Good wine merchants in Amsterdam?
Well, it’s a long story and certainly a roundabout excuse as to how this will all take place, but all you need to know is that I’ll be in Amsterdam for a couple of days in November. But only a couple of days.
With that in mind, dear worldly readers, I am curious as to whether there are any excellent wine shops in Amsterdam. That’s “Amsterdam” as in “The Netherlands” and not Amsterdam, NY. I’m sure there is much to recommend Amsterdam, NY, but I think I prefer the one in Europe.
So far, I have found a few promising spots:
- Wijn Antiquariat, 1e Weteringsdwarsstraat 2A, open Saturdays 12-5 PM
- Cave Rokin, Rokin 60 (good central location), unknown store hours
- Henri Bloem’s, Vijzelgracht 27, unknown hours
- Chabrol, Haarlemmerstraat 7, unknown hours
- Ton Overmars, Hoofddorpplein 11, 9AM-7PM Friday and 9AM-5PM Saturday; looks to have lots of scotch as well!
Of course, if I do choose to visit any of these places, those trips will be in addition to the old familiar Amsterdam haunts of mine:
- De Zotte, best Trappist cheese tart in the EU, and a decent wine selection to complement the fabulous beers and food
- Cafe Gollem, terrific beer selection and the ambience of a dank men’s room but without the smell (somehow, I love this place)
- ‘t Arendsnest, best bar/pub in Amsterdam for my money, with a selection of aged beers and essentially all of the 200+ Dutch beers being brewed today…and with a bartender who looks and acts like Steve McQueen from the late 1960s
Each of these three places has become part of my routine when I visit Amsterdam, sort of like going back to a house where you used to live when you return to your childhood town. ‘t Arendsnest is, in particular, an incredible place. I have brought a couple of friends there over the last few years and it always impresses. The food at De Zotte makes that place an absolute requirement, despite the bizarre timing of their kitchen sometimes (a long story involving quiche need not be retold here).
My general concern with visiting a bunch of wine merchants is, as always, figuring out how to get the stuff back to the US. Is it even worth it, really? With the Internet, I can just ship stuff from my computer without doing the legwork. Or perhaps I could bring some US wines and try to trade them for European wines. Seems like that would be hard to do legally, although this IS Amsterdam.
Perhaps I should just look for good Amsterdam wine bars instead…let’s see what I can find:
- bubbles and wines, seems decent but trendy and with a fairly limited glass and bottle selection but incredibly close to Dam Square
- Envy, seems a bit like a Dutch gastropub, if such a thing exists
- Restaurant de Kas, looks a bit like the Dutch version of the Herbfarm…not a bar, but a great-looking restaurant
I think possibly the thing to do instead would be to contact the members of the Vitis Amsterdamensis Wine Club as they are having a tasting on my first evening in town. Could be worth it, they seem nice!