Where Do I Find The Wines That Are Being Recommended?

One of the most common questions that I get on my wine related blog posts, and al;so that I see on the wine groups that I subscribe to on social media, is where can I get these wines that sound so good.  I have some suggestions for finding on-line retailers who will ship to you and then some thoughts related to local retailers you can go to.  Buying wine on-line and having it shipped to you from reputable, licensed resellers in other states is totally legal for you and for them. 

For those of us in the United States, the state and, in places like where I live, local governments, have licensing laws and controls over who can sell alcoholic beverages and in some cases, which ones they can sell.  The laws regarding shipping wine from one state to another have been greatly relaxed and I believe with a little research you can find reputable resellers that will ship wine to your home address.  Below are some suggestions on some places to quickly do that research. 

My primary go-to web site is www.wine-searcher.com.  The picture below is a screen shot of their site where I was looking for one of my favorite Bordeaux wines.  I put Ormes-de-Pez in the search box at the top and this is the screen that was returned.  I then went to the pull-down list under Shop Location on the left and chose USA.  For those reading this blog that are in other countries, they have a very wide list of companies that you can select.  If I put in my state, Maryland, I would get back a screen that shows they do not have any Maryland stores that are selling this wine in their records but they do have nine on-line resellers in the US who will ship it to me in Maryland.  I can look at different vintages and see how many retailers have that vintage and at what prices. 

I have not had a bad experience with any reseller that I have chosen from their list, but I do have four on-line retailers that I have bought from several times and that I recommend.  I have accounts at each of them with my address and credit card info to make placing orders quick and easy.  I am on their mailing lists so I get emails on sales that they have where I might be able to get a wine I like at a discounted price.  Those four recommended on-line retailers are:

• www.garyswine.com in Wayne, New Jersey and Napa Valley, California
• www.b-21.com in Tarpon Springs, Florida
• www.saratogawine.com in Ballston Lake, New York
• www.Empirewine.com in Albany New York

They all have different deals on shipping that you want to investigate to get the lowest total price on your order.  Generally, at least a full case of 12 bottles and often a dollar threshold is needed to get a lower shipping cost.  The above resellers use either UPS or FedEx for their shipping and have options if you need a specific wine quickly.  I have not ordered any wines from resellers in other countries and I believe that if they are able to ship to me in Maryland, the shipping costs on that order would make the wine very expensive.

To the best of my knowledge, all locations in the US require that someone over 21 years of age sign for the delivery of alcoholic beverages.  If I was not at home when the delivery truck tried to make a delivery, they have left a notice on my door that says they will come back the next business day.  Some of those notices allow  me to sign the form and leave that on the door, but in my experience that was not sufficient for alcohol beverages, they needs someone in person to prove they were over 21.  If I miss three deliveries then the shipment is returned to the reseller and I am looking at another delivery charge if I want shipped to me again. 

Because most shipments happen during working hours on weekdays, that can be an issue for working people.  UPS and FedEx give you the ability to specify a local location where the package can be shipped and held for you for pick up.  But you want to do that when you place the initial order, and most of the sites show that option during the checkout process.  Doing it after you have missed a delivery can take a while on the delivery company website and can have a charge associated with it.  FedEx shipments are usually held at a local FedEx facility.  UPS has many more options and I can choose either the Safeway or the RightAide that are just a few miles from me.  But you may only get a notice that the order has been shipped and when it will be delivered to that 3^rd party location.  Sometimes I get a second message it was delivered, but I do not always know exactly when that shipment has been received s I can pick it up.  If I do not pick it up within 3 days of when that location got the shipment, it is shipped back, so I try to make the pickup as soon as I am pretty sure that it is there.  A photo ID that shows who you are and your birthday, e.g. Drivers License, is needed. 

I recently ordered from Gary’s at a great price a case of the Mauvesin Barton Bordeaux that I have raved about on this blog .  I got an email from them suggesting that the high heat we were experiencing on the East Coast could be an issue since UPS and FedEx are not using refrigerated planes and trucks.  They suggested holding the shipment until September and ship it then if the temperatures were the norm for that time of year.  We agreed over email on a date in September for that shipment.  This customer service is an example of why I am recommending these four resellers.

The gorilla in on-line sales of wine is www.wne.com.  They have an excellent selection and a very good web site, and mobile app, to work with.  If you want to make them your primary on-line source, you can pay an annual fee and get free shipping on your orders.  They also have different specials going on almost all the time with 10-29% discounts depending on the size of your order.  You will get notices on this and on the wines that they have on sale if you sign up, but expect at least one email a day from them.  Wine.com is an excellent reseller but there are two things I want to make you aware of. 

The first may be irrelevant to you but it has impacted many of the virtual wine tastings that I have done with people from around the country.  Wine.com has a number of warehouses around the country and each shipping location is serviced by a specific warehouse.  The warehouses have different inventories and if one is out of stock on an item that you want, they do not ship it from a different warehouse.  The warehouse that ships to me in Maryland is different than the one that services Northern Virginia so wines that I can get may not be available to my friends who live only 30 minutes away. 

The second thing you should be aware of is that the convenience that wine.com offers comes at a price.  Their prices are usually 5-10% higher than my local retailer who has that wine on the shelf or if one of the above four on-line resellers is stocking it.  But the convenience that they offer may make that price difference not important to you. 

There are also two gorillas in terms of a local retailer that you can go in and walk the isles and not pay any delivery charges – Total Wine and Trader Joe’s.  Before I share my thoughts on both, and two other very good local stores with excellent wine inventory, I want to clarify where I am coming from in terms of local retailers as that significantly impacts the choices that I am making in this regard.

I live in Montgomery County, Maryland, just outside of DC.  That county has its own Alcoholic Beverages Commission that strictly controls not only who can sell alcoholic beverages, but they can only sell wine and sprits that are on an approved list and that they have in inventory.  That list is very limited when it comes to good wine, and the prices for the ones that they do have are high.  As a result, I have to drive 30-45 minutes to get to a decent retailer that has a good selection and good prices.  I buy about 40% of my wine on-line mostly to avoid that drive and partially because the our local sources I have do not have a specific wine that I want.  I do not buy at any of the local Montgomery County owned and operated liquor stores.

At this point in my wine journey I am not interested in trying wines that I have never heard of to find ones that I like.  I have a cellar of over 800 bottles and over the last 50 years I have a comprehensive list of wines of all types and many countries that Beth and I like.  Most of what I buy are wines that I have had in my cellar and really like, and I am replenishing my stock in them.  We generally take a wine trip each year and on those trips we are trying new wines and some of them go on my preferred list.  Other than that, I am not searching for new wines to try.

The closest Total Wine for me is about 45 minutes away.  Their emails and website, and much of the in-store promotion, in the last couple of years is all about their “Winery Direct” wines.  I am not interested in trying new wines that I’ve never heard of and Total Wine has gotten a really good price on.  I find it laborious to work through Total Wine’s web site to see if the store 45 minutes away has on the shelf the specific wines that I am looking for.  As a result, I generally go to Total Wine maybe once a year.  I am not the target market they are looking to serve.  You are likely in a different place in your wine journey and Total Wine may be a very good choice for you.  I have nothing bad to say about Total Wine, just that they are not targeting me as a customer.

Trader Joe’s has a stigma that many people can’t get around in terms of buying wine there – Two Buck Chuck.  Last I looked that was around $4 now but the Trader Joe’s that are in places where they can carry wine do have a very good selection of wines at decent prices.  Four of our House Wines that I have talked about in other blogs I get at Trader Joe’s for under $10.  My wife also likes many of their other products and shops there regularly.  The one convenient to us will not put up with the BS requirements from Montgomery County and does not carry wine or beer.  It is a 30 minute drive to the one that does and we go there 3-4 times a year to replenish our supply of house wines that we like. 

There are two retailers in DC that are excellent resources for very good wine, and they have very good prices as well: Calvert Woodley and MacArthur Beverages.  Calvert Woodley is my #1 source for wine.  They have an excellent web site that lets me check the availability and price of the wines that I like and am looking to replenish.  I place my order on-line and stop into the store in the next week or two, parking their parking lot off Connecticut Ave, and they will carry the box with the wine I ordered out and put in my car.  I can browse the shelves but their selection is so large it is intimidating and again, I am looking for specific wines, so going through their web site really works for me.  They are a 35 minute drive for me but not having to worry about parking in DC is huge.  I am also on their mailing list for sales, a special wine they recommend each week, and wine tastings and dinners that they sponsor.  They are just what I am looking for at this stage of my wine journey. 

MacArthur Beverages is about the same distance away and is the preferred source for some friends that are very good with fine wine.  MacArthur will also let me order what I want on their web site and have it ready to pick up. But the lack of parking and my having to carry it to my car is a drawback.  There are some of our favorite wines that Calvert Woodley does not carry, so I get them at MacArthur.  I go there a couple of times a year. 

Mostly I have relationships at Calvert Woodley so that is my first stop and I go to the other local and on line resources when I can’t get it there.  I probably buy over 50% of my wine from them and the rest from the other local retailers and the on line sources discussed above.

One final thought in this world of omnipresent social media.  Buying wine from a source you find on social media is VERY high risk.  Someone’s uncle who had a great wine collection may have died and left it to them.  And they may know nothing about fine wine and are willing to sell great wines at a fraction of the normal cost for those wines.  But there is a much greater chance that one or more of the other scenarios below is what you will find out to be the truth if you buy some of those wines:

• It is a fraud and your credit card will be charged for at least that transaction, and maybe multiple other ones, and you will get nothing shipped to you.  Law enforcement will likely be unable to track down the person who stole your money.
• Buying and selling wine is a controlled activity in this county and both of you could be subject to criminal charges even if you got the wine that you thought you were buying.  Individuals who have wine that they do not want have to go to a licensed auction house which will put that wine up for sale only if they are comfortable that it has good provenance including documentation that it has been properly stored.
• You may get bottles that are sealed in wax at the top.  Those bottles were opened, and the very good wine removed.  They were then recorked and then the neck dipped in wax.  They are a total fraud.
• The wine may have sat in the uncle’s cellar for years and have cobwebs on the bottles to show that.  But if that cellar did not have temperature and humidity controls for the entire time the wine was there, it is probably undrinkable.  You have no recourse in that case.

Buying wine directly through social media is illegal and very high risk.  Don’t waste your money on something that seems too good to be true.