by James Robinson, Your Co-op Sommelier

It’s hard to capture the entire world of wine in 20 linear feet, but that’s just what we’ve attempted to do with the product mix on Aisle 5. Take a moment and scan the shelves and you ‘ll find wines from former Soviet Georgia, the Canary Islands, Marrowstone Island, Port Townsend, Portugal and points beyond. While sourcing such a diverse product mix is exciting, it is, admittedly, a dizzying array of wines that can be hard to navigate – but there’s help.

Talk to any wine writer, wine director or sommelier and they’ll all say the same thing. The single most important step one can take to up his or her wine game is to develop a relationship with someone knowledgeable in the local wine shop. That person can answer questions, provide recommendations and help steer you in a direction that might yield the most satisfying results. Because, let’s face it, wine isn’t cheap, and randomly selecting bottles off a shelf doesn’t always guarantee success. I work 40 hours a week in the aisle and I’m more than happy to help make sense of all the mystery, answer questions and so on. However, and in my absence, careful, observant shoppers can sort things out for themselves and find a bottle that they’ll enjoy.

First, a bit of Aisle 5 geography … literally.

Aisle 5 is organized geographically by country and region. There are shelf signs that indicate what you’ll find on the shelf. The signs are small and mounted on magnetic brackets. They are easy to overlook, but step back a bit, and take in the aisle as a whole and they’ll pop out. There are markers for France, Italy and Spain, Oregon Washington and California and local options. The shelves could use more signage and we’ll continually develop options to better point shoppers in the right direction.

As a general rule, the least expensive wines live on the bottom shelf, while the most expensive live up top. Most super crazy deals will be found on the bottom shelf.

Within each shelf, the wines are organized, from left to right, white to red, and within that, lightest and driest to more full bodied wines. Within that, the wines are shelved alphabetically by producer. If, for example, you’re looking for Cooper Hill Organic Pinot Gris from Oregon, don’t go looking on the far right end of the Oregon shelf because you’ll find it on the far left. Remember, white wines first. Then lightest and driest. Then alphabetical. Sound confusing? It’s not once you start looking.

In addition, there are separate shelves for bubbles, pet-nats and frizzante wines – you can find them in the upper right of the cold case. There is also a shelf dedicated to sherry, vermouth, amaro and port – bottom shelf of the aisle, far right. There’s even a shelf dedicated to orange wine – which isn’t made from oranges, by the way – but that’s another topic for another time.

Play the Jockeys

If you’re in a wine shop with unfamiliar labels, you can always examine bottles and shelf tags to learn more about who imported or distributed the wine. I call this “Playing the Jockeys.” While you may not have tasted the wine in question, many savvy wine drinkers have learned which importer or distributor offers wines most compatible with their palates and they’ll check the back of the bottle or the shelf tag to see if the bottle in question is offered by one of the ‘jockeys” they like.

On Aisle 5, we offer wines from Owen Kotler Selections and Walden Selections both of which are well regarded importers and distributors of low intervention and natural wines. All the wines in their respective portfolios are made by independent, family producers, and are often organic, biodynamic and have little or no added sulfites. Take a close look at the shelf tag of the bottle in question and you’ll see the distributor clearly indicated. Beyond distributors, you can also look at bottle labels for importers such as Kermit Lynch, Becky Wasserman and Jose Pastor – all import top-tier, no-nonsense , low intervention quality wines, and seeing their logo or name on the bottle can inform and anchor your decision.

On Line Tools

Savvy shoppers also use their smartphones to make purchasing decisions. They take pictures of bottles they’ve liked so they can remember them and buy them again, or they use mobile tools like Vivino, Untappd and Beer Advocate to provide additional information and help them make decisions on the go.

But, at the end of the day, if you’d like to talk to a real person, I’m in Aisle 5, Tuesday to Saturday, 40 hours an week and would be more than happy to give you a tour and help you connect with just the right bottle for your mood, palate and budget.