It normally makes me happy to enter a serious wine shop. But the feeling is bittersweet when I approach the Burgundy Wine Company, a clean-lined shop tucked away on a quiet block of West 26th Street. Before the bitter, let me tell you about the sweet – and the offbeat.

Burgundy Wine Company opened its original shop in 1988, on a funky block of West 11th Street in Greenwich Village. The premises were hardly larger than a wine case, but with that small space came great audacity. The proprietors, Albert Hodgkin Jr. and Geraldine Tashjian, limited their focus and passion to the red and white wines of Burgundy and, to a lesser extent, the Rhone, and Oregon. Then, as now, you won’t find a single bottle of wine made from cabernet sauvignon or merlot in the shop. That’s right: No Bordeaux, no California cabs, nor any of the big-fruited and wildly popular Australians. Even wines from Italy, currently the largest single import category in the American market, are off-limits at Burgundy Wine Company.

There is method to what may sound like commercial madness. “The decision to focus on Burgundy was made because no other retailer was doing it,” said the black banged, dark-eyed Ms. Tashjian, 57. “People were familiar with Bordeaux chateaux like Margaux or Palmer or Lynch-Bages. But if you showed them wines by superb growers in Burgundy like Neillon, or Roumier or Ramonet, they drew a blank.”

It wasn’t – and isn’t – only the myriad of mostly small producers in Burgundy that daunted wine consumers, or even the region’s byzantine appellation system. It was also the “fragility” of the wines, according to Ms. Tashjian. That’s a delicate way of saying that by the time a bottle of Burgundy, perhaps an exceedingly expensive one, was uncorked locally, it might well have lost its delicate aromatics or even flat-out spoiled. “We observed that wines left the domaines in small trucks which weren’t air-conditioned even in summer,” said Ms. Tashjian. “The same for the trucks which picked them up at the docks once they arrived here. So we only allowed our wines to be shipped in winter. And we built an air-conditioned and insulated storage facility before we ever stocked our first bottle of wine.”

Burgundy Wine Company opened with only Hotchkin and Ms. Tashjian working full time. In September 2002, when the staff had grown to 12 and “were tripping over each other,” according to Ms. Tashjian, the shop moved to its spacious new Chelsea quarters. Just five months later, in February 2003, during a wine-sampling lunch in the rear of the new shop, the 59-year-old Hotchkin collapsed. An EMS team could not revive him. He is survived by his wife, Deg Rasmussen.

A Dartmouth College graduate, Hotchkin had given up a career as a business consultant to pursue his passion for Burgundian wines full time. In 1982, he opened the International Wine Center above Tastings, his wine bar on West 55th Street. Mr. Hotchkin could be tough on wines that did not meet his standard. I remember a long-ago tasting at the IWC, packed with wine buffs, at which a prestigious California winemaker presented his new, pricey pinot noir. Despite high expectations, the wine was a disappointment to me, but when the winemaker asked for comments, I opted for polite silence. Hotchkin spoke up, however. “This wine tastes of Pepsi Cola,” he said. That comment wasn’t what the winemaker wanted to hear, but it was right on.

I think of Hotchkin each time I enter Burgundy Wine Company, where Ms. Tashjian, who first worked with him as manager of Tastings, carries on as sole proprietor. The shop’s inventory is deep rather than wide. I counted, for example, 15 different white wines from the Burgundian commune of Meursault, a larger array than at many far bigger shops. Among them is one from Domaine Jobard made in the superb, difficult-to-find 1996 vintage. Priced at $64, it’s a wine that is probably not quite yet in its prime. Among red Burgundies, you can pick from 16 wines from Gevrey- Chambertin. A producer that has given me a stellar burgundy experience, Perrot-Minot, is represented by a village, Gevrey-Chambertin, Premier Cru 2002, surely a great Burgundy at $118.

A corner of Burgundy Wine Company is furnished with a pair of comfy leather sofas.You can settle in and peruse the shop’s collection of wine reference books. Or you might leaf through “Just the Basics,” a free booklet prepared by the shop that makes lucid the complicated appellation structure of Burgundy. Each weekday at 5 p.m., and all day on Saturday, the shop opens a couple of wines for tasting.

Ms. Tashjian and the late Hotchkin made it a point not to offer any wine until they had tasted it several times. Even then, the wine might not stay on the rack, as I learned when I mentioned to Ms. Tashjian that, a few years ago, I’d purchased a case of Savigny-les-Beaune,”Les Vergelesses” from the 1986 vintage. That was reputed to be a tricky, even unstable red wine vintage in Burgundy, and the salesperson warned me that the wine might be problematic. As it turned out, some bottles had a slightly funky character that I liked. Others were beyond funky. My wife, Susan, warned me off serving that wine to guests.

Ms. Tashjian frowned when I told her about my experience with that purchase. “I don’t think I’d have let you buy that wine,” she said. “I uncorked a bunch of bottles of 1986 Burgundies from our stock and poured them down the sink rather than sell them.” You could call that vinocide. I call it an excellent recommendation for a wine shop.

Best of Burgundy

Some recommended wines from lesser known Burgundian appellations selected by Burgundy Wine Company:

AUXEY-DURESSES BLANC, 2000, DOMAINE JEAN LAFOUGE ($19.95) Firm and slightly earthy in its maturity, with a touch of hazelnut. Authentic white burgundy that will perfectly partner a roasted chicken.

VIRE-CLESSE 2001, DOMAINE DES CHAZELLES ($14.50) A newish appellation from around Macon, “which can be a sea of mediocrity,” Ms. Tashjian said. She noted that this wine is handpicked from old vines. “It’s real white burgundy,” she said, “meaning that it will develop in bottle.”

MARANGES PREMIER CRU 1999, JOSEPH DROUHIN ($18) “Very supple style, not big and chewy,” said Ms. Tashjian. “It’s all about restraint and grace.” She called this red wine “an absolute steal.” My own bottle, sipped with grilled salmon, confirmed her judgment. How rare to find the essence of red Burgundy for less than $20.

Splurge Wine

NUITS-SAINT-GEORGES, CLOS DES FORETS 2001, DOMAINE DE L’ARLOT

($54) “Great aromatics. Then luscious black fruit, a little earth and spice, even raspberries in there. So generous, so classy, so forward,” Ms. Tashjian said. “This is less rustic, more silky, than many wines from Nuits-Saint-Georges. Young as it is, it can already be enjoyed.”

Burgundy Wine Company
143 W. 26th St., 212-691-9092
www.burgundywinecompany.com
Open Monday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.