Tucked on the side of a small strip mall in Naperville, Snootie’s Wine is an offshoot of owner Knute Anderson’s 4-year-old Naperville Wine Shop. Snootie’s stocks closeouts, which translates into bargain-basement prices for consumers.
“This is good wine that somehow got passed up,” said manager Zachary Patap. “Our operation is comparatively small, so we can buy, say, 10 cases of a particular wine, whereas big distributors would need 50 to 60 cases. And we taste test everything we buy.”
Open only on Saturday, the shop sells domestic and imported wines by the bottle or case. Inventory changes rapidly.
Bargains you may find. Just don’t expect ambience.
“We’re so new, we’re still feeling our way,” Patap said. “We think of the Naperville Wine Shop as our mother ship, Snootie’s as our bare-bones flea market, and that pretty much tells the story.
“Because of our buying policy we can do mixed cases of 12 bottles for $60 to $70,” Patap added. “A good French table wine can run as low as $3 a bottle, and we’ve offered a nice 1998 Baroncini Chianti from San Gimignano, Italy, for $4.”
Snootie’s Wine, 625 E. Ogden Ave. (just west of Columbia Street), Naperville. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays only. 630-420-9463.
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