Uncorked: Best of the Beach 2018 Wine Shop
Customers Debbie Fogel and Melinda Jackman join Uncorked staff members Janelle Sanchez, Nancie Hemminger, Jeff Bonafede, and Anjilla Piazza in a toast featuring the shop’s very own vintage, Pier Avenue. Photo
The rarest and most rewarding thing that can happen for a business is when it becomes both a vital part of a community and a community unto itself. Uncorked, the neighborhood wine shop on the corner of Pier Avenue and Monterey Boulevard in Hermosa Beach has reached this status. The shop is a pervasive presence in the larger community, providing wine for dozens of charity events each year. The storefront itself has become a community hub, particularly with its weekly calendar of events, capped off by its almost legendary Friday night gatherings — some featuring winemakers, others focusing on certain regions, and, the most popular, wine pairings with Girl Scout Cookies. Uncorked has a wine club that has a membership of 700 people; tellingly, only five of those members have their wine shipped to them. The rest come to the shop.
“That is how local our business is,” said Kathy Knoll, who co-founded the shop along with Jeff Bonafede and Gerry Vasquez.
Many of those customers don’t need to drive to Uncorked. They can simply take a nice stroll for a glass of wine.
“It’s not cheap to live at the beach,” Bonafede said. “When people come home, they don’t want to get back in the car to go somewhere. It’s great to come hang out at Uncorked.”
Uncorked is reminiscent of the little wine shops that so enliven life in Europe. There is not a whiff of pretension in the air, just a genuine love for sharing good wine, and a small staff of folks who make a point of learning their customer’s tastes.
“We are really blessed to have a great staff,” Knoll said. “They are very knowledgeable, and they love sharing new discoveries with customers. Our manager, Anjilla, is amazing. People come to see different staff members certain days and nights.”
Uncorked The Wine Shop
302 Pier Ave., Hermosa Beach
(424) 247-7117
uncorkedhermosa.com
Runner-up: Bacchus
1000 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach
(310) 372-2021
bacchuswinesla.com