How We Curate The Wines We Stock

Many of you have wondered why we are closed on Monday, others wonder how we choose the wines for our small shop.

The answer is basically the same — we are working choosing the wines we offer to you. In addition to the distributor’s representatives that stop by the shop Wednesday through Friday with anywhere from 5-10 sample bottles open, most Monday’s (especially in the fall and spring) distributors have large trade tastings – and we are there to swirl, sniff, sip and spit. It’s a hard job, but someone has to make sure you are getting the best quality and the best price.

Fall is always a crazy time for trade tastings, sometime three scheduled at the same time across the city – like today.

To give you an idea the first tasting of the day had 45 bottles open, the second, a whopping 235, the third, another 35. You really do have to SPIT!

But, there are some perks – there are some snacks to cleanse our palate.

Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 4-5 selections on a theme every Saturday from 2 until the bottles run out and on Sunday we offer a mini-tasting of two wines all day from 11-5.

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