NY that has been doing some great work with wine production.