Wbwlogo_1Today is Wine Blogging Wednesday, the International wine-tasting sensation. This time around the good Doctor (Vino) has asked us to put down our glasses (at least temporarily) and highlight a wine shop that feels the love.

I’ve written often about how much I dislike most of my local wine shops. I’m always annoyed at their limited selection, tendency to stock only big-name, mass-produced bottles and, in one case, the environment of the store (always feels hot to me when I walk in).

There are a few semi-local shops that I enjoy, including Mora’s Fine Wine and Spirits, Grape Culture and Stew Leonard’s. But none of those quite made the cut for my WBW contribution.

No, for that, I have to travel down to southern New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia to Moore Brothers Wine. Our friends Paul and Sara took us there when we last visited…and I was blown away.

From the moment you step inside, you know you’re in a different type of wine shop. For one, bring a jacket…the entire store is chilled to the mid-50s…ideal for storing wine. Secondly, in our hour there, I met (and actually spent a little time with) both Moore Brothers…Greg (former sommelier at Le Bec Fin) and David. Their passion for wine oozes from their very pours.

Much like some of the best wine shops I’ve read about on the West Coast, the Moore Brothers spend six months out of the year visiting small producers in Germany, France and Italy. Almost all of their wines come from those three countries (they have a little CA stuff, but it’s a small area) and in many cases, the Moore Brothers are the exclusive importers of these wines.

They are true sticklers for storage temperature and will only work with producers that are willing to store and ship all of their wines at 55 degrees F. And, sadly for me, they won’t ship wines either.

The other thing that impressed me was they stock wines throughout the price spectrum…except the uber-expensive stuff. David asked me what kinds of wines I liked, and when I told him (can’t recall what I was drinking a lot of then) he showed me four bottles that he’d recommend…ranging from $8 to $30.

The star purchase, for me anyway, was a $20 bottle of 2001 Wein & Sektgut Thielen Merlen Fettgarten Riesling Spatlese. Spectaucular…and sold out long.

Greg actually found LENNDEVOURS months after my visit and we discussed the 2003 vintage of the Thielen and their plans to open a store in Manhattan.

Right now, they have two locations the one I visited at 7200 North Park Drive, Pennsauken, NJ and one located at 1416 North DuPont Street, Wilmington, Delaware. I’d definitely recommend Moore Brothers to anyone. They also maintain a database of your purchases and you can review them online, highlight what wines you liked best and then they’ll make recommendations based on the information.

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