Wine Industry Report

Award-Winning Retailer Opens In Manhattan’s Historic Gramercy Park District

Moore Brothers Wine Company, which operates two nationally acclaimed wine shops in the Philadelphia, PA area has opened a new store in New York City. The store occupies a renovated 1840s landmark townhouse at 33 East 20th Street near Gramercy Park. Moore Brothers specializes in top quality estate-bottled wines from France, Italy, and Germany — many of which sell for less than $15 per bottle.

A cool place to buy wine
“At 56 degrees Moore Brothers is definitely the coolest place to buy
wine in New York,” said Ecco Adler, manager of the new store. “But this
isn’t just one more over-designed wine shop with a super-sized refrigerated
telephone booth full of expensive collectibles. The whole place is
refrigerated.”

Greg Moore, who opened the first Moore Brothers store in 1996 in
Pennsauken, NJ, said that ordinary retailers usually don’t bother with
temperature control because they know that most heat damage happens in
transit anyway, before wine arrives at their stores. And nothing can undo
it.

“Everyone will notice how cool it feels in the store,” Moore said, “but
what’s really unusual about Moore Brothers is that every wine, without
exception, comes to us in a refrigerated truck, delivered by a supplier who
ships and stores every case in perfect conditions of temperature control
from the time it leaves the winemaker’s cellar.”

“It’s obsessive attention to detail,” he admitted, “but worth the
effort. Anyone can taste the difference.” Moore’s unique operating model
was honored in 2001 when Food & Wine magazine named his Wilmington, DE
store “Best New Wine Shop in America.”

Warm personal service
“We try to offer the kind of personal service you expect in a great
restaurant,” said Moore, who was the long-time chef-sommelier at Georges
Perrier’s world-class restaurant Le Bec-Fin in Philadelphia. “That’s why we
don’t use “shelf-talkers” of any kind. We’d rather engage our customers
personally, and tell them about the places we visit, and the extraordinary
people who make our wines. And we’re always ready to recommend wine and food pairings.”

“Over the years,” Moore added, “we’ve gathered a large volume of
anecdotal, technical, and cultural information that we’re able to share
with our customers using our comprehensive, proprietary data management
systems.”

“We’re also able to provide a shopping experience on our e-commerce Web
site and by telephone that approximates the shopping experience in the
stores,” said David Moore, Greg Moore’s brother and partner, who designed
and manages the systems.

In addition to providing Web access to their own interactive “wine
portfolios,” which are updated with every purchase, the systems provide
Moore Brothers customers free personally tailored travel advice, and direct
assistance with visits to small family operated wineries in France, Italy,
and Germany. “Our producers always make time for our traveling customers. They want to know as much about the people who drink their wine as our customers want to know about the people who make it,” Greg Moore explained.

New store design integrates original elements with modern features
The interior of the new Moore Brothers store showcases the elegant two-
storey iron and glass storefront designed by Charles M. Sutton that was
added to the townhouse in 1908. Along with the original 1840s brickwork,
the modern infrastructure of the newly renovated building is exposed,
including the highly polished concrete floor and the refrigeration
evaporators that cool the space to 56 degrees Fahrenheit. The second floor
features two versatile open areas reserved for wine classes, special
events, and walk-around tastings.

Greg Moore teaches regularly scheduled wine classes in Special Programs
- the continuing education division of the College of General Studies at
the University of Pennsylvania, and is the author of The Wine
Chronicles-Writing Your Own Fine Wine Book (Running Press 2002).

Moore Brothers Wine Company, located at 33 East 20th Street is open
seven days a week. The store offers free daily wine tastings and convenient
delivery and shipping services. For more information, call
866-986-6673 or go to www.moorebrothers.com.