Vinovore on Hoover Street was the first wine shop in Los Angeles to organise its entire buying around wines made by women, and that is not a marketing angle bolted onto a general selection — it is the brief the shop was founded on. Owner Coly Den Haan had spent a decade in the wine trade before opening it, and the result is a few hundred handpicked bottles chosen against a criterion nobody else in the city was using. If a wine tasting means finding things you would not otherwise have come across, a shop with a deliberate constraint is a better place to start than a shop trying to carry everything.
A shop with a point of view is the fastest way to drink something new. Ask Karpo what to pick up at Vinovore for what you are drinking or cooking this week.
The brief, and why a constraint helps
The shop focuses on wines made by female winemakers, with hundreds of unique handpicked bottles from around the world. It was the first in Los Angeles to make that its organising principle.
A constraint like that does something useful for a customer: it filters out the obvious. The bottles that arrive in every shop because the distributor pushes them are largely absent, and what is left has been chosen deliberately.
The range is international rather than regional, so the way in is by style and price rather than by country. Say what you like and let the shelves surprise you.
Who is behind it
Coly Den Haan opened Vinovore after roughly ten years working in the wine industry, and the shop reflects that background — it is a trade professional's selection rather than an enthusiast's.
There is a second location in Eagle Rock, so if the Silver Lake shop does not have what you want, the answer may be a short drive rather than a no.
The shop also sells goods alongside the wine, which makes it a genuinely good place to solve a present rather than only a bottle.
Wine classes are the tasting
Vinovore runs wine classes, which is the closest thing here to a formal tasting and considerably more useful than a flight. A class gives you a structure to hang the wines on, which is what most people actually want when they say they would like to learn about wine.
Classes are scheduled rather than continuous, and the shop lists them alongside its other events. They are worth booking ahead of a visit rather than hoping to walk into one.
For an unstructured visit, ask at the counter instead. A shop of this size with this specific a selection is set up for the conversation.
You do not have to go in person
There is same-day local delivery, FedEx shipping and in-store pickup. That is a wider set of options than most independent wine shops offer, and it makes the shop usable from across the city.
The online listing is current, which means you can work out what you want before deciding whether to make the trip.
For a gift being sent somewhere else, the shipping option is the practical route and avoids the trip entirely.
Where it sits
616 North Hoover Street, in Silver Lake, on a quiet residential-edged block rather than a commercial strip. It is a small shop and it looks like one from the street.
That location makes it an errand rather than a destination — easy to fold into an afternoon in Silver Lake or Echo Park, both of which have plenty around them.
Parking is ordinary residential street parking, which is straightforward outside evening peak.
Practical notes
Address: 616 North Hoover Street, Silver Lake, Los Angeles. A second Vinovore location operates in Eagle Rock.
Focus: wines made by female winemakers, with hundreds of handpicked bottles from around the world. Founded by Coly Den Haan.
Wine classes are run periodically. Same-day local delivery, FedEx shipping and in-store pickup are all available; check current hours before travelling.
Tags: #LosAngeles #SilverLake #Vinovore #WineTastingNearMe #WomenInWine #WineShop #HooverStreet #LAWine #WineClasses #FemaleWinemakers #CoffeeAndDessert #SmallBusiness
Please drink responsibly. Must be of legal drinking age.
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Ask Karpo first
Ask Karpo what to pick up at Vinovore for the sort of wine you usually drink, whether a class is running while you are around, and what else in Silver Lake to combine it with.
