I have been in The Quarters in Rio Rancho with the heat on. I really would not trust any wine that has been in their possession. Jubilation is where I go for beer when I am in town.
I think the Bordeaux selection at Total Wine in Washington is second to none (Bellevue and Tukwila). I would disagree with a previous assertion that they don’t have any high end wines. Recent purchases include ’ 08 Lynch Bages for $71, '08 Pontet Canet for $80 and '09 Tignanello for $69.
Tom
Thanks for the comments about the New Mexico wine scene, Greg and Tom. It sounds limited but not so bad. Glad to be living in the days of Internet commerce…
I think they’re one of those stores in that intermediate range, where they’re probably a huge blessing if you’re in a market that doesn’t have good real wine stores around, but you should ignore them if you live somewhere like LA, OC, SF, NY etc. that has great wine shopping options.
Sort of like what I’d say about a restaurant like Chili’s. It’s probably terrific if one comes to your neighborhood and you live in some dull, out-of-the-way place without many decent restaurants, but I wouldn’t ever go there if I lived in Manhattan or Hollywood.
I actually went to the one in Tustin last week, because their site said they had some 2010 Huet Le Haut Lieu in stock, but when I got there, it was the 2011 and not the 2010 and I passed.
In So Cal, where I live now, we have at least two TW wines within a short distance. I once went in to check out their offerings and was not only disappointed, but shocked at the lack of knowledge on the part of the staff.
I was looking at a bottle of (can’t remember name of wine) but it was a French sticky. I needed a gift.
So I asked the “wine manager” (that’s what it said on his badge) if he had any idea of what the RS was.
He said, “what’s RS?” End of discussion.
I agree with the spirit of your points, but 1 and 2 depend very strongly on the market. New Mexico is overall subpar in the wine department due to mediocrity of distributors. Albuquerque in particular mostly has beer and liquor stores that sell wine on the side. A retailer that acts slightly more professionally and distributes wines that otherwise wouldn’t be available probably has a place in this region.
Likewise on pricing. I saw no real screaming deals, but prices are already really high locally. Take K&L Wines pricing, add 10-30% despite no value added service, and that’s Albuquerque.
Given the narrow shipping window and being about a two hour round trip from good wine shops, I guess I’m hopeful they will improve the wine scene a bit.
My biggest complaint for Total Wine is the staff. They seem trained to push something at you without doing any checking as to what you might like. While I was perusing Oregon Pinot- “Oh if you are looking for Pinot you should try this one (holding up some CA Pinot I can’t remember now) So big and chewy! You’ll love it!”
Um. Thanks. I will keep that one in mind. I’ll stick to shitty pinot, thanks.
At one of their sister stores here in Maryland they had the big wine cooling unit malfunction over night. Leakers everywhere. They cleaned up what they could and put those back into the case and sold them. They have virtually no wines I would ever buy from them. Even the beer selection is mediocre.
TW sucks
I found a wine marked at a great price but the register rang it up differently. When I objected, the “wine manager” went to check the shelf, removed the shelf tag and denied that the price I saw was ever there. I checked–the register price was not on the shelf; the tag had simply “disappeared.”
I’ve also seen lots of sunken or bulging corks on the high-end stuff. Caveat emptor!
I do buy liquor and the occasional sweet wine.
I went to their store in Union once with my wife and I would never return. I was dogged by salesmen, one in particular who had the audacity (after asking if we needed help and was told NO) to reach into our cart and remove a bottle (Cusumano Nero d’Avola) and suggest another wine saying “You don’t want this it doesn’t even have a real cork.” My wife at that point removed the bottle from his hand and told him “We know”, referring to the fact that the wine is closed with a Vinolok glass stopper.
When I found a bottle of Ramey Cabernet Sauvignon Jericho Canyon 2005 on the shelf and asked if they had any more (this was only a couple of years ago) the same dolt proceeded to try to sell me something else.
We did go to a store of theirs in Delaware and the experience was not nearly as pushy or aggravating, but they clearly have an agenda as to what brands they want you to buy. It just depends on how militant they allow themselves to be in doing that.
Sounds like we are neighbors in ABQ, and have had some similar experiences.
I don’t necessarily blame it on the distributors, though they may share some fault in our situation. I do blame them when they try each session of the legislature to stop internet wine sales. A lot of our problems in the liquor industry go back to our liquor license laws, too. I have been here long enough to remember the days when licenses were so limited and costly they were essentially made of gold and they were a license to print money even if one never sold a bottle of wine. The mentality of the liquor store has been slow to change. Owners still see wine as difficult to sell well and a harder way to make profit.
Quarters tried to raise the bar with the west side store, which had a quite beautiful wine facility. Connie hired Laura (who was great) as a wine instructor, but that lasted only a few years. He quickly went to using the distributors’ reps as wine salespeople, and his nice, big refrigerated wine room required a visit to the front desk to get someone to unlock it. Maybe we just don’t seem to have the volume of wine lovers, but that may be changing.
Unless, as you say, it is in the summer when shipping is a problem, I don’t find Total Wine to offer much advantage over online sales. They have some fairly high end Bordeaux, but in many other areas in which I am interested, there is very little. As you say, no screaming deals. Prices are higher than TW advertises in most of its stores elsewhere. All this with the atmosphere of a Walmart, well, maybe Target. Hundreds of feet of supermarket-style displays manned by salespersons with earpieces seems to detract from the experience for me.
Call me up and we’ll pop something.
Hey Bill, do you shop the TW in Fort Worth, Dallas, or both? One better than the other? Also, will they hold wines as you purchase and is the storage climate controlled? Any other recommended DFW wine shops? Sorry for the 20 questions… I’m in the burbs and purchase most of my stuff direct, but for more mainstream stuff, this might be a good option for me. Thanks!
I hit them both up…every other weekend. They tend to have about the same inventory with just a bottle or two different. Unknown if they will hold anything as an aggregate purchase, but their storage of “fine” wines is under refrigeration in locked cabinets in the store.
As for other DFW stores, I hit up the big Spec’s on Central Expressway and the West Plano Costco.
I used to make the laps at Sigel’s and Centennial, but now that TW and Spec’s is in town, they have basically gone to crap on their domestic wine selection and pricing. Pogo’s still has the best high end/cult selection, but you definitely pay a premium to shop there…as in a big markup over release prices.
Thanks. I don’t know about others, but whenever I’m shopping in a store, it’s harder for me to pull the trigger on a purchase vs. buying over the net. Weird… I guess I’ll have to swing by TW soon and validate if that holds true for in-store wine purchases.
Be advised that both of the stores’ respective “staff” behaves as stated above by others. They definitely try to sell their biggest profit margin wine by the case to everyone that walks in the door.
For kicks and giggles, I always like to roll in with my Maybach shirt and Herb Lamb Vineyards hat on. Every single time a salesman sees the shirt, they comment on how good of a wine it is and ask if I have had any. Then they proceed to inform me they do not have that wine in stock, but they have something for $20 that should be a good substitute.
One lady even started asking me if I was a red fruit/black fruit kind of guy as I was walking the cab isle. You just have to tune out the noise.
Reasons why I stopped buying there:
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It gets hot here in DC in the summer and I suspect there were issues with summer shipping - I purchased bottles that were, IMO, cooked.
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Shelf talkers often didn’t match the vintage in the bin. This happened too many times for it to be an accident (in my opinion).
They happen to be VERY corporate- a lot of the decisions are made at the HQ level so staff do not have much in the way of decision making in terms of inventory. This may suit you or not depending on what distribution portfolios you prefer.
I’ve noticed #2 already, though some of them disclose the vintage.
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Fixed; meant to say “cooked” but typoed.
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On the shelf talkers - that may happen elsewhere, but it was out of control at my TW. It seemed like every high score was for a vintage not in the bins. Perhaps your experience is different, but that’s my experience and two reasons why I don’t buy from them. There are many more, but they are mere repetition of the other comments about annoying people.