Manhattan Fine Wines is amongst the best wine shops in Southern California, and I believe it is hands-down the best in the South Bay area of Los Angeles. I have been a customer for about 4 years now, slowly but surely becoming more acquainted with their great selection.
It was important to me to have a great wine shop close to home as I moved back from Sebastopol (Sonoma Co.) in 2007 and needed my fix! No, I needed a place where I could at least have access to the same wines however. You can find RRV wines at Costco, but for one-stop with a great selection, you would normally find yourself looking up a wine warehouse or super store. A drive to Wally's or at worst, BevMo. Manhattan Fine Wines fills that role dutifully and beautifully.
I like the service here. If you want recommendations or their pick, just ask. If you want to be completely alone, just do your thing and they will not bother you. They are a great help and have enough experience to be able to dial in on your tastes. (As the last reviewer mentioned, say you don't like maloactic in your Chard and they will understand)
The selection is great. On the lower, mid, and high-end, they have a lot of great wines. For those that are after cult or semi-cult wines, come to MFW. They've got Sine Qua Non, Williams-Seylem, Kistler, Hundred Acre, Screaming Eagle, etc. I recently bought Black Kite, Littorai, and Radio-Coteau.
The prices are reasonable. I've purchased wines here ~10% less than they charge at the winery. I've purchased wines at Costco even, to see them at MFW for only a few more dollars. They really make an effort to charge reasonable prices. They have quite a few QPRs, whether you're looking at domestic Pinots, Priorat or Rhones. You can stop here and buy Krug or Cristal, Cheateau Margaux or Domain Leroy, or you can bring in $20 and get a wonderful wine. I picked up a $20 Barolo the other day (a village blend, but still) that was great.
My only complaint would be a minor one. When I want a Hermitage or Cote Rotie, or let's get crazier: a Washington red or a South African wine, I want to select from dozens of choices. It's purely space, and here they don't have enough to be able to offer that amount of choice. They pick their wines wisely, but still, some times you hear a name and you just want to run to the nearest wine place and pick it up. Still, they have the Kermit Lynches and Berkeley Imports. That's what I'd like to see more from them. Know your importer and implore your local shop to carry more from them. That's how you change the ruling perceptions.
Good luck wine drinkers and let me know what you think of MFW! read more
