Dr Vino's wine blog

Where does a wine shop store its wine? I take you behind the scenes in “Dr. Vino underground!”

First up, Moore Brothers. The chill-hounds at Mo Bro keep the entire store at 56 degrees. So how cold is their basement storage? I asked them if I could see it–and…wait for it…it’s 56 degrees too!

Bill, an employee of the store who happened to work in refrigeration for 16 years before getting into wine, explained that they have four cooling units split into several zones to cool the three stories.

Does it cost Mo’ money? Yes, to the tune of 50 cents a bottle, Bill said.

The basement storage area consisted of cardboard shipping boxes ready to go be filled. Shipping is hard for these folks given their cold fetish. Bill said they basically don’t ship during the summer.

They also had, as you would imagine, cases of wines imported more or less directly from boutique producers in France, Italy and Germany. They get all of their wine from one importer, Fleet Street, who is as fanatical about 56 degrees as they are.

Moore Brothers , 33 E. 20th Street (the block informally known as “wine alley”), 866-986-6673
NYC wine shop map