Enoteca is an Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 word, derived from the Greek word Οινοθήκη, which literally means ”wine repository” (from Oeno/Eno- Οινός "wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

", and teca Θήκη, "receptacle, case, box"), but is used to describe a special type of local or regional wine shop that originated in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. The concept of an enoteca has also spread to some other countries. A genuine enoteca is primarily directed at giving visitors or tourists the possibility to taste these wines at a reasonable fee and possibly to buy them. An enoteca is often run in collaboration with growers or growers' or tourism organisations in the village or region. The reason such establishments were named to connote ”wine libraries” was that they were intended as a hands-on source of information on local wines rather than as regular outlets for larger quantities of each wine, or primarily intended for established customers. Often, an enoteca stocks rather small amounts of each wine, and customers who wish to purchase large quantities after tasting are referred directly to the producers. In some cases, an enoteca will also sell other local foodstuff and/or serve small snacks to go with the wines.

A long-standing tradition that precedes the new coinage, is the wine shop in Palazzo Antinori

Palazzo Antinori

Palazzo Antinori is a Renaissance palace in Florence, central Italy. It is located at one end of Via de' Tornabuoni-History:The palace was built in 1461-1469, perhaps under the design of Giuliano da Maiano, for Giovanni di Bono Boni...

, Florence, where Antinori wines have been available by the glass for more than a century.

Enoteche have spread north of the Alps

Alps

The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

 to Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 under the German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 name Vinothek and from Austria to Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

Being associated with an enoteca is likely more beneficial to smaller, not too well-known producers than to large or well-established ones. Casual visitors will have an easier time discovering an enoteca, and the producer will not have to keep an outlet open in his winery

Winery

A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, bottling lines, laboratories, and large expanses of...

 just in case someone passes by to purchase a few bottles. On the other hand, having many wines are available side-by-side for tasting, comparison and competition, will be better for well-performing wineries.

Wine shops and restaurants

Because of the popularity of the enoteca concept in some locations, "regular high-end" wine shops sometimes also call themselves enoteca or Vinothek, without focusing on local wines or catering to visitor's information need. A quality wine shop is most often called enoteca in Italian now. In the past Bottiglieria was commonly used, but is now falling into disuse and doesn't have the same connotation of quality.

Since some enoteche serve snacks with the wine, enoteca has also been used as the name of some wine bar

Wine bar

A wine bar is a tavern-like business focusing on selling wine, rather than liquor or beer. A typical feature of many wine bars is a wide selection of wines available by the glass. Some wine bars are profiled on wines of a certain type of origin, such as Italian wine or Champagne...

s or restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

s, especially bistro

Bistro

A bistro, sometimes spelled bistrot, is, in its original Parisian incarnation, a small restaurant serving moderately priced simple meals in a modest setting. Bistros are defined mostly by the foods they serve. Home cooking with robust earthy dishes, and slow-cooked foods like cassoulet are typical...

-style restaurants with Italian food.

Wine libraries

Enoteca, Vinothek or Oenothèque (the corresponding French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 term) may also be used to denote "wine libraries" in two additional meanings of the word:

• An information repository about wine.
• A storage facility for actual wines. As an example, Champagne producer Moët & Chandon produces a late-disgorged version of their prestige cuvée
  Cuvee
  Cuvée is a French wine term derived from cuve, meaning vat or tank. The term cuvée is used with several different meanings, more or less based on the concept of a tank of wine put to some purpose:...
  
   Dom Perignon
  Dom Pérignon (wine)
  Dom Pérignon is a brand of vintage Champagne produced by the Champagne house Moët & Chandon and serves as that house's prestige champagne. It is named after Dom Pérignon, a Benedictine monk who was an important quality pioneer for Champagne wine but who, contrary to popular myths, did not discover...
  
  called ’’Dom Perignon Oenothèque’’ which spends a number of extra years in Moët & Chandon’s cellar before being released.