Our wine selection is carefully curated to reflect our support of small-scale, artisan producers who use natural and traditional methods to create beautiful products. In many cases, we have visited the producers and seen their work in progress and in some cases, we have developed close personal friendships with them. In either case, it is these relationships that allow us to have complete trust in the integrity of their products.
We welcome you to visit our Cambridge store to explore our selection. Our buyers are frequently in the store to answer any of your questions and you can always send us your queries via email.
Keep in touch with our wine team!
We send regular emails providing information about upcoming in-store tastings as well as bottles and producers that are currently inspiring us. If you love wine, we encourage you to subscribe to our wine email list.
Wine at Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge
Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge offers a carefully curated selection of wines representing many of Europe’s historic regions, chosen with a view to enhancing your everyday experience at the table. Our bias is for smaller estates who are either already working as naturally as their location allows or making strides in that direction. Our ideal wine can come from anywhere — parts celebrated or obscure — so long as it is intuitively pleasurable, sustains interest and represents good value.
Pricing: Most wines are priced between $20 and $30. A 10% discount is applied when you purchase 6 standard-size (750ml) bottles and a 15% discount is applied when you purchase 12 or more standard-size (750ml) bottles, whether all the same or mixed.
Assistance: Our resident wine experts, Stephen Meuse, Colin Mason, Justin Hutson, and Katie Iwanowicz, are typically on hand and are happy to assist you. While they aren’t always visible (they may be toiling in the wine cellar) they respond promptly to a page. Don’t hesitate to ask any staffer to let us know you’re here.
Shelf talkers: A business card-sized “talker” is positioned just above most wines on our shelves. Each is written by us, not the producer or vendor, and provides basic information, including vintage, constituent grape varieties, plus a few words on how the wine presents or how to pair it. You’ll find that these little crib sheets go along way in helping you know what to expect.
Pairing food and wine: For most of history people consumed their local wines with whatever was on the table and did just fine. In an environment of near-infinite choice, however, pairing has become an exercise rife with anxiety. But in the real world of everyday eating and drinking it’s actually hard not to score some kind of hit and, in most cases, a hit of any kind is as good as a bulls-eye. Wines that are well-proportioned and that don’t have parts “sticking out” (jittery acid, over-the-top alcohol, quirky aromatics, funky biology) are good bets since they play nicely with many ingredients and dishes. The more idiosyncratic the wine (even if you are personally charmed by it) the longer the odds it will sing along tunefully with a broad range of ingredients. Pairing isn’t yet an exact science and memorable match-ups have often come our way entirely by chance. Champagne and microwave popcorn, anyone?
Learn: We post on our social media accounts and email about wine topics. Meet us in the wine corner on Thursdays and Fridays to taste and chat about wine. Got a question about wine? Email our wine buyers.
Think your wine might be off? Let us know! We’ll do all we can to get to the root of the problem and make it right. Any unopened bottle in salable condition may be returned for exchange or store credit.
Meet the Wine Team
Stephen Meuse
Stephen Meuse is our senior wine buyer. He has taught classes in the history of food and wine at Boston University’s masters degree in gastronomy program and was the longtime wine columnist for The Boston Globe. His wine segments aired nationally on NPR’s America’s Test Kitchen and Milk Street radio shows. When not writing our weekly wine email (subscribe to it here), you'll find him in the wine corner dusting bottles, tidying shelves and adjusting the tilt of his fedora.
Colin Mason
Wine buyer Colin Mason cut his drinks teeth bartending in restaurants around town, including stints at Ribelle, Little Donkey, Puritan & Co. and Whaling in Oklahoma. After working the grape harvest at Castello di Potentino in Tuscany, he determined to focus seriously on wine. Colin is also the architect of our new, expanded collection of Vermouths, Vini Amari, aperitivi. digestivi, bitters and syrups, and is always ready to share a favorite recipe. In the Wine Corner look for the guy with a cocktail shaker in one hand and Rachmaninov solo piano score in the other.
Justin Hutson
Justin Hutson is an associate wine buyer. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N,Y., Justin arrived in Cambridge, doing tours of duty at Café ArtScience and Benedetto restaurants. He brings a high level of expertise and customer service to our wine department. Justin likes to say that he sees wine as a living extension of soil, sweat, and passion. Justin succesfully completed The Level I Sommelier Course and Examination, given by the Court of Master Sommeliers. You'll find him ever eager to help you find that perfect bottle to pair with any meal or mood.
Katie Iwanowicz
Katie Iwanowicz is an associate wine buyer and cheese monger at Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge. Katie’s career began as a fun, summer job at Sparkling Pointe Vineyards and Winery on the North Fork of Long Island. After a dear friend and forensic scientist turned winemaker talked her out of going to law school during her second summer at Sparkling Pointe, she never looked back. In 2021 Katie earned her Level 2 Certification ihrough the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) at the International Wine Center in Manhattan. Her passion for food and wine are what brought her to us, but what is most important to her is the people that we share them with.