Best Cellars- Great concept has new store by Darryl Beeson Wine guru Joshua Wesson redesigned the retailing of wine in 1996 when he opened his first Best Cellars store on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, making things idiot proof, fun and affordable. The excitement has spread with stores in two Boston suburbs, the University Village section of Seattle, Washington D.C., and most recently in The Park Cities area of Dallas. "The public needn't be saddled with numerical scores, vineyard names, grape yields and barrel toast levels. The wine jargon can poison the simple pleasure.," contends Wesson. "After all, when you walk into a patisserie in Paris, you don't have to know the history of France." Wesson entered the wine field in 1979. He was a sommelier in Boston and New York restaurants. After he won Food & Wine From France's 1984 competition for best sommelier in the United States, he became a consultant to restaurants and other businesses. He went on to collaborate with David Rosengarten (sometimes seen on Food Network segments), which included their well-received book, "Red Wine with Fish." At that time, Wesson's notion of choosing wine by style and weight took root and evolved into his copyrighted concept. "Best Cellars Dallas opened recently on Knox Street near Highland Park," says store manager Joe Nemmers, "surrounded by some of Dallas' best restaurants and most interesting sidewalks, Best Cellars Dallas is also our first store to feature a wine bar, where we serve a selection of Best Cellars wines by the glass every night, so you can sit, relax and enjoy." At night, this store adapts a trendy scene aspect. "The basic concept, the entire premise, is to make wine buying fun, interesting and easy. If the buyer has no experience, or is a big collector, this is the place for either," maintains Nemmers. "Wines are displayed at eye-level, grouped by taste category, such as fizzy, which is sparkling, fresh, soft, and luscious, moving from light to full bodied. The reds are juicy, smooth and big, again moving from lighter to full-bodied, Our dessert wines are sweet. All are $15 and under. We also have "Beyond the Best" grouping priced at above $15." There are about 120 wines that are $15 and under plus about 50 beyond the best. The fun is browsing through the store reading the clever, sometimes hilarious, descriptions and background information on each wine. "The shelf talkers, many written by Josh Wesson, as well as myself need to be creative. People want to know where is it from and will it go with my sandwich. All the better if you can entertain with a catchy little title," contends Nemmers. Titles like P. Giddy- not Puff Daddy, Keep on Trocken, Herz so good (Baron Herzog, a respected Kosher wine), Macon Whoopee, and Brampton Comes Alive. You get the idea that wine drinking can be affordable and fun in this store. Founder Wesson, a lecturer-entertainer on the wine circuit, is described by "The Wine News" as having "an irreverent, breezy, persuasive, conversational style and tone that emerges on the so-called shelf-talkers - the explanatory notes accompanying the wines. His ad-lib descriptions sometimes resemble the overheated prose used by others to lure Gen-Xers." For example, under the heading "A Lot o' Rosato," about a wine made from the Montepulciano grape, the wording said: "While no self-respecting oenophile would dispute the fact that Italy's most majestic bottles tend to be moldy, oldie and red, wired-in cognoscenti know that dry, cherry-kissed rosati - like Illuminati's deeply hued Campirosa - offer much in the way of gratification, instant or otherwise." Hours for the Dallas store are 10am to 9pm Mondays through Thursdays, 10am till 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and noon until 6pm on Sundays. On Saturdays between 2pm and 4pm, they frequently host local chefs for free wine and food pairings. And each evening, they offer a free taste of a featured wine in the store. "People come here for the service and the interaction. You won't be intimidated by a rude clerk," boasts Nemmers, "If you can back up your service with killer product, you are bound to do well." The wine selection is well conceived and priced reasonably. The original store is in Manhattan (1291 Lexington Avenue at 87th Street). There is also a store Washington, D.C. (1643 Connecticut Ave., NW), two in Boston (1327 Beacon Street at Harvard Street; 745 Boylston Street), one in Seattle (2625 NE University Village next to Starbucks), and a new store is to open in Virginia. Best Cellars Dallas is at 3205 Knox Street at Cole (214-252-9463). For more information, visit www.bestcellars.com <http://www.bestcellars.com>. For more great wine suggestions, click here Do you have any questions, comments or suggestions? 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