Visiting Your Local Wine Shop

It's much like everything else. Wine sales are now dominated by the big box stores. And, as frequent readers know, I do buy a fair amount of our wine from big box stores. 

I have good reasons. The prices are generally better and the selection tends to be better. The obvious follow-up then is why would I buy wine anywhere else?

Let's start by breaking the large retailers of wine into two categories -- those that focus on wine or wine, beer, and spirits; and those that are very large, but happen to sell just wine. We'll start with the latter.

There, we go into a store to buy some electronics, some hair care products, some food, and maybe a 200-pack of batteries. And, then we see the wine. In a typical store of this type, you'll see some name brands, i.e., some of the names that you see everywhere, but often at very good prices; some names that you have never heard of that often have really cutesie names or packaging; some higher end wines where the major buying power of the big box allowed them to take surplus off a really good winery that had a massively large crop that vintage and had far more left over than usual after serving their Wine Club members; and some store brand wines that are almost always found at excellent prices. 

To summarize, what you get is very good pricing, an interesting ever-changing selection, and the appeal of walking past the wine when you thought you were heading to check out. What you don't get are knowledge and service, and for the most part, appropriate storage (these wines are in bright light and the temperature is not controlled all that well). I've talked to some of the wine specialists in these stores. While there is an occasional good one, generally speaking, they barely know their red wines from their white. These are casual wine drinkers, at best, who for the most part are subject to the same impulses as everyone else.

Ooh, bourbon-barrel wine (if you want a drink to taste like bourbon, buy bourbon). Ooh, fancy label. Ooh, this wine got 95 points ... at the famous Very Small Town, USA Wine Festival. 

Then there are the big box stores that focus on alcoholic beverages, some of them having a focus on wine. What you get there are massive selections, some good storage, some good or even excellent pricing, and an occasional knowledgeable staff person. What you don't get is staff that broadly has high levels of expertise or staff that gets to know you.  For example, you can't walk in and have a conversation that starts with you saying: "Remember that Chardonnay you recommended for me last week, do you have anything like it?"

Then there is your local wine or wine, beer, and spirits shop. Some are very big. But, even if they are, they don't have the buying power of a national chain. What they do have though are people who are invested in the business. Because of that, they tend to have staff who really have a passion for what they are doing. These are people who can educate you about wine. If you get to know them, they will get to know you. They will get to know your tastes and your likes and dislikes.

Walking through the store, most of their wine will not be priced as well as the big box stores. But, something else these people have are relationships with local distributors (in states with particularly bizarre distribution rules, this might not be the case). They can get allocations of difficult to find wines. And, when they do get a good deal, they will usually pass a pretty good part of the savings on to their customers.

If you're like me, you'll get to know all of these places to buy wine. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Learn them and take advantage of the good things.