new to the city

[pheebs]

i will be in the city for a week-end and need to restock some favorite brandies...anyone have any advice where i can find a decent selection?

[anil]

Park Ave. Liquor on 41st & Madison for most stuff or try Lehman on Upper East Side.

[Fat Guy]

Pheebs, can you give us an idea of what some of your favorites are? Some places are better than others, depending on what you're looking for.

[pheebs]

i'm mostly looking for grappa: especially L'aiola, don't know if i can even get that in the u.s., but grappa pickins in north carolina are pretty slim to none. anything barbaresco will do nicely as well. i'm also on the look out for a beaumes-de-venise eau de vie...any info?

[robert brown]

Pheebs, Garnet Wines and Liquor on Lexington Ave. between 67 and 68 St. has Vidal-Fleury Baumes de Venise and perhaps a few others. You might find other offerings of interest. It's a really good store with good prices. I never looked at their grappa, but they are quite deep in Italian wine along with red and white Burgundy, and good overall. See if they will let you in on their 10% off on everything sale that runs into early March. Tell them you heard about it from a customer and that you made a special trip in from out of town. Good Luck!!

[Bux]

I seem to recall that at one time Astor Wines had a large selection of grappas. They are on Lafayette and Astor Place

http://www.astoruncorked.com/how_to_contact_us.cfm

Chambers Street Wines (212 227 1434) shows Nardini Aquavite Grappa at $39.99 on their web site. Downtown near ground zero. They're nice guys, wine pros and could use all the business they can get.

http://www.chambersstwines.com/contact.asp

An obvious place to look might be Italian Wine Merchants although I'm not sure they stock grappa as well as wine.

sergio@italianwinemerchant.com

Garnet has a toll free number 800 872 8466

http://www.garnetwine.com/ic/index?id=ogMf8T3V&mv_pc=1

Sherry Lehman on Madison Avenue is old time carriage trade. You can ask about their stock via e-mail

http://www.sherry-lehmann.com/

The next time you're in the southwest of France, I know of a guy who makes some of the most incredible fruit and grape eaux-de-vie. I've never seen it here (not since I drank my last bottle) and it's not well distributed in France either. It's a small artisanal distillery.