For today’s installment in our local holiday shopping series, we spoke to Larry Klem, manager at Stewart’s Wine & Spirits, 215 Elm St.
Here’s a transcription of our conversation.
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New Canaanite: Tell me a little bit about how the shopping season’s gone here at the wine shop
Magnums at Stewart’s Wine & Spirits, ranging up to $184.99. These are “great for parties,” store manager Larry Klem said. “It’s something different to have during the holidays, especially when you have a larger number of people.”
Larry Klem: It’s going pretty well. We had a really good November. It started out a little slow, but things by mid-November were ramping up and we had a great holiday week. Really vibrant sales, it seemed like things were just bubbling along nicely. It was a little late this year, so maybe that’s why it was a little slow in the beginning. It kind of threw people off and then all of a sudden at the end it got compressed, which is sort of where we are with this holiday. It’s a week away basically, and then it all happens really quick. And people are just so busy doing their own thing that even though they want to come earlier and prepare and they make their list, we typically see it get crunched up for the last two or three days before Christmas.
What are some of the things people are coming in looking for this holiday?
Lamarca Prosecco ($15.30 at Stewart’s Wine & Spirits)
We actually, just a couple of days ago, changed over a couple of featured items. So this month we’re featuring LaMarca Prosecco. It’s one of our 10% below state minimums. I’m not sure people understand, but you’re allowed to put something on sale that’s 10% below the Connecticut state minimum. Only one item. So we feature one item every month and we figured obviously for December, Prosecco is a great item. Prosecco still is very popular with spritzes—Aperol spritzes, spritzes with St. Germain. And we have this at a great price, $15.30. It’s typically $19. So it’s a great prosecco at the price. And one of our top selling year-in, year-out champagne Veuve Clicquot which will be going on sale now through Christmas week. So people should stock up on it.
Vignes de l’Hospice Saint-Joseph ($104.99) and Uccelliera Brunello di Montalcino ($84.99) at Stewart’s Wine & Spirits.
We’re going to have it at the state minimum, so it’ll be the lowest price allowed. And year-in, year-out Veuve Clicquot is always a very popular one. More Prosecco, which is again, a very popular thing. We had a lot of Thanksgiving picks, which was more Pinot Noir and lighter reds. Now we’ve geared up for heavier stuff, for December. On the top shelf, we’ve got some of our heavy hitters, really nice Brunello di Montalcino. The 2019 vintage is considered one of the best Brunello vintages in probably the last 10 years. So I advise people who are into Brunello and connoisseurs who want to lay things down, grab as many of the ‘19s as you can, because it’s one of the best vintages in a long time. That being said, we have some great Cabernets, Pinot Noirs. A staple every year is the Goose Island Bourbon County Stout. So it’s stout that gets aged in all kinds of different bourbon barrels and people are always looking for that.
What would you tell someone who’s, maybe hasn’t had a chance to drop in here yet?
Monetto Prosecco ($15.99) at Stewart’s Wine & Spirits.
We have a great selection as that goes across the board of the California wines. A lot of Oregon Pinot Noirs. We’re very heavy with European wines because New Canaan is a very Eurocentric town. A lot of people who work in town are involved in different financing and banking roles that are international. So we have quite a few British, French, Italian wines. So we try to really make sure that we represent every important region in Europe. That said, California is still a very strong category for us in both red wines and white wines. Sauvignon Blanc is still very popular across the board. New Zealand, California, and Sancerre is always popular.