Flowercup Wine
Adventurous bottlings. Tame Prices. Good advice.
82 Main Street, Cold Spring, NY, 10516
One could easily miss this hole-in-the-wall wine shop- but you should make a point not to. It’s a unique experience. The interior of the shop is… How do we put it? Surprising? Otherworldly? Or perhaps, just extremely well-thought out. It’s full of the kinds of details you don’t expect to see in a wine store.
A sound track of old jazz greets you at the door, harkening back to bygone days of retail when everything was premium service, displays were custom build and products were handmade by craftspeople. A wall covered with a phantasmagoric chalk mural, drawn with a childlike hand, is the back drop for the hundreds of bottles that line the room on live-edge oak slabs. Hand-built wooden wine racks hold the inventory below. Shelf tags with originally written flavor descriptions, historic tales, the details of how each wine is crafted and visual taste guides hang under their bottles. Surprisingly fair bottle prices are displayed clearly on the bottles, and there are none of the cheap pricing tricks, like ending prices in $.99, to be seen here.
Most of these wines are unrecognizable; some are made from indigenous grapes, in forgotten corners of the earth by little-known farmer/winemakers. They are not going to show up at most other stores, even wine aficionados may not recognize the labels. But not to worry, Eliza Starbuck and Eric Wirth, the shop’s owners and selection curators are also the sales clerks. They are not intimidating somms, but rather, they are self-taught wine-nerds who have tasted everything in their shop and want to share their discoveries with others. They also want to help demystify the confusing world of wine.
“I used to go into wine stores and never know what to pick,” Eliza explained, “Half of the time bottle labels tell you very little, and sales clerks can be unknowledgeable or might sell something they like that has nothing to do with your tastes. How can anyone pick a bottle like that?”
When asked how they choose their selection Eliza and Eric, state plainly, “We want a new adventure in every bottle. Memorable wines- the kind you think about for days, or years, after drinking.”
“Wine is for drinking.“ they add, “It’s a part of enjoying life everyday. It needs to be fresh and alive, affordable and immediate.” They pause, “And we don’t want to wake up with a headache tomorrow morning…”
Reasonably priced wine without headaches? Sign me up!
