In 2019, friends and long-time beverage industry pros Piper Kristensen, Ivy Mix, and Conor McKee were “curious about getting into [wine] retail,” recalls McKee. When an ideal spot became available in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, things started moving quickly. That is, until the pandemic hit.
Through the delayed—but no less successful—launch and running of their retail store Fiasco!, the team learned a lot about serving the needs of their Crown Heights community. “It’s a pretty service industry-heavy neighborhood,” says McKee. “A lot of our regulars work either back of house or front of house at restaurants of all sizes. There’s a pretty strong base of wine knowledge in the neighborhood and a desire for somewhere to go to hang out with a nice glass of wine.”
Yet the part of Crown Heights they worked in (south of Eastern Parkway) still lacked many of those types of establishments. There were limited options for finding small-production, organic wines. Seeing that need, and after spotting a struggling dive bar across the street from Fiasco!, the team was soon chasing a new business venture, this time in the form of a wine bar: Whoopsie Daisy.
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“We were keeping an eye on this space for a long time,” says McKee. “There were some grumbling about the bar … After a little bit of research, and realizing that they were operating on an expired license, we kicked it into high gear.” The team signed the lease in December 2023 and were open by May. “We wanted to take advantage of the season, and because it was just the three of us—no investors, just bootstrapping it—we needed to be open as quickly as possible.”
While Whoopsie Daisy and Fiasco! share similar philosophies—selling wines from small-production, family-run estates that are organic, biodynamic, or natural—their offerings are distinct. “We saw this as an opportunity to increase the availability of wines in the neighborhood and to be able to sell some wines that might be a little bit more bar appropriate. We do carry a large selection of wines under a certain price point to meet the needs of the neighborhood.”
Indeed, price-consciousness is an important element of their program. “We want everyone to come in and feel welcome and not feel intimidated,” says McKee. “So we try to keep the pricing pretty affordable. We’ll take a slimmer margin on things we feel are worth having and want people to try. We also look for those diamonds that offer excellent quality for the price.”
With Whoopsie Daisy, McKee, Mix, and Kristensen have prioritized the needs of the community, creating the approachable, wine-forward space that was missing from their small stretch of Brooklyn. “The simple act of greeting every person who comes through the door goes such a long way,” says McKee. “I’ve walked in some places and felt like I wasn’t cool enough to be there and it’s not a good feeling. I just want to make spaces where you can come in and feel welcome and drink some really good wine at not outrageous prices.”
SevenFifty Daily caught up with McKee to find out which wines are proving successful on their list as the new wine bar enters its fourth month of operations. (Listed are by-the-bottle prices for each wine.)
Domaine Saint-Cyr Gamay Rosé Pét-Nat 2021, Beaujolais, France; $68
For McKee, this rosé pét-nat from Beaujolais-based Domaine Saint-Cyr is “quintessential summer.” With notes of strawberry, melon, and nice, persistent bubbles, “It goes down a little too easy,” says McKee. “I’ve actually been surprised by how quickly it’s been moving because I feel like sparkling wine in general is never the fastest mover. This, for whatever reason, has just been [selling].”
Pierre Arnold ‘Vin Surnaturel’ 2022, Alsace, France; $68
The Arnold family can trace their lineage in Alsace all the way back to the 1600s. The estate was founded in 1711 and continuously handed down through the generations. Pierre Arnold is now the eighth generation to lead the domain. “This specific label is a collaboration between the winemaker and Super Glou, the importer,” says McKee. “You get all those beautiful floral Gewürztraminer notes. Then there’s this spicy ginger thing on the palate with some orange peel and blossom. It’s just so good.”
Molino Real ‘Mountain Blanco’ 2021, Málaga, Spain; $60
Producer Telmo Rodríguez started this winery in the 1990s in Málaga, a forgotten, mountainous region in southern Spain. At that time, cheap, international varieties dominated the market. “They really wanted to veer away from that and into indigenous varieties, working with what was already there,” says McKee. “They found some plots on these steep, slatey, slopes. They planted their flag there and just started making these really fresh, high-acid mountain wines.” McKee describes this Moscatel as “racy, lemon, mountain water” and notes that it punches way above its weight in terms of price.
Sierras de Bellavista Pinot Noir 2020, Colchagua, Chile; $60
If you want Burgundy-level quality for half the price, Sierras de Bellavista’s Pinot Noir is McKee’s go-to recommendation. “It’s a small, family project; they don’t make a lot of wine,” says McKee. “When I tried it, it brought me right back to red Burgundy. It [has] Bing cherry with some minerality to it. It has medium tannins that just catch you on the back. It’s really, really stunning.”
Foradori ‘Lezèr’ Teroldego 2023, Trentino Alto-Adige, Italy; $60
Foradori’s Lezèr Teroldego offers a delicious, affordable way to introduce “young drinkers to a producer that’s become a force in winemaking,” says McKee, referring to winemaker Elisabetta Foradori, whose elegant wines have earned her the title of “the queen of Teroldego.” “This [wine] was first made in 2017 because she lost most of her crop to hail just before harvest. So, making lemonade out lemons, she took the fruit she had, vinified and aged it in a variety of vessels—stainless steel, concrete, amphora, neutral oak—and blended it together to create this super dynamic, light, juicy red.”
Dispatch
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Caitlin A. Miller is a New York-based wine writer and a senior editor for SevenFifty Daily. Her work has appeared in Food & Wine, Vinous, and Christie’s International Real Estate Magazine. She holds the WSET Diploma in Wines and was the recipient of the 2020 Vinous Young Wine Writer Fellowship.
