French Native Brings ‘Best Wine Purveyors’ to Pleasantville

A little taste of France’s wine country has made its way to Pleasantville with the recent soft opening of “Best Wine Purveyors.”

The wine store, located at 210 Marble Avenue, comes to Westchester through the vision of Croton resident and Southwest France native Thierry Pradines. Best Wine Purveyors offers free tastings all day, every day, of eight different wines at the store’s tasting bar, which is outfitted with state-of-the-art, temperature controlled wine stations.

Simply put, this is not a run-of-the-mill wine and spirits retailer.

“When you come here, you will find a lot of wine that you can open every day,” Pradines said. “We have great wines at great prices.”

Pradines’ business will emphasize two things for its customers: affordable, high-quality wine – and the option of tasting that wine before deciding to make a purchase.

“One of my pet peeves with wine is buying it from a place where you might not know what you’re getting until you open it up at home,” he said. “Here, you will get to taste it before you buy it, and hopefully receive a little education. Buying wine should be no different than buying cars or clothes. You get to try out both of those, right?”

In addition to a wine tasting station, Best Wine Purveyors will boast a “Wall of Taste,” which will break down different types of wines and what they offer, along with some of their history. The wall, however, is currently in the process of being completed and won’t be ready until the store’s grand opening sometime in January.

“I want this to be a place people come to discover wine they can enjoy every night at an affordable rate,” Pradines said. “I want them to know about wine. Once you understand what’s in the glass, it’s a completely different experience.”

Growing up in France’s “wine country,” Pradines said his expertise of wine was essentially in his DNA, and that it wasn’t until he grew up and came to the United States in 1987 that he realized the value of his knowledge.

“I knew how to make wine before I knew how important and special a skill it is,” he said.

Now he hopes that skill helps find local residents their favorite glass of wine – at the right price.