Well . Donna you´re from there so I can´t deny it´s true hahahaha but , honestly , I have a nose for wine shops ( believe me ! ) And there was nothing obvious around the Bleeker Street district ... Mmmmm Maybe my "nose" was too cold from the December air hehehehehe .
We order a lot of our wine in the UK through mail order too .. But here in Spain ( as you know ) It´s available everywhere , in every shop , and the store owners are often so knowledgable about them .
When I was last in Sevilla , I wanted to buy some traditional Manzanilla as well as a bottle of wine from Andalucía . The little old guy kept me there in his small store for a good 15 minutes going through what was good and , surprisingly ( considering he was selling it ) , what was not so good . I ended up buying a good Manzanilla and a bottle of wine for about 8 Euros I think !
The only problem was that he was too short to reach the Manzanilla and I was concerned about him going up a ladder . Being a foot taller than him I grabbed the bottle . That always makes me nervous as I had the unbelievably embarrasing experience of dropping a bottle of ( good ) wine in an average sized supermarket in Madrid ... it just slipped . A bottle of wine exploding on a hard floor sounds like a bomb ! I was the centre of attention . Security arrived . I offered to pay , but he said " don´t worry these things happen " I was as red as a tomato !