the one time I went, I asked where the Burgundies were. They took me to the Bordeaux section and told me that Burgundy was in Bordeaux.
Jason’s linked article from the Boston Globe is what piques my interest in seeing their entry into NY. How much will they push the envelope to flaunt the NY SLA and/or challenge current laws/regulations? The next big move to me would be attempting to open a store in the 5 boroughs and what that might do to shake up the market.
I don’t doubt it for a second…but honestly…when it comes to this crowd…who gives a shit?
I’d guess most of us would prefer to be left along 99% of the time when were browsing for wine at retail (or maybe that’s just me)
The stores in the Seattle area have an exceptional selection of fairly priced Bordeaux. Cos, Montrose, Ducru, etc. Rhone and Burgundy is lacking. Above average for Tuscany. Decent domestic selection. I was in last week and bought 15 Ridge Geyserville and 14 Hartford Court Zins. They send me a coupon once a month or so and I always take advantage. I could care less if the staff lacks knowledge (I’d like to think I don’t need anyone holding my hand anymore). I’m a fan.
Tom
Yes, it would be nice to have a well-financed retailer take on the distributors and the mom-and-pop lobby in Albany. And I doubt that TW would be much of a threat to the stores that most of us WBers frequent.
I like to use Total Wine for some of the winery direct stuff for which they offer a 15% off coupon if the price doesn’t end in a 7. A lot of their higher end bordeauxs are winery direct and a few have prices that don’t end in 7s. If I remember correctly, I bought a 6 pack of the 2014 Calon Segurs with the coupon for about $54 a bottle.
Are you describing BevMo or Total? Of course I agree that Total isn’t going to be at the caliber of a good fine wine shop, but for the non wine-geek it’s a better option than most. And even I shop there a bit. Not so much for wine (though if I need a bottle of one of the Ridge Zins I’m likely to find it there), but they do have plenty of mainstream and higher end spirits, and most stores I’ve been in have a pretty decent beer selection (not for the CFu’s of the world, but for me, with a more pedestrian beer taste).
I was in the Reno store a week ago, and they had a number of pretty good 2014 Bordeaux, mostly at good pricing.
TW is a big wine store, and they have some very good wines, my local store has Dom Brut Rose and P2, Pol Roger Winston Churchill for Champagne, Petrus and Latour for Bordeaux, some Cali faves of mine like Ridge, Loring, Siduri, and a lot of other stuff. The wines they sell that are available at other local stores, tend to be priced well, if it is a harder to find wine, then it will be priced higher, I think they know the drill there. Then there is the Winery Direct stuff…which is a crapshoot. if you are an experienced shopper, you can shop the Winery Direct stuff and find some deals. The staff is knowledgeable, but they won’t even discuss a wine that isn’t Winery Direct.
In my world, they are most famous for buying up the importer closeout of 1998 G. Mascarello Monprivato and selling it for $40. Most of the time, you could get a 20% case discount on top of that. Mixed in were a few bottles of 1995 Ca’ at $80 per. I only bought a few cases because I had to drive to Jersey each time to clean them out. A friend in Virginia bought more than 10 cases. A very nice house wine!
My only more recent interaction with TW was searching for the newly released 2011 Giacosa Rocche Riserva. On Wine Searcher, several of their California stores claim to have it for $230 (when it should be $350 or more. I called one store. They got the one person who actually knew something about wine who checked and told me it was the white label Falletto. I suggested they fix it, but months later and they haven’t. I imagine many other people have called as well.
Oh, and a store in CT showed a case of a wine I wanted at a good price. Turned out they didn’t have it.
TW around here puts BevMo to shame.
You do have to watch out for sales staff pushing the “winery direct” buys.
They often have some fun back vintage finds. Last time I picked up some 2007 Smith Madrone cab and 2008 Domaine Eden cab.
So has anybody been and if so, is there any great intro pricing?
GregT has to be confusing BevMo with Total Wine, right? I try to never shop at Total Wine unless I have to, given their history of luring customers across state lines with false advertising, but I don’t think anyone could agree with GregT’s assessment. Maybe that they don’t know much about wine, that part is correct, it’s a damn wine and liquor supermarket what do you expect?
They have the lowest price in the country on some classified growth Bordeaux, when you add the Mix6 discount, and some of their winery direct Bordeaux is well worth the price.
The store near me is well stocked for the most part, and I like talking to the staff. I don’t ask for advice, just conversation about wines I’m interested in.
I only spend up to about $250 each time I buy wine, so I can get one or two better bottles and a few daily drinkers and stay under budget.
Great place to get a good price on mass produced mediocre wines
I don’t think he misses the mark by much, based on the stores here in STL. Very little to get excited about in the wine department. Good prices on some widely distributed bourbon, but no better than other local retailers. The comments above about BDX seem accurate, in that they have decent pricing on some BDX if you include the six bottle discount, though I think you can find better pricing if you look around. But aside from BDX I’d say it is wholly unexciting Don’t expect anything interesting and I guess it’s fine.
Right up my alley!! Thanks .
I’m surprised we’re 35 posts in and no one has mentioned that they offer Bordeaux futures at pretty good prices with only a 50% down payment requirement. You’d think that by now someone else would have copied that business model using low-interest-rate bank financing to make up the difference. Total Wine’s approach has won a fair amount of my BDX futures business.
For drop-in purchases, sure it’s not as interesting as a top-notch retailer like K&L, a speciality retailer like Chambers or even a quality smaller retailer, but the selection goes well beyond boring California wines in 25,000 case production quantities, and the 10% off a mixed six-pack can yield some reasonable deals. E.g CT shows I’ve gotten '11 Produttori normale for $24, '13 Ridge Geyserville for $26, '06 Vajra Albe for $32, etc. Not bad selections in a market like Reno, Nevada…
TW has great beer and spirits selections if you branch out from wine. I rarely buy wine at TW but have on occasion when a 20% coupon hits my inbox and they have some Champagne or other interesting stuff in stock.
Love having TW close just for the beer and spirits alone.
All i can say is that inventory must REALLY vary by market/location, as the stores here in Phoenix and Scottsdale have a pretty solid selection, and most definitely a whole lot more than just mass produced mediocre wines.
I’ve definitely experienced some unusual, well, more so annoying purchasing incidents with Total Wine & More purchases. I once ordered some 2011 Chateau Pegau Du-Pape Reserve for under $40 (with a 20% off coupon) for store pickup only to be called several days later that my order had been canceled because at that very same minute/second a distributor had called to inform them to raise the price to $60+/bottle… Riiiiiggghhhhtttttt. I questioned it via email but never heard back from them.
But I’ve also had some awesome experiences to make up for that kind of crap described above! In 2015 I found some 2010 Casanova di Neri Tenuta Nuova Brunellos for $69.99. I had a 20% coupon with me so I bought a case! Till this day one of the best wines I’ve ever had! I went back a few weeks later and noticed everything was gone! I think it was just shortly before RP released the 100 point score and once it was released they pulled the remaining bottles off the shelves.
I bought 4 cases of 2014 Bordeaux Futures and received every single bottle! The offerings were pretty solid with great prices with a 50% deposit.
I def feel Total Wine & More has plenty to offer, even for true wine geeks! Sure majority of the stuff is high case production offerings but there is still plenty of opportunities to find a diamond in the rough or something enjoyable for anyone!