A new wine shop is preparing to pop its cork in Clarendon

A new wine shop is getting ready to be uncorked in Clarendon this fall.

The aptly named “Clarendon Wine Club” is moving into 1114 N. Irving Street just off the main Wilson Blvd drag. It’s just a couple of doors down from O’Sullivan’s Irish Pub and around the corner from the recently revamped Clarendon Ballroom.

The owners of the shop are subleasing the space from Coco LaRue Beauty Studio, which is moving next door. The beauty studio temporarily closed earlier this year and is planning to reopen in its new space at 1112 N. Irving Street in January or February 2023, owner Coco La Rue told ARLnow.

Not much is known about Clarendon Wine Club at this point. The owners, a self-described “Lyon Village couple,” only shared that the shop “will focus on high end wines in an intimate space” and that they hope to open this fall.

Le Rue also told ARLnow that the shop will sell her champagne, the passion fruit-flavored “Butterflies Champagne.”

Clarendon does have at least two other businesses that can reasonably be classified as wine shops. Screwtop Wine Bar on N. Fillmore Street also has a retail wine shop. Oby Lee Winery on Washington Blvd sells a selection of bottles to take home as well. There used to be another wine shop right by the Whole Foods on Wilson Blvd, but “quirky” Grateful Red closed in 2016.

This western portion of Clarendon is in throes of change, including development projects both underway and planned.

The Silver Diner across the street is set to close in October after 26 years at that location as a new one in Ballston opens. A new development is coming to that corner featuring a hotel, rooftop bar, gym, residential building, and 16,000 square feet of retail space. It will still probably be a few years before it’s constructed and opened, though.

That development will likely lead to the Clarendon beer garden The Lot being closed, but the owners in June couldn’t elaborate on its future beyond noting it will be open for the rest of the 2022 season.