Purple Feet Wines & Spirits

About us

Purple Feet Wines & Spirits is an independent, locally owned wine shop begun in 1976 specializing in unique wines from around the world. The store also offers a full line of spirits, beer, and wine-related gifts such as exceptional glassware and corkscrews.

You can feel it when you walk in the door: a distinctive, friendly ambiance that makes you want to linger.

The “Recommended Wines” at the front counter may be labels you’ve never before encountered. Collections of chardonnay or cabernet run quickly from the familiar into the unique. Unusual touches abound: children’s art, vintage posters, and on many Saturdays, live music to inspire your wine selection. Even the store’s cash register - boxy and bright red, with push-button numbers and no barcode scanner - tells you this wine shop is operated with a very singular approach.

“We don’t sell what everybody else sells,” says Purple Feet proprietor Marco Crettol, “and you won’t find many ‘factory wines.’ We support and sell small winemakers.”

For the last 26 years, Purple Feet has been bringing uncommon choices to wine lovers in Westport from the colorful shop at 1088 Post Road East.

Some of the company’s picks have heralded a trend. For instance, about 15 years ago, Purple Feet began importing Italian prosecco as an alternative to champagne. Today, this light, flavorful sparkling wine is commonly imported to the U.S., and has become a top-seller at Purple Feet.

Marco’s approach is to expose friends to new wines, a passion that has caused him to pack his bags on many occasions. For a number of years, Marco and his wife and partner, Denise, led small wine tours to off-the-path wineries in Europe and California. For a time, their discoveries were chronicled in a half-hour program on Lifetime TV.

“We would go to see winemakers, and they’d welcome us as guests,” says Marco, marveling at the generous nature of growers. “We’d have meals with them, sleep in their homes. They became friends.”

As with all friends, you want to see them do well, and help if you can. For Marco, that meant bringing their wines to Connecticut tables.

Purple Feet began importing small labels and commissioning private-label wines from particularly choice vineyards. Purple Feet’s Chianti is a blend that the winemaker and Marco created together. Denise, a former graphic designer who’s now an elementary school teacher, designed the label.

“After many years, we got Georges Duboeuf to agree to make us a private label Cotes du Rhone and Beaujolais,” says Marco. Even though his French company has become internationally famous, the well-known winemaker still reserves a private bottling for Purple Feet. The wines are perennial store favorites.

Also under the Purple Feet label are inexpensive, everyday white and red wines. “These come from a quality-controlled appellation, and are vintage dated,” says Marco. “They’re much better for the value than most in their price range.”

For Marco, knowledge and love of winemaking runs in the family. His father was a vineyard owner in Valais, Switzerland. Each fall, the family would go into the vineyard to help with the harvest, so Marco has had 'purple feet' since he could walk. Today, Marco and his family still own the Valais vineyards, from which he gets a small amount of wine each year.

You won’t find the family’s wine on the shelves at Purple Feet, though, as not enough is produced for commercial sale.

However, the family’s next generation is contributing to the store’s offerings. Vassily Crettol, Marco’s son, is a Vermont artist producing one-of-a-kind hand-made wine glasses. His whimsical, colorful hot-glass creations are available exclusively at Purple Feet.

There are plenty of discoveries in the shop’s constantly evolving supply of unique, unsung wines. “If you know what type or style of wine you like,” Marco says, “you will very likely discover a more interesting wine of that line from a small batch.”

And most likely, the only place around here where you'll find such small-batch choices is Purple Feet.

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