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Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/12/2017 6:42:48 PM

Smaragd

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From: New York City
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No Auctions please, but I'm curious your opinions for the best wine mail order websites... I live in NY. I'm curious to know who has the biggest selection and relatively competitive prices. I tend to buy 1-3 bottles , not cases or half cases, but with some exceptions. What are your top three?

Post #: 1

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/12/2017 6:53:05 PM

CranBurgundy

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From: Philly / South Joizey
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I often buy from Belmont Wine Exchange, CellaRaiders, Old & Rare Wine, Benchmark Wine Group, and Flickinger.

Susan and Steve at BWE are pleasant to deal with, and Susan likes to chat about Burgundy. She's also frequently taking trips to Bordeaux. Ben at CellaRaiders is another great person to deal with. James at O&R Wine is top notch too, and has helped me many times over the years. I've chatted with several people at both Flickinger and BWG, but I can't remember who is still there. I know Madeline left BWG recently, which was good for her but bad for me because on occasion she would email me with great deals (last year - 2005 Shafer One Point Five for $55 each!).

Luckily, I also have WineWorks, Canal's Mt. Ephraim, Pluckemin Inn, and Wine Library within reasonable driving distance.

Between the group of these, I can often find the wine I want priced at or near the lowest on Wine Searcher.

(I'm sure I'm forgetting a few good retailers but somebody will pick up that slack.)

_____________________________

Purple Drankin' Cretin.

Vote NO on Proposition S1ct1516 "BAN the CRAN!" this Election Day.

“Let it be recorded: henceforth, December 15 shall be known as 'The Day of Dennis'.” - Prof. Ken "KPB" Birman, 12/17/23

(in reply to Smaragd)

Post #: 2

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/12/2017 7:35:28 PM

midpalate

Posts: 606
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KL, garagiste, winex, wally's, (and then auctions). Oh, and Kermit. I sometimes buy direct from him.

And Astor from time to time.

< Message edited by midpalate -- 12/12/2017 7:36:51 PM >

(in reply to Smaragd)

Post #: 3

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/12/2017 7:59:30 PM

wicozani

Posts: 271
Joined: 8/15/2009
Status: offline

South Dakota has in recent years really cracked down on wine imports. As a result, our options have really narrowed. However, JJ Buckley still reigns supreme over our web purchases. Zachy's used to, but no longer. BPW, Vins Rare and Flickinger's will still ship to us. LastBottle and WTSO, whom we had acquired quite a bit from, stopped shipping to SD after receiving Cease & Desist letters from our Attorney General. Finally, have found Heritage Auctions to be very interesting, and have bought 6 cases of wine from them over the past few months at quite competitive pricing. Prefer The Chicago Wine Company auctions, for their is no buyer's premium, and they still will ship to us. YMMV.

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The beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota!

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Post #: 4

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/12/2017 8:13:41 PM

CranBurgundy

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From: Philly / South Joizey
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Holy s___, I forgot to mention Robert at Down to Earth Wines in Delaware! He's my go-to guy for most of my Riesling (JJ Prüm, Max Ferd Richter, Schäfer-Fröhlich) and some Burgundy that would otherwise be very hard to source stateside or snapped up too quickly elsewhere (Audoin, Hudelot Noëllat). He was the lowest price on pre-arrival for several purchases in the last 18 months, and if he wasn't, it was within $1 a bottle. Plus, there's no sales tax in Delaware and he's only a 45 minute drive from me and on the way to my parent's house.

_____________________________

Purple Drankin' Cretin.

Vote NO on Proposition S1ct1516 "BAN the CRAN!" this Election Day.

“Let it be recorded: henceforth, December 15 shall be known as 'The Day of Dennis'.” - Prof. Ken "KPB" Birman, 12/17/23

(in reply to wicozani)

Post #: 5

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/12/2017 9:51:43 PM

vinopkm

Posts: 2638
Joined: 6/14/2008
From: Orange County, CA
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For me and all southern CA shops:
klwines.com, winex.com & hitimewine.com

For others not local to me:
jjbuckley.com & winelibrary.com

(in reply to CranBurgundy)

Post #: 6

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/12/2017 11:16:22 PM

skifree

Posts: 3407
Joined: 3/14/2010
From: SE King County, Washington
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Most of my purchases are Bordeaux EP from Flickingers or JJ Buckley.

I buy a little California from Echelon Wines via their subscription list. JJ Buckley has lots of Cali as well.

I buy Washington wine directly from the winery as a rule since I live here, but would recommend Full Pull for someone from NYC if you are interested in our wines. It is easy to arrange shipping after you accumulate a case from the latter two.

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Post #: 7

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/13/2017 2:00:43 AM

Posts: 14826
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From: Wandering between Coastal SC and South FL
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What is the current status on shipping restrictions to New York?

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Tous les chemins mènent à la Bourgogne!
"One not only drinks wine, one smells it, observes it, tastes it, sips it and -- one talks about it!" (in memory of drycab)

(in reply to skifree)

Post #: 8

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/13/2017 3:52:50 AM

racerchris

Posts: 1622
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From: Bolton, CT
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Saratoga Wine Exchange

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(in reply to S1)

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RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/13/2017 3:59:53 AM

Eddie

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From: central Kentucky
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Smaragd: In New York:
Empire Wine
Saratoga Wine Exchange
Getwineonline.com

Based upon my research, I'd say that these are three of the top 5 in the country. The other two are:
Wine Exchange (Santa Ana, CA)
B-21 (Tarpon Springs, FL)

There is a place called Sec Wines in Portland that looks like it ought to be in this group, but I have no experience with them.

(in reply to racerchris)

Post #: 10

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/13/2017 5:26:52 AM

racerchris

Posts: 1622
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From: Bolton, CT
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There's also Rye Brook Wine & Spirits, a short drive north of the city, and the new Total Wine on Long Island.

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Chris Foley
Searching for very good to excellent, cheap Bordeaux
stainlesswineracks.com

(in reply to Eddie)

Post #: 11

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/13/2017 8:39:30 AM

nyccablover

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From: NYC
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If you are into Grower champagne - get on the Envoyer list. They are based in CA and do daily email offers. Their website does not list these offers you have to sign up for their mailing list. Lots of good stuff - a lot of it is pre-arrival though.

Sommpicks also tends to have lots of interesting choices - again this is one you get on the list and they send out an update when they have new selections. Lots of harder to source stuff with back vintages - also a lot of pre-arrival.

As others have said:
Cellaraiders
Benchmark Wine Group

< Message edited by nyccablover -- 12/13/2017 6:48:19 PM >

(in reply to racerchris)

Post #: 12

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/13/2017 9:07:26 AM

dsGris

Posts: 4712
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From: Portland, OR
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Sec Wines is one of my favorite sources for OR and imports. Local pickup for me which is a plus. I still use Full Pull for WA wines.

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Granpa Wino

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Post #: 13

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/13/2017 11:21:56 AM

mc2 wines

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From: NYC
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I’d recommend we don’t call out the non NY stores that do NY. I think some have found ways that work with the rule, but wouldn’t want our posts getting them in trouble!

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Post #: 14

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/13/2017 1:29:05 PM

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From: Wandering between Coastal SC and South FL
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quote:

ORIGINAL: mc2 wines

I’d recommend we don’t call out the non NY stores that do NY. I think some have found ways that work with the rule, but wouldn’t want our posts getting them in trouble!

Yes
That was what I was hinting in post #8

_____________________________

Tous les chemins mènent à la Bourgogne!
"One not only drinks wine, one smells it, observes it, tastes it, sips it and -- one talks about it!" (in memory of drycab)

(in reply to mc2 wines)

Post #: 15

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/13/2017 8:30:02 PM

Smaragd

Posts: 720
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From: New York City
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Thanks everyone! I am really busy at the moment but will look through this trove of info soon!

Shipping restrictions to NY seem kinda weird... some places will ship here, others won't, and I can't make heads or tails of it!

(in reply to Smaragd)

Post #: 16

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/14/2017 3:36:10 AM

musedir

Posts: 23493
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From: At 2534ft in Asheville near Royal Pines
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Eddie

Smaragd: In New York:
Empire Wine
Saratoga Wine Exchange
Getwineonline.com

Based upon my research, I'd say that these are three of the top 5 in the country. The other two are:
Wine Exchange (Santa Ana, CA)
B-21 (Tarpon Springs, FL)

There is a place called Sec Wines in Portland that looks like it ought to be in this group, but I have no experience with them.

I have experience with Sec Wines. They do a good job and have interesting stuff.

_____________________________

"Fan the sinnking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine." Charles Dickens.

(in reply to Eddie)

Post #: 17

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/14/2017 4:32:02 AM

mc2 wines

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Joined: 8/31/2012
From: NYC
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quote:

ORIGINAL: S1

What is the current status on shipping restrictions to New York?

It seems to be going the wrong direction. The archaic rules were always on the books, but up until a few years ago essentially one of those old school statutes that was never enforced. Something seemed to change though maybe a year or two ago and now many places we used to buy from (e.g. SEC wines) will no longer ship to the state.

_____________________________

Friends don't let friends wine alone

(in reply to S1)

Post #: 18

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/14/2017 5:51:32 AM

KPB

Posts: 4649
Joined: 11/25/2012
From: Ithaca, New York
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Temporarily a tricky issue due to the shipping limitations we have to deal with (probably a limitation only until they change the law in 2018).

If shipping was not a consideration: K&L Wines, Acker Merrill (Chicago), TCWC, The Rare Wine Company, Bottle Barn (Santa Rosa).

With the current chill: Garnet Wines, Sokolin, GrapesWineCompany (main site is in CT, but they have small NYS footprint giving them a legal way to ship), Benchmark Wines (Napa, but again, they have a work-around).

Wine-searcher is a very helpful tool for finding bargains...

_____________________________

Ken Birman
The Professor of Brettology

(in reply to mc2 wines)

Post #: 19

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/14/2017 5:58:14 AM

KPB

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From: Ithaca, New York
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quote:

ORIGINAL: mc2 wines

quote:

ORIGINAL: S1

What is the current status on shipping restrictions to New York?

It seems to be going the wrong direction.

Partly correct: No longer fully accurate, as of today, but your summary would have been right until about six months back. It has been screwed up for at least a year, but there is a law in the pipeline that will realign retail direct shipping with existing (permitted) direct shipping by wineries. Looks very likely to pass.

Back a couple of years ago, the "big bev" crowd (3-tier distributors) and the association of NYS wine retailers were favorable towards a crackdown: the law as written didn't block them from exporting from the state and was written to block shipment into the state, and the Supreme Court decision on direct shipping only required reciprocal privileges for wineries, not retailers. They apparently figured it would improve their margins and sales.

But while this is probably valid reasoning for InBev and similar giants, the small places hadn’t noticed how dependent they were on outgoing shipping, and what they wanted to block was incoming, not outgoing.

So you had a situation in which NYS only blocked incoming wine and spirits, but where other states retailiated, blocking outgoing stuff from NYS too.

Gosh, who would have thought? It burned the smaller retailers and the larger direct-sales companies badly, and now they got organized to repeal the old law entirely -- their representatives previously favored enforcing it, but now these same organizations favor opening things up. Go figure!

Upshot: there is a law making its way through the NYS legislature. It wasn't scheduled for a vote in 2017 but definitely will be scheduled early in 2018, and seems likely to pass, now that the state wine retailers understand that it is in their interest and support it: the big bev crowd has money, but they were leveraging the short-term blindness of the retailers to make it look like everyone hated direct shipping. Now that the coalition has collapsed, money from big bev isn't enough to sway the vote. So, it should pass.

It may take a few years for fully reciprocal shipping to reappear. The NYS law change doesn’t say anything about reciprocal privileges, so wines from out of state will reappear instantly once this passes. But the point is that it doesn’t actually pressure other states to allow incoming wine, so out of state buyers may still be blocked from ordering from NYS sellers. We in NYS will enjoy "best of all options" again, but it could be a while before that is true in, say, Illinois. So we still have a few years before national-scale fully open shipping is common. Even then, some states will remain buckled down for a while... Maybe even many years....

< Message edited by KPB -- 12/14/2017 6:23:59 AM >

_____________________________

Ken Birman
The Professor of Brettology

(in reply to mc2 wines)

Post #: 20

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/14/2017 6:01:41 AM

KPB

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Joined: 11/25/2012
From: Ithaca, New York
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PS: writing is on the wall and many retailers are quietly evading the NYS shipping restriction by now. But the ones I listed as “temporarily inaccessible” are obeying the law as currently enforced. The ones I really miss are K&L Wines and TCWC.

_____________________________

Ken Birman
The Professor of Brettology

(in reply to KPB)

Post #: 21

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/18/2017 11:12:46 AM

WineGuyCO

Posts: 3799
Joined: 9/5/2017
From: Living at 7200 ft. in Monument CO
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I use:

Benchmark Wine Group
KL Wines
Woodland Hills Wine
Wine Exchange
Hi Times Cellars
Flickinger
MacArthur Beverages
Cellar Door (Burgundy)

I also have a local (San Diego) guy who buys cellars and has a similar inventory to Benchmark. I do local pickup which is nice so I don't have to pay for shipping.

Rick

(in reply to KPB)

Post #: 22

RE: Top Online Wine Retailers? - 12/19/2017 6:17:34 PM

floydtp

Posts: 834
Joined: 10/12/2010
From: Dallas, TX
Status: offline

I have bought from many but have had some of the best results from The Rare Wine Co. Good customer service, fast, good selection (within their wheelhouse) and great provenance on old bottles.

(in reply to WineGuyCO)

Post #: 23