The Spec’s monopoly is no fun! Where do you shop online for the biggest selection? I LOVE browsing Wine Searcher for deals, but it always ends in heartbreak when “TX” isn’t listed on the ship to states…
Grailey’s, Pogo’s Dallas, Total Wine. Texas legislature’s conservative pro-capitalist leanings comes to a screeching halt when huge donors like distributors could be undercut by out-of-state competition, and so our absurd, hyper-protectionist tax laden system butt humps all consumers. So we’re stuck with limited new release options with bad prices from Wine.com, Spec’s embarrassingly bad website, and Total Wine for most state-wide purchase options.
It’s abysmal.
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It’s still illegal to ship wine to TX from out of state…You might remove any identification of retailers breaking the law…
There are local wine shops all around that have decent selections, heck if you get in with HEB, they get a ton of rare stuff.
Chris - also consider deleting the part in your response where you quoted him, so that isn’t preserved.
Where in Texas are you located? Pogo’s is great, but their license won’t allow them to ship outside of a certain radius of their shop, which seems crazy to me.
Yep. You nailed it. Distributors across the US give to every candidate on both sides of the aisles. They don’t care who wins as long as when they come calling, whoever is in office is beholden to them. So many times we’ve watched more consumer friendly legislation approach the legislative finish line here in Texas, only to be forgotten at the alter as the session finishes up. It’s easy to kill a bill here in Texas and I’m sure that’s the quiet hand of the distributors killing the bills silently when the spotlight is on other issues.
Do you have relatives in any of the neighboring states? Use them or figure a way to get rid of your bought and paid for politicians.
Benchmark wines (based in Cali…great customer service) or go straight to the Winery… I stopped going to specs for years now.
B
JJ Buckley has a warehouse in TX or at least they used to. Good selection and pricing in my experiences.
Honestly, I rarely have to go outside of Texas to find what I want- and most of the time that means buying things in NYC and then bringing them back on a plane. That, and being on a few winery lists in California which is no trouble since wineries can ship here once they register.
Texas is a significant market for many of the best wines in the world, and you just need to look or ask around in many cases. Spec’s is a huge retailer and there is much to be said in their favor from a customer standpoint, but only a small handful of their locations are well-targeted to wine collectors, and their prices at the upper end can be quite high as compared to smaller local stores. Additionally, they do not bother with a good number of the rarer wines with tiny Texas allocations because the small scale of it is not worth their time.
If you are looking for rarer or harder to find wines, each of the major cities has at least one real standout option. Houston Wine Merchant, Austin Wine Merchant and Pogo’s (the latter in Dallas) are the key ones. This is where most of the serious wine collectors hang out. (Note- Richard’s in Houston is still a personal favorite store of mine and one I highly recommend, but they are now owned by Spec’s and so not technically independent although they still do their own thing for the most part- and do it quite well.)
And Spec’s has plenty of competition from larger operations like Twin (origins in Austin) and Goody Goody (Dallas) which are slowly developing a wider presence in Texas. Don’t overlook Total Wine either. They are the new go-to for Bordeaux, but even now as they strengthen their roots here, they are getting into Burgundy. The Park Lane store in Dallas just put out Ponsot grand crus for sale for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and they will be offering Meo-Camuzet this fall.
As for deals- I think sometimes you have to be pragmatic. Yea, I pay a slight premium for certain things from the stores where I shop- but those same stores sell me the rarest of the rare burgundies at normal markups versus what many national wine-searcher listed operations charge for the cherries. And someone mentioned HEB- a couple of times a year they have huge champagne sales. I got cases of 2009 Dom for just under $120 a bottle in the last sale.
If you are always looking to get the lowest deal on everything, however (not saying that is the case- just covering all the bases), then you are not likely to be happy with the situation anywhere you are. Every good store has the inside track on something. The real trick is to find the store that has the inside track on what you want most, and then give them enough of your business overall that you come out ahead on allocations of rare wines and deals for wines that matter to you most.
How much wine can a private citizen bring into Texas every year without having to register as a distributor?
Great post, Tom. I shop at Twin Liquors twice a year during the dollar sale, Total Wine when I want mainstream CA or BDX, and Specs on occasion. This doesn’t even touch the best store in San Antonio (Gabriel’s), mailers, or anything coming from auction that I choose to ship twice. There’s plenty of good wine available in the state, and people that are willing to help procure unicorns if you give them enough of your business
3 gallons every 30 days; an overall limit whether one is bringing it back in person, having it shipped from a licensed winery, or both. 3 gallons is basically 15 750mL bottles of wine.
Are there Twins in San Antonio now or do you come to Austin? Curious since I had heard they were talking expansion- joining in the chase to keep Spec’s from being too dominant.
There are at least 4 twin liquors in SA that I know of, the best one being on 281/bitters. I think Specs has weakened somewhat. Really nothing new going on there and I seem to spend fewer and fewer dollars each year. Twin, on the other hand, is fun to load up during the dollar sale - last year I picked up an 09 Musar for $22, Antica Terra for $75, and 14 Monte Bello for $140, just for example. Specs for me has become less exciting, although recently, they have been offering 10% off 6 bottle purchases, as has Gabriel’s, probably to compete with Twin…
Cheers - JV
I buy from them and live in TX and have had good experiences. Idk about a TX warehouse but I usually just wait to ship until Nov thru April
I live a few blocks from Pogos and they have a great selection, the best in Dallas IMO, but their pricing can be really high/frustrating. Current examples include 2015 Pataille Clos du Roy @$68 (I paid about $50 elsewhere), 2016 Foillard Cuvée Corcelette @$48 (I paid $32 elsewhere), 2015Louis Michel MdT @$49 (I paid $30 elsewhere), etc. The other day I saw a 2014 Rousseau CdlR @ $1,499, which seemed borderline offensive (I’m not a buyer of this wine but see bottles on W-S for ~$500).
Totally agree, also there are weird pricing discrepancies between the major players in Dallas… Spec’s, Total Wine, GG, and Pogos. One vintage of Pontet-Canet at TW is $50 more than it would be at GG and there are others vice versa. You think there would be standardization to a degree. However, I only go to Pogo’s if they are the only game in town because their prices are definitely high but it is a smaller shop so good to support
I mostly only hit Pogos when they’re having a sale. I have hard time buying anything local especially from the bigger stores (rhymes with eagle) because in effect they take my money and spend it to protect their 3 tier monopoly. I wish Ryan Z all the best at Copain, but I can’t help but feel he was a victim of this system with his own label.