Crystal City Wine Shop at 220 20th Street South closes for good this Saturday, October 31, after 14 years. When it opened in March 2012, it was the only gourmet wine shop in Crystal City. It closes in a neighborhood where wine now runs on a weekly schedule. Free tastings happen on Thursdays, $5 classes on Fridays, Virginia flights on 23rd Street, and a sommelier works the floor at a new wine bar on Crystal Drive. The shop's final week lines up with that schedule almost night for night.
ARLnow reported that the nonprofit Washington Wine Academy owned the store, and that it was planned after people at academy-run events, including the Crystal City 1K Wine Walk, kept asking where they could buy the unusual wines they had just tasted. For 14 years it sold gourmet wine and beer, with a special emphasis on Virginia wines.
So the shop began as the answer to one question about where to buy a bottle after tasting it. Today, several businesses within a short walk of 20th Street answer that question, and most of them hold the tasting and the sale under one roof.
The window sign, as quoted by ARLnow, reads: "Thank you for 14 memorable & joyful years. Your support, friendship, and patronage have meant the world to us and we are deeply grateful to have been part of this wonderful community."
The wine options that take over from the shop are easiest to see in its last three days.
Thursday: Flight Wine Shop, 5 to 7 p.m. Flight Wine Shop holds free tastings every Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m., according to the National Landing BID's events calendar. The shop is at 269 19th Court South, Suite 90.
Friday: Pentagon City Wine Merchant, 5 to 8 p.m. Pentagon City Wine Merchant runs a $5 wine class and tasting every Friday. Each week has a new theme, a new lineup of wines, and special pricing on featured bottles. Wine club members attend free.
Saturday: the last day at 220 20th Street South Crystal City Wine Shop's final day of business.
None of these are one-time events. The BID calendar shows Flight's Thursday tastings continuing on November 5 and December 3, 2026. Pentagon City Wine Merchant's Friday classes are listed for November 13 and December 4.
For the regular weekly bottle run, Flight comes closest to filling the gap. It opened in March 2025 at The Grace, and ARLnow's opening coverage put the inventory at about 300 wines from 17 countries, with classes, tastings, and meet-the-vendor events planned. The shop specializes in small-production, minimal-intervention wines and offers a monthly club it calls the Frequent Flier Wine Club.
Its hours also fit evening errands. The shop's website lists noon to 9 p.m. on weekdays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. That means a bottle for Sunday dinner can still be bought late in the afternoon.
The two shops lean differently. Crystal City Wine Shop was known for Virginia wine. Flight's focus is producer size and winemaking style, with bottles from many countries. Anyone who mostly bought Virginia labels on 20th Street will find that part of the old shop on 23rd Street instead.
Beauty Champagne & Sugar Boutique opened on 23rd Street's Restaurant Row in 2022. It works as a wine bar, bistro, and shop, with tastings and its own wine club. The BID's Restaurant Row guide describes its bottles as coming from Virginia wineries and women winemakers. Beauty's wine menu includes Virginia wines and tasting flights. Its website also promoted a Virginia wine tasting on October 23, so the Virginia focus that defined the old shop is still on the calendar a few blocks south.
Beauty's address is 576 South 23rd Street, with parking and the entrance on Fern Street. It is open Tuesday through Sunday.
Taken together, the wine shop's two roles have split. Flight covers most of the everyday retail. Beauty carries the Virginia emphasis and adds a bar, so a flight can turn into a bottle to take home.
National Landing now has rooms built for lingering over a glass, and two of them are among this year's openings.
Altitude, at 2011 Crystal Drive, is a chef-driven Italian restaurant, wine bar, and vinyl listening room with a sommelier on site. Its menu from chefs Mariela Pacheco and Andres Lopez includes housemade pastas and grilled branzino. It is one of two concepts from Episcope Hospitality at that address. The other is Constellation, an all-day café and market. In Northern Virginia Magazine's coverage, Episcope founder David Morton said, "Altitude is designed for lingering evenings, while Constellation is an energetic space for coffee, meals, and connection." Altitude appears on the BID's October 2026 retail report, which counts 18 new openings in National Landing so far this year.
Stillwater & Stone, on the first floor of the Westin Crystal City at 1800 Richmond Highway, is also on that list. It is a restaurant and lobby bar serving elevated American food, house wine, local beer, and cocktails, and its website lists a weekday happy hour. It works well for an after-work glass close to Route 1.
With these places added, a regular at the old shop has about five spots within a short walk, each good for a different evening:
Halloween night marks more than one seasonal change in National Landing. While the wine shop closes on 20th Street, the Westpost ice rink at 1201 South Joyce Street holds Thriller on Ice from 5 to 8 p.m., according to Arlington Magazine's events listings. A spokesperson told ARLnow that the rink, which they called the largest outdoor ice rink in Northern Virginia, will use an "Après Skate theme all season long, with themed skate events, seasonal happenings and plenty of holiday fun throughout the winter."
The next big date on the shared calendar is The Lodge, the BID's free winter festival. It runs Saturday, December 5, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Metropolitan Park, 1330 South Fair Street, with a holiday train, Santa photos, performances, a dog sweater contest, and a local-maker market. Featured vendors listed on The Lodge's event page include Lemon & Whim, Marcella Kriebel Art, and The Wandering Shelf. The festival lands one day after Pentagon City Wine Merchant's December 4 class and two days after Flight's December 3 tasting, so gift bottles and local-maker gifts can all be picked up in the same few days.
The Washington Wine Academy started a shop because people at its tastings had nowhere close by to buy what they liked. Fourteen years later, there are tastings on Thursday and Friday, Virginia flights on 23rd Street, and a sommelier on Crystal Drive, all within walking distance of the storefront at 220 20th Street South.
Neighborhood changes like this one affect which blocks feel closest to the places you use every week, and Stephanie Bredahl keeps track of them across Crystal City and Pentagon City. If you're thinking about selling a home near Crystal Drive or Restaurant Row, request a stress-free selling plan, and we'll talk through what nearby buyers want right now.