New Wine Shop in Durham?

[Pigloader]

Saw a sign in the Woodcroft shopping center today "HV Bottle Shop". Talked to the owners for a bit--seems like its going to be a pretty cool shop. Lots of on premise tasting, wide selection-- it's a pretty big space, so I imagine it's going to have sizable inventory. Anyone heard anything else?

[romansperson]

Wow, we've really got some good places around now. When I moved here, Southern Season was pretty much it on this side of the Triangle and now we've got five more places (if you include Hillsborough Wine, which actually opened before its sister location in Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill Wine).

[Pigloader]

Heck, I remember when S.S. wine dept. was the size of one of its current shelves... back in the Eastgate days! We have indeed come a long way, baby...

[lilyanna]

When 3CUPS reopens this fall, it is supposed to have a bigger wine section and the former wine manager of SS:

http://3cups.net/?p=836

[Pigloader]

Yeah-- it's my understanding that they're going to increase the wine selection, but I don't know if I'd go so far as to call them a wine shop--more of a coffee shop that sells wine... I did hear about Jay going that direction, though. Should be interesting to see how S.S. fares in his absence.

[lilyanna]

I thought the old 3 Cups was very attractive and really put together...without being fussy.

I do like those machines, though they're a little space-agey looking.

[lilyanna]

From their website...that's growing:

"Wine Focus… why does 3CUPS need someone in charge of their wine selection? Because wine is a much more important piece of our new configuration… we are altering our focus from a coffee shop selling a bit of wine, to a wine, coffee and tea merchant. We’ve even changed our name to 3CUPS Wine… Coffee… Tea. Our wine selection is growing from about 40 labels to over 200. Each of these wines will follow the 3CUPS guiding principles, from small vineyards, estate bottled, using traditional techniques and an emphasis on terroir. We will offer wine tasting flights on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings and will resume our monthly wine classes."

[feedme2004]

I always found 3 Cups a bit over the top - why does my coffee have to taste like blueberries and spices and all? I like my coffee to taste like, well, COFFEE. If they are the same way with their wines, then they will not be for me, kind of like Wine Authorities. Apparently I'm uncool becuase every now and then I enjoy Rodney Strong or Kendall Jackson wines. (But I still love a good Burgundy or Cotes de Rhone). A friend took me to Hope Valley Bottle Shop the other day, and I thought it was a nice place. Had some of my favorites on the shelf, but lots of stuff I didn't know. I had regularly talked with one of the owners while he did the wines at Nana's (Drew?), and was really happy to see him doing his own thing. We stumbled in while they were having a guest winemaker taste some wines. I forget his name, but it was tasty South African stuff. The tasting machine was not too space age, and was a lot of fun to boot. I'll go back

[winointhetriangle]

Cheers! I find 3 Cups to be way too pretentious. Am I the only one who thinks that the photos of the French winemakers on the wall is kind of "stalkerish."

Hope Valley Bottle Shop has a great selection and the 2 owners are very friendly and knowledgeable.

[Pigloader]

UPDATE:
Went by the store yesterday, and they are open for bizniz! Shop looks great-- they must have done a lot of work to make the transition from what I saw less than 2 weeks ago. They have one of those wine station tasting machines, which was full of some righteous juice yesterday (they said it was leftover from their opening party). Lots of variety, and a pretty big space. Picked up some tasty Gruner and a couple of recommendations by Thomas and Drew that I haven't tried yet. They seemed very laid back and knowledgable. Seems like a worthy opponent to Southern Season, Wine Authorities and CH Wine Co... guess we'll see!