Most of the Manhattan wine shops I frequent go by mundane monikers, such as “K&D” and “PJ’s.” So when a wine-savvy young friend of mine from Park Slope recommended a local wine shop called Big Nose Full Body, I was intrigued enough to hop the F train to Brooklyn.

Tucked under a silver awning on a low-key commercial block of Seventh Avenue, Big Nose Full Body is next to a muffin shop and opposite a shop filled with 1950s used furniture. With its exposed brick and cornflower-blue walls under a pressed-tin ceiling, the shop looked as charming as its name. It also seemed, as I peered through the window, alarmingly small to make any claim on having decent coverage of the wide world of wine. But, like a drop of pond water put under a microscope, Big Nose Full Body turned out to be chock-full of interest when I got up close. “We may not have depth,” proprietor Pat Savoie told me, “but we do have breadth.”

I understood what she meant when I checked out the shop’s Pinot Noir section. Of 10 choices, only two came from the red grape’s home region of Burgundy. The rest represented California, Oregon, Alsace, Italy, New Zealand, and Tasmania. Depth in any one region had been sacrificed, but those 10 bottles expressed the many interesting faces of Pinot Noir.

And that breadth was not limited to mainstream wines. Looking for a wine from Mexico? Big Nose Full Body has “Flor de Guadalupe,” a $12 blend of chenin blanc, chardonnay, and sauvignon blanc that comes from cool hills in Baha. There’s also a Turkish wine called Okuzgozu d’Elazig ($12), and a Slovenian red called Santomas ($19).

This last wine, shop manager Tom Methans explained, is made from a grape that Slovenians call refosk, known to the Italians as refosco. “It’s full bodied with lots of cherry zing,” he said. “People assume wines from Central Europe are rustic, but this one is not.” Mr. Methans should know, since his family makes wine in Slovenia.

In all, Big Nose Full Body carries 350 wines from 17 countries on a selling floor of just 400 square feet. The shop makes the most of its space, however, by selling only wine. For the hard stuff, you’ll have to go elsewhere. But not for port and other fortified wines. Fourteen ports line the rear wall, and Ms. Savoie said that she was surprised to learn from her distributor that her shop is one of the top-50 sellers of Dow Port. All wines are stored at 58 degrees in the temperature-controlled vault beneath the shop.

A sign in the shop’s window announces “more than 80 wines under $10.” The challenge for Ms. Savoie is not finding wines to sell at that price, since there are plenty, but finding the ones that offer individuality rather than the standard bright-fruited, oak-chip, and touch-of-sweetness flavor profile. As I visited the shop one afternoon last week, a young mother maneuvered a stroller through the front door and grabbed a pair of Spanish wines, saying, “We had these last night and they were great.” One was Payva Tempranillo, at $7, the other a white “Palacio de Vivero” at $6, neither of them previously known to me. “On weekends, our customers will go for higher-priced bottles,” Ms. Savoie told me. “The rest of the week, they want value.”

One inexpensive wine you won’t find at Big Nose Full Body is the popular Yellow Tail from Australia. “When people ask for it,” Mr. Methins said, “we suggest instead a Chilean Merlot called Valle Andino. At $7, it’s about the same price as Yellow Tail. Instead of just having tons of upfront fruit that all blows away, this wine has some tannins along with fruit that makes it more satisfying.”

Wines with honest character win the competition for shelf space at Big Nose Full Body. On the afternoon I was there, salespersons from three different wholesalers arrived with bottles for Ms. Savoie to sample. Of 20 wines hopefully offered, the one that she ordered for her shop was the least “modern,” an Italian Nebbiolo d’Alba made by Bruno Giacosa that was rich with forest-floor flavors of wet leaves, mushrooms, and loamy earth, all backed up with fine tannins. “Very old style,” said the petite, blond-banged Ms. Savoie. “I can sell it – but not to everybody.” She estimates the wine will be priced at $28 a bottle.

Wine began as a hobby for Ms. Savoie, who always “loved food and travel,” she said. “Wine was a natural extension.” She and her then-husband, John Gottfried (founder of Gourmet Garage), wrote a book in 1978 on wine tasting. An MBA armed corporate strategist by day, Ms. Savoie moonlighted as a wine journalist. On September 10, 2001, she was abruptly downsized from her job as head of an IBM global e-business strategy group. “I thought it couldn’t get any worse,” she said. “The next day, I stood on my roof in the West Village and watched the Twin Towers go down.” Rather than return to the corporate world, Ms. Savoie says, “I asked myself, okay, what do I really love? Wine was pretty high on the scale.”

For a time, she focused mainly on wine journalism, writing offbeat stories, including “the only authoritative article on Charbono, a grape with purply dark fruit tasting of blueberry and blackberry,” she said. “It’s always the last grape to ripen. There are 12 Charbono makers in California, and I interviewed them all.”

But it became clear that she wouldn’t make much money in wine journalism. “So I started watching the business-opportunity ads,” Ms. Savoie recalled. In early 2003, she saw one for a wine shop for sale in Park Slope. Its owners, a wine loving Canadian couple, had decided to return home. “They were clear that they would only sell to somebody who shared their love of wine,” said Ms. Savoie. Fully qualified on that score, she took over Big Nose Full Body in mid-2003, keeping the name. “The previous owners told me that they used those four words to describe a wine they tasted just before opening the shop,” she said. “They’d been trying to think of an unusual name, and this was their epiphany.”

Three quarters of the shop’s wine selection has been changed under Ms. Savoie. Bordeaux and Rhone wines have received special attention. While modest prices still reign at this shop, you can find a few well-chosen upper-end goodies, albeit not in the usual realm of big-name Bordeaux or trophy California cabernets. The priciest bottle is Angelo Sasetti’s fully mature Brunello di Montalcino, vintage 1990. At $129, you’re paying for wine, not for hype.

BIG NOSE FULL BODY, 382 Seventh Ave., Brooklyn, 718-369-4030, www.bignosefullbody.com. Free tastings are offered Saturday afternoons.

RECOMMENDED WINES

ROERO ARNEIS, BRUNO GIACOSA, 2003 ($21) An offbeat Italian white filled with bitter almond and orange-rind flavors. Full-bodied but not fat-bodied. A grown-up wine that keeps changing in the glass. CHATEAU LA GAFFELIERE, SAINT-EMILION 1994 ($25) The exception to the mostly younger, lesser known Bordeaux chosen by Ms. Savoie. This 11-year-old example is a success from a prestigious property that has not always been in top form. Deep-flavored with hints of cherry, it’s a wine from an unheralded vintage that is giving maximum pleasure now. ACACIA PINOT NOIR, CARNEROS, 2003 ($42 in double-sized magnum) Some California Pinot Noirs try to emulate burgundian models. Not this one, which packs assertive ripe fruit aromas and flavors that are very New World. Year after year, Acacia delivers at the right price. JOAO PIRES MUSCAT, VINHO REGIONAL DO SADO, 2002 ($13) “This Portuguese white is bone-dry,” said Ms. Savoie, “and it’s packed with exotic papaya, pineapple, and spice.” An example of how Portugal is coming on strong as a wine power, and not just for port.