Five Great Denver Wine Stores
Sure, you can find some good wine deals at Target over in Glendale, but sometimes you don’t want to piggyback your wine shopping onto your quest for diapers and Isaac Mizrahi bedding. Try these wine-specific shops and be sure to chat up the staff:
Divino Wine & Spirits
1240 S. Broadway, 303-778-1800, divinowine.com
Sleek and sophisticated, this small but gutsy South Broadway shop boasts a knowledgeable staff of sommeliers and a carefully chosen selection of about 750 wines, with an impressive number of selections priced at $10 or under. Eager to engage you in conversation and share their favorites, Divino’s crew leaves no customer hanging clueless. Saturday tastings let you sip before you slide that debit card.
Tip: Enter the parking lot from the alley; it’s easier to negotiate than the Broadway entrance.
Mondo Vino
3601 W. 32nd Ave., 303-458-3858, mondovino.net
The still freshly hip Highland neighborhood wouldn’t be nearly as well-quaffed if it weren’t for this friendly corner shop in which high-end libations compete for shelf space with more modest bottles. Regulars swear by Mondo’s wine-of-the-month clubs by which aficionados allow the store’s owners to choose and provide two bottles each month of new finds from the vine.
Extra: Got wine? Need cheese! Around the corner is one of the city’s best cheese purveyors, St. Kilian’s Cheese Shop, 3211 Lowell Blvd., 303-477-0374.
Marczyk Fine Foods
770 E. 17th Ave., 303-894-9499, marczykfinefoods.com/wines.htm
Already established as one of Denver’s meat and fish meccas, Marczyk’s also features a small, sharply edited wine shop in the back. Uncrowded and accessible, the store invites long, slow browsing sessions and lengthy discussions with the staff, who have tasted and retasted everything in the store. Not always the cheapest selection around, but it’s one of the finest.
Tip: Sign up for the newsletter and you’ll be among the first to hear about special deals when they come around.
City Wine
347 S. Colorado Blvd., 303-393-7576, citywine.com
Their motto says it all: “We drink what we can … and sell the rest!” This is a store run by people who truly love the fruits of the vine. Proprietors pride themselves on stocking nectar that goes unnoticed by the national press, taking pleasure in unleashing affordable under-the-radar bottles into the market.
Keep this tip to yourself: Weekly Friday-afternoon wine tastings run 1-6 p.m., so if your office is in walking distance, this is a great place for an end-of-the-week afternoon “coffee break.”
Argonaut Wine & Liquor
718 E. Colfax Ave., 303-831-7788, spiritsusa.com
The big daddy of Denver wine retailing, Argonaut Liquors isn’t a pretty shop. But it’s easily got one of the largest, most wide-ranging selections of wine in Denver. Don’t expect to find solicitous service here. But come with an idea of what you want and you’ll likely find it, and at a good price.
Bonus: They card you even if you look 60, so you get a free ego-boost with every visit.
Worth a visit
The Vineyard, 261 Fillmore St.,
303-355-8324, vineyardwineshop.com
Wines Off Wynkoop, 1610 16th St.,
303-571-1012, winesoffwynkoop.com
Little Raven, 1590 Little Raven St.,
303-573-9463, denvercru.com
Applejack Wine & Spirits, 3320 Youngfield
St., Wheat Ridge, 303-233-3331,
applejack.com
Five Great Denver Wine Lists
By now, everyone knows that Boulder’s Frasca has not one but two master sommeliers to manage its top-notch wine list. But theirs isn’t the only list worth perusing. Consider imbibing at one of these wine-lovers’ haunts.
Palace Arms
321 17th St., 303-297-3111, brownpalace .com/dining/palace_arms.cfm
For more than 100 years, the undisputed fanciest-restaurant-in-Denver has been on the ground floor of the Brown Palace Hotel. The sprawling wine list more than lives up to the heritage of the place itself, with 40 ambitious pages of wines spanning nearly 60 years of vintages and boasting price points from modest South African bottles for $30 to extremely hard-to- find French bottlings for well over $5,000. (Hey, the kids don’t really need those braces, do they?) Worth a visit for the excellent food, no matter what wine you select.
Cork House
4900 E. Colfax Ave., 303-355-4488, corkhousedenver.com
Ranging in price from $19 to more than $200, the wine list at this East Colfax eatery (in the space that used to house the legendary Tante Louise) keeps locals and visitors well-sated. Giving equal play to domestic and imported juice, this equal-opportunity list has something for all palates. Trust the chef and order the ever-changing tasting menu; each course is paired beautifully with a half-pour. Major bonus: All bottles are 50 percent off Tuesday-Thursday.
Sketch Food & Wine
250 Steele St., 303-333-1763
The upstart of the bunch, Sketch Food & Wine is the place for see-and-be-seen wine-lovers who like to stay up late drinking. But it’s not all rubbernecking and too-cool-for-school-ness here; Sketch has a heavy-hitting wine roster that exhaustively lists all 500-plus bottles in the cellar with informative tidbits explaining wine styles and regions to help you make your choice.
Just don’t forget about the food while you’re drinking; the outstanding lobster bisque makes for a silky, savory complement to your wine. (Especially if it’s one of the nearly 30 bubblies offered.)
Black Pearl
1529 S. Pearl St., 303-777-0500, blackpearldenver.com
With a forward-thinking focus on smaller producers and organic grape-growing and processing, Black Pearl’s wine list is not only fun to choose from, it’s fun to read.
Quotes like Napoleon’s “In victory you deserve Champagne, in defeat, you need it” appear here and there on the list to reinforce the truth that wine is meant to be fun, not fussy. Divided into categories like “Fresh and bright whites” and “Brawny reds,” the collection is well-administered by a clearly wine-loving staff.
Restaurant AIX
719 E. 17th Ave., 303-831-1296, restaurantaix.com
Aix is a simple, focused, high-quality restaurant that never tries to be everything for everyone, a philosophy that’s clearly echoed on the compact wine list. This is a short, sweet page that doesn’t tax your brain to read, but does promise a quality bottle at a fair price. Wines from France and the United States share the tight space, which also makes room for a few quality bubbles and dessert wines. And as they point out on the list, unfinished bottles can, by Colorado law, be taken home. We appreciate the reminder.
Worth a look
Barolo Grill, 3030 E. Sixth Ave., 303-393-1040
Flagstaff House, 1138 Flagstaff Road, Boulder,
303-442-4640, flagstaffhouse.com
Solera, 5410 E. Colfax Ave., 303-388-8429,
solerarestaurant.com
Opus, 2575 W. Main St., Littleton,
303-703-6787
