Wine in Philly

Buying wine in Philadelphia is a dicey proposition. In Geneva, or in Montreal, there are fairly knowledgeable people employed by the wine shops (or even grocery stores), who will recommend you a good bottle of wine if you ask for advice. Here, not so much. We were very lucky in that there was a very good guy at the wine store down the street who knew a lot about the wines and recommended some excellent ones at good prices. Then about a month ago, he quit his job. At the time, I did not realise the extent of the tragedy.

Today, I went out to buy some wine. I plan to make a Boeuf Bourguignon tomorrow, so I was looking to buy some bottles of red Bourgogne. I asked the cashier if they had someone who could make wine recommendations. He pointed to an employee walking down one of the aisles. I asked her if she could recommend a couple of bottles of red Bourgogne. She took me down the aisle of domestic wines and pointed out to me the huge 3 litre jugs that are labelled "Burgundy"! Okaaay, I said, maybe we could take a look at the French ones ...? She took me to the section of French red wines, where she picked up a bottle of Côte-du-Rhône and started reading the label to see if it came from Bourgogne! At which point, I realised that this was an entirely useless exercise, thanked her for her help, and told her I would just browse the wines myself.
Not such an easy proposition, you know. The french wines were not grouped by region, so I had to look at each bottle individually. And I discovered that they had very few red Bourgognes in that store - lots of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Bordeaux though. But hey, does it really matter? It's not like anyone cares - except the occasional wine customer. Sorry, I'm becoming a Pennsylvania wine cynic.