I asked a shopkeeper for wine recommendations matched to hypothetical menus. (Maybe not so hypothetical if you spend quality time in the kitchen.) The suggestions were on target.

Wine Stores: Franey’s

Franey’s Wine & Liquors, on Springs-Fireplace Road, close to The Pollock-Krasner House and across the street from Accabonac Harbor, appears to be a small, pleasant, slightly out of the mainstream shop. But, like so many things here on the East End, there is more to it than the appearance might indicate. The shop is owned and run by Jacques Franey. His father was the famous chef and cookbook writer, Pierre Franey. His mother, Betty, still lives in the Springs. Jacques spent much of his childhood on Gerard Drive.

Growing up with Pierre was no doubt an excellent start for a budding wine expert. After graduating from Cornell, Jacques went on to work and study in France, learning on the job in the great winemaking regions of Burgundy and Bordeaux. After a stint at Sherry- Lehmann in New York, he worked for a number of years in the wine importing division of Seagram, and then got the entrepreneurial urge.

The store, while small, offers a well-edited assortment of wines—American, French, Italian, Spanish, Australian and other countries, as well as a carefully selected group of Long Island wines. In addition to the retail store, Franey’s conducts a fine and rare wine specialty business with clients from all over. The wines offered to these private buyers tend to be unusual, some of them produced in remarkably small amounts and not easy to come by. Mr. Franey finds them though a network of his own sources, including smaller importers and distributors. Quantities offered are sometimes small—often as few as two or three cases—and sell quickly, so producing a catalogue would not be practical. Buyers are kept informed via fax and e-mail. These wines are sold only by the case or half case and, as you would expect, are in the higher price ranges.

Some of this same philosophy, price excepted, carries over into the retail shop, where many of the wine labels are unfamiliar and definitely not what you see in a standard large store. Prices here are targeted more for everyday use, and on the whole quite affordable. The store manages to offer a combination that I find appealing: interesting and exceptional wines at reasonable prices.

I gave Mr. Franey some hypothetical dinner menus and asked him to recommend wines to accompany the meals. I then purchased some of these to test at home—unfortunately not with the labor-intensive dinners I had conjured up for the questions.

For a hearty winter dish of short ribs in a rich brown sauce, Mr. Franey suggested a bottle of Castaño Solanera, from the Yecla region in southern Spain. It is an unfiltered blend of 65% monastrell, a grape that grows well in warm climates, and 35% cabernet sauvignon, that is aged in oak for 10 months. It was an excellent choice. The wine exhibited a concentrated, richly fruity, rounded taste that I am confident would marry well with my imagined short ribs. It sells at the shop for $15 a bottle.

I requested a lighter red wine to go with a dish of simply grilled wild striped bass. Mr. Franey recommended Le Champ Martin Chinon, an appellation from the Loire Valley of France. I have found chinon, made from the cabernet franc grape, can occasionally have an astringent quality, but this one, whimsically called “Le vin des humanists” on the label, was soft and pleasant and quite enjoyable. It sells for $11.

For sipping with hors d’oeuvres, Mr. Franey suggested a $14 Bellenda prosecco from the Veneto region of Italy. This dry, delicate, lightly sparkling wine exhibited a lovely citrus and flower fragrance and refreshing crispness. All the recommended bottles were on target, exactly the sort of everyday wines you might casually pick up for dinner—even if Springs-Fireplace Road is not on your regular route. Otherwise, I’ll be happy to go there for the wine if someone wants to make the short ribs.