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Despaña Vinos y Mas Shop

7:46 pm in Soho Wine Shops by KT Goldthorpe

Soho Wine Shops

Spanish

410 Broome St., 10013
Cross Streets: Lafayette & Centre St.
212-219-1550

Hours: tbd

The newest expansion of long time Spanish imports store Despaña is a compact but extremely well-stocked wine shop, right next door. The floor-to-ceiling shelves hold about 400 different wines – grouped according to region – and has the deepest txakoli, cava, and sherry selection of any wine store seen in the city… with 30 sherries, and more than 30 sparkling wines (and even several ciders).

Prices start at around $8, with more than 60% of the wines selling for less than $25.  Though, at the high end, you will find bottles of Pingus and Vega Sicilia Unico (upwards of $700). The adjacent food shop makes it easy to provide tastings with cheeses, cured meats and other tidbits.

The store’s sherry category will be “the most challenging but nevertheless fun category;” ranging in price from $7 to $113 a bottle, although half of that number are wines that cost less than $25.  Interestingly, they sell “about three or four bottles of Sherry a week;” including that $113.00 one.

Despana also offers educational tastings, to help widen their customers’ knowledge. There will be free tastings of wine and food pairings on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month, from 5 to 7 p.m.


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Palo Cortado

5:25 pm in Carroll Gardens Wine Bars by KT Goldthorpe

Carroll Garden Wine Bars

520 Court St. 11231
Cross Streets:  Huntington & Nelson St.
718-407-0047

Hours: Sun-Thu 5pm-Midnight, Fri-Sat 5pm-1am

An edgy-esque wine and tapas joint from Alessandro Peluso (Bocca and Cacio e Pepe) and Alessandro Piliego (the House) is the newest comer onto this Carroll Cardens’ block.  And, they are serving all things Spanish influenced, from the wine to the small plates to the design.

If you are interested in trying sherry, they have about a dozen.  Affordable whites from the NorthWest, juicy reds from the SouthEast and maybe even a dense Garnacha from the NorthEast regions are on the list too.  You will even find a few beers to pair with your nibbles. But, you won’t find any hard liquor on the menu; just order one of the wine cocktails instead.

No matter, you’ll have enough delectable elixirs to help wash down the the assortment of traditional tapas – a menu full of charcuterie, meatballs, and sandwiches.  And just to keep things on edge, they’ll offer daily specials “with a little bit of flair,” such as today’s house-cured salmon carpaccio with watercress apples and horseradish.

Don’t forget to check out your surroundings… they built the 38-seat counter/ bar top with tiles from a 180-year-old church in Uruguay, the chandeliers are cast-iron, and there are even a few pieces by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero (yes, the same dude who created the large – undressed – Adam at the Time Warner Building). The seating is all bar height, with two communal tables up front and five or six two-tops in the back.

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