North Berkeley Imports ( northberkeleyimports.com ) is my other long term favorite ... must be about 38 years now, I suppose. They do even more than Kermit to work with the producers, especially in France and Italy, to produce select Cuvees which are proprietary to them ... and which consistently rank higher than the regular release from the same source. Aggressively unfiltered and unfined, selected barrels, etc. It's the kind of shop I have always felt I could walk into, pick a bottle at random, and expect to enjoy it. Some of their stuff comes in big enough volume to get out to other stores, but not a lot.
And, it isn't just imports and high end stuff either. They have a regular line they produce for themselves by acting as negotiant in Napa and Sonoma and sometimes they pick up some fabulous stuff. I remember a number of years ago when they found some guy who was making very old style Napa Cab, i.e., nasty when young, but he was cellaring it for 10 years before release, so it was fabulous. As I recall, I and a group ended up buying close to 20 cases at something like $14 a bottle ... straight off the Rutherford Bench, too. |
