Another U.S. trip is coming up. I always like to pick up some wine that I can’t get at home or that are priced much more reasonably when I’m there. Are there any good wine retailers in St. Louis? I’ll be staying at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark, 1 South Broadway.
Nope!
Send me a PM when you are here if you’d like to pop a cork. I try to get to Domaine Wine Storage on Friday afternoons (and could be coerced on a Sat) and open some bottles. The market here is awful. One spot gets reasonable wines, but prices according to wine-searcher.
I love these guys at The Wine and Cheese Place. Young, energetic staffs, really a fun selection.
Good beer selection.
I am not interested in high NYC prices for wines located in STL, MO!
Unless things have changed drastically since I moved to the NE, prices in St. Louis are at least 20% lower than in NYC or anywhere else I have been in New York, New Jersey, or PA.
Downtown St. Louis, and the rest of the City itself may be a wasteland, but in the county the Wine and Chess Place(s) were good as well as the Wine Chateau, and the Kirkwood Wine shop. Prices were no where near what I find in the northeast. The selection varied, but there were usually interesting finds. 
I forgot Starr’s Market - good selection - great food items. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
St Louis retailers work on smaller markups than most other wine markets in the Midwest - so most of the more easily available stuff is pretty well priced. Where things get a bit awry is; most of the top “kinky” French and Italian stuff is carried by smaller wholesalers who rarely stock the wines, so they have to be “pre-sold” and are never easy to get. I spend a lot of time calling on St. Louis wine shops, and am always impressed with their openness to new things and competitive pricing.
2011 Fourrier CSJ - 350???
2011 ROumier BM 600?
Far far more than I paid in peri-NYC areas. Perhaps it is just what i am looking for, but I know for certain they just wine-searcher the wines and price accordingly.
The prices here are terrible, so I can tell you things have changed.
Brown Derby was selling 2011 Roumier BM for almost 1k.
I am not often outspoken about this, but I will tell you the prices here are terrible for “the good stuff.” Wine and Cheese is good for beer and booze. The Wine Merch has some good cheese and cured meats. I think 2010 Vogue BM was 750 last time I was there. They do sell stuff for reasonable prices “behind the scenes” which means popping in and checking it out is unlikely to lead to anything good.
But I live here now, so what do I know?
Many thanks, all. Re. the prices, NYC prices are usually better on various wines than here in Ontario, so what might seem unattractive to those in the region might still look like a bargain to me!
Sure, Mike, I can certainly believe that prices anywhere for the top .01% in both price and low volume sales are going to be completely dependent upon whom you know. I have no doubt that this level of product may be higher priced in the Midwest, simply because there is lower demand. It doesn’t disappear as soon as you bring it in. Truthfully, it is also beyond my point of interest on two point. First is price; they are simply not in my sights - neither is a Lamborghini. Second is that I don’t particularly like Burgundy, but that is just my taste.
If you want to compare prices between regions it should be a comparison of those more commonly purchased across the consumer base. Even if you choose the $35 - $100 per bottle range you are above the price level of the bulk of a store’s volume, though the volume at that price range can give you a better idea of regional pricing.
If I were looking for $200 to $500 bottles of wine, I would not likely be looking at retail shelves. My search would always be at a personal level and probably very wide. I would not expect better pricing than what you found, anywhere without there already being some relationship between purveyor and consume.
Once again, just me.
Lamborghinis are cheaper here, that is correct. If you get them “EP” like wine.
Does anyone here seek out interesting wine shops when travelling for readily available stuff? Pegau is expensive here. Alsatian selections here are terrible. JJPrum is the only German often readily available and the prices are high relative to what’s available online. Cali cabs are not even remotely interesting relative to what people here seem to like, write about, etc. Cali pinot selections are, in general, sorely lacking.
Sorry if you don’t like my examples. Pricing here is not great. Selection is awful. I would not recommend that a traveller take time out of their day to seek anything out, unless they want some cool beers. Maybe a Cali Sauv Blanc is 2 dollar cheaper here, amounting to 15% of it’s price, but I don’t think that’s what he is looking for. Schnucks on Lindbergh actually has a pretty wide selection of California wines. French selection is fairly abysmal. Lots of interesting Italians, as the buyer likes that stuff.
Ladue Market WAS a great place to look. The guy has a basement full of treasures. Having tasted some, I would not recommend buying any of said treasures, which is a shame- Leroy, DRC, LMHB, Yquem, Rousseau, and on and on and on. His prices were absurd, but I hear if you browbeat him, you can get a deal.
I would assume it has been a while since you have been to Starrs. Selection no good, storage horrendous and prices “fine.” The former 2 add up to a no-go for me. I hear his coffee is good though.
Mike,
We should debate this a bit more next time I see you, but I felt that the wine list I put together at 33 was both deep and compelling as well as competitively priced on a national scale (but I also invested the time to look at pricing before buying). You are certainly correct that some items are too pricy, Pegau being an excellent example. At the same time, I was able to sell to my good customers, at full mark-up, Chave, Rayas, DRC, Masetto, Leflaive, etc. for less than the wine was ever available on wine-searcher. Missouri distributors don’t do a good job with certain import books, but savvy shops spend the time to do preorders… I would bet that you would be quite happy with the local scene for certain wines if you invested a little more time. I certainly would have worked hard to find you stuff at my old shop… I’m sure others would value your business the same way.
Lots of past tense verbs in there Jeff!
Wine Merchant and Wine and Cheese are the only places where you might be able to find something, but it definitely wont be on the shelves. MK hates St. Louis so take everything he says with a grain of salt.
It is also very hot here or very cold!
And Wine Cheese is great for beer.
I think it depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for an interesting selection of under $100 wines that you don’t typically see elsewhere, then you might have some luck, particularly if you’re into California, Rhone, or Italian wines. They may not be cheaper than elsewhere in the country, but you may find something you’ve never had and always wanted to try. In addition to the Wine Merchant and the Wine and Cheese Place, I think the St. Louis Wine Market in Chesterfield does a great job and Parker’s Table has a good selection of Italian wines. If you’re into Burgundy, particularly higher end wines, you may not have much luck. Many of those wines are highly allocated and often sold to better customers before they ever hit the shelves.
I had mentioned this to Mike earlier -
If you are looking for first tranche pricing on Bordeaux futures - or small grower Burgundy, you should look at both coasts for the best deals. The retailers in the Midwest cater to the Midwestern market, that wants lots of domestic wines, and lower priced Italian/French/Spanish wines.
I was just in St Louis two weeks ago calling on most of the top stores - every store I walked into had a killer selection of 2013 Roses, tons and tons of affordable Midi whites and reds, and a whole lot of cool Italian stuff I don’t see in other markets. Aside from a huge array of Oregon/Washington/California stuff.
NO ONE purchases Burgundy off of retail shelves anymore, and that is true all over the Midwest, so expecting to walk into a store and find top notch Burgundy or Bordeaux just won’t happen…anywhere outside of Chicago (maybe).
My distributor in St. Louis handles Neal Rosenthal wines, and whatever Burgundy they get from him goes to the top restaurants in St. Louis - and rarely to a retailer. Mainly because allocations are so small.
The buyers in St. Louis are sharp, and always looking for new things; I was introducing a group of Finger Lakes Rieslings to them, and couldn’t have had a warmer response.
Pray tell, which St. Louis retailers have a huge array of Oregon stuff? I would be happy to find one that even had a medium array. Just to be clear, that is not a jab at local retailers. (O.K., maybe a partial jab.) It is more an indictment of Missouri Wholesalers and a result of the fact that a large percentage of the interesting (at least to me) Oregon stuff never leaves the state of Oregon.
Mike pretty much nails it on this one: overall selection and price, here in St. Louis, leave much to be desired. Wine & Cheese Place is expensive across the board. The best shop out in the county, IMHO, is St. Louis Wine Market.
Brown Derby brought in some Thomas Pinot this year.