Most plans that come together on road trips to Palm Springs turn out to be ill-begotten, but the idea that was born when Kathleen Knoll and Gerry Athas-Vazquez headed out into the desert last year turned out to be a genuine winner. They decided they wanted to run a wine store, realized that Hermosa’s Uncorked wine shop was on the market, and immediately went all in. They added a third partner, wine guru Jeff Bonafede, and by October Uncorked was re-launched and reborn. It would be hard to get more things right in a shorter amount of time. They tore down the back wall and created a rustic, cellar-like feel, expanded the selection to include a great mix of hard-to-find, high-quality wines with surprisingly low price-points (such as Rockin’ R Winery’s wares, Clautere Vineyard’s Two Cocky Sisters, and Fiddletown Cellar’s fantastic zinfandel), along with familiar, big-name wines, as well as high-end masterpieces (i.e. Chateau Mouton Rothschild). The combination of Bonafede’s encyclopedic memory of his customer’s palates and his two partners’ deep roots in the community has made the new Uncorked an unqualified success. Uncorked started a wine club and hosts frequent tastings, building a community of wine-lovers that has helped transform Upper Pier Avenue into the adult alternative to the rowdy scene below.
“There is so much wine out there and so many different producers, our focus is to make somebody aware of something they might not be aware of,” Bonafede said. “When people come back to the beach from work, they don’t want to drive anywhere. That’s why you live at the beach. You want to go to downtown Hermosa…Come in, relax, and taste some good wine you might not have known about.”
Uncorked: 302 Pier Ave. Hermosa Beach. 424-247-7117.
Runner Up: Manhattan Fine Wines, 1157 Artesia Blvd. #A, Manhattan Beach. 310-374-3454.
