Looks like in the relatively near future I’ll be moving up to Boston for work indefinitely. I’ve spent a decent amount of time up here so know a bit about the restaurant scene, etc. I was hoping to tap the brains of any current Boston residents on the board on the best retail shops in the area to help scratch my burgundy itch?
Hi and welcome to Boston! I’m fairly new up here, too (as of March 2018). If you’re curious about smaller producers, Ansonia Wines (an importer in Newton, which often has retail hours on weekends) might be worth checking out, too.
I’m in a suburb of Boston about 40 minutes southwest, and I love driving around to wine/liquor stores looking for great buys. There are lots of stores in the area.
One store that’s usually over-priced is Wines and More.
Lower Falls Wine is a nice store with a good selection.
We’ve a friend who is really aggressive in bringing in all kinds of good quality merchandise and has some unusual and not systematic approach to his buying.
He has one store in Lynn, and is opening a 2nd store & Now I forget the town, he told me about 10 or 15 minutes away.
he would have a lot wine, beer , spirits and it would cross many lines off the path of the norm. Lynnway Liquores, google it, see if it fits.
As well as lots of deals, purchase of private cellars, discounted items etc… if you go down during the week - drop our name to the owner - Cliff - he is a special kind of guy who would take care of you.
Aloha
Thread drift - Just got back from 10 days in the Berkshires suffering through the adverse effects of no BYO. You can’t bring your own wine to a restaurant, so there is no incentive for the restaurant to exert any effort to have a good wine list. Yes, I know, the lists at Blantyre and The Inn on the Green are good, but I shouldn’t have to leave my grandson at the house we rented just to get good wine with dinner. Maybe if there were competition from diners bringing their own wine, the lists would be better.
I think it has more to do with a lack of demand out there than lack of BYO. There are plenty of nice wine lists in the Boston/Cambridge area, and countless areas in other states where BYO is legal and you can’t find a decent wine list.
I’ve been vocal about my opposition to the protectionist alcohol laws in this state, but to say not having BYO reduces consumer choice and competition is quite a stretch.