Our History
Our History
Calvert Liquors
Dating back to 1946, Calvert Liquors was located on Wisconsin Avenue in the Glover Park neighborhood of Washington, DC. The shop was started by Morris and Frances (pictured) Stirman, who were soon joined by their son Marvin. Marvin focused on turning this “liquor store” into a “wine shop,” making Calvert the number one wine shop south of New York City. He created the first wine club in the country, Les Amis du Vins (Friends of Wine), and made Calvert the first wine and liquor store in the country with a full cheese shop inside. Marvin’s brother-in-law, former CW co-owner Aaron Bernstein, joined Calvert in the mid-1960s and helped to guide it to prominence in the DC Metro area. (Aaron retired in 2014 after nearly 50 years in the business!)
Woodley Wine & Liquor
Woodley Wine & Liquor was created in 1966 by Ed Sands and his father-in-law, Abe Rosenfield. Abe, a native of Argentina, came to America as a young boy and ended up in DC for college. He wound up in the grocery business, owning Woodley Supermarket on Connecticut Avenue in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of DC (near the present day Cleveland Park metro stop). Ed, a native of Brooklyn, came to DC in the mid-1960s to work for the SEC. After meeting his wife, Abe Rosenfield’s daughter, Ed and Abe saw a great opportunity when a market near the grocery store, Spund’s, went up for sale. Ed and Abe decided to ditch the groceries and utilize Spund’s liquor license to create Woodley Wine & Liquor. Wine was not quite as popular in America back in the ’60s, but Ed saw Bordeaux as the cornerstone of a great wine shop and started selling Bordeaux futures with the 1966 vintage… and hasn’t looked back since!!! The Direct Importing of Bordeaux, and other wines from around the world, is one of the main reasons the CW wine department is the power it is today.
Calvert Woodley
Calvert Woodley opened its doors in July 1982 after the merger of two competitors, Calvert Liquors and Woodley Wine & Liquor, and is still owned and operated by one of the original owners. We pride ourselves on personal, knowledgeable customer service, fantastic selection and hard to beat prices. When the opportunity arose for Aaron Bernstein of Calvert to join forces with Ed Sands of Woodley, the two jumped at the chance and moved to our current location in the Van Ness/UDC neighborhood at the corner of Connecticut Ave and Windom. Each store brought its strengths, including a few employees still around today, to help Calvert Woodley thrive. To help serve you as best we can we have almost 50 employees. In addition to owner Ed Sands, we’re proud of the fact that four original employees from the opening in 1982 are still with us at CW today. They are Berris Harris, Tom McKnew, Jim Rossi, and Ibrahim Ahmed. Another four people have 25+ years under their belt. One is Carlos Estrada, who runs our La Cheeserie and is surely one of the most outstanding cheese merchants in the United States. With so many other hard-working employees, Calvert Woodley is poised to excel for years to come.
