“Hey Dad, I’ll be right back. I have to go next door to get my hair cut.”
That’s Dave Mackie, 37, yelling to his dad, Mike Mackie.
The elder Mackie and Rande Jenus opened The Wine Cabinet in 2003 after they left careers at Marriott. It’s snuggled in a Reston strip mall and stocks about 1,500 bottles.
Some springtime gems include Champagne method-produced Steininger Gruner Veltliner Sekt (Austria), Sailors Grave Red Blend made with cabernet and petite sirah (California) and Meinklang Biodynamic Pinot Noir, from a winery integrating cattle into its biodynamic growing program (Austria). Locally, Mackie is a fan of the much famed RdV Vineyards Friends & Family, a red blend (Delaplane), and Thibaut-Janisson Blanc de Chardonnay (Charlottesville); there’s a separate section devoted to Virginia wines.
The usual accoutrements fill the space: wine swag like decanters, flutes and silly stem tags, plus a small cheese counter and a couple aisles of nibbles , both local and not, like a porcelain jar of wild cherries that could rival the cult of Luxardo: Fabbri Amarena’s Italian candied cherries in syrup. The store also sells paintings and cards from Reston artist Joanne Roberts-Wittauer, whose work also graces the label of bottles imported by her husband, Klaus Wittauer, an Austrian-born wine distributer.
Though the fortified wine and aperitif selection is slim, vermouth enthusiasts will appreciate high-end Vya. (The shop is happy to call in special requests, and P.S., there is an ABC store a dozen storefronts away.)
When Dave started working at his dad’s shop in 2010, he focused on building a beer program, coinciding with the rise of the American craft brewery industry itself. Stacked haphazardly on the floor and around the cheese case is a collection, about 200 bottles, of some of the weird, hoppy, boundary-pushing beers from the top brewers in the country. Virginia is represented by the funky Adroit Theory (Purcellville), with its large-format Death of Cthulhu made from seaweed and marshmallow, and Three Notch’d Brewing (Charlottesville), with its unfiltered, less bitter, more citrusy New England-style IPA, Minute Man. Mackie doesn’t specifically focus on local for local’s sake, an almost revolutionary act these days. It’s an acknowledgment that there’s so much to sip, in the family or not. // 1416 North Point Village Center, Reston
(May 2017)
