Never bought from them, but they have an interesting cross-section of wines.
In addition to general thoughts, I am particularly interested in the storage conditions in their shop and/or how wines 15-20 years old are stored there? Older wines show well from them? Or are wines that old on consignment at this outfit?
To answer your other question, most of what I have bought has been less than 10 years old from vintage date and on the floor there. Large space that was always cool.
Iāve only shopped there in person when visiting family in Santa Rosa, so I donāt have specific feedback on ordering online, but my in-person experiences have always been solid.
I know they have a special area (or areas) set aside for high-dollar bottles of wines and spirits, but Iāve never really perused them. Some older bottles of things like port are out on shelves, but as Ed mentioned, itās a large warehouse space kept consistently cool, and personally, Iād have no hesitation about ordering anything from them.
They are my local wine store. Their selection is superb and their pricing is often even better. The shop is a larger warehouse, Iād say itās kept at room temperature or slightly cooler, but itās worth mentioning that they have a pretty rapid turnover of inventory. I go there once or twice a month and things seem to get cycled through pretty quickly. I think they buy from personal collections or auctions because they get individual bottles of some weird fun stuff in there, but none of it sticks around long.
Edit: I should add that when I have had corked or otherwise flawed bottles they have replaced them without question. And their wine staff know their stuff.
Havenāt visited their store but ordered a few bottles from their ācollectiblesā section a few years ago and they were among the most attentive to shipping temperature of any store Iāve dealt with, so I canāt imagine them being too uncareful about storage either.
They are my favorite retailer. If you go in person they have quite a bit of wine that is mailing list only and restaurant only that is very hard to find online. As mentioned before, its a warehouse type building and is very cool in there year round. Fantastic selection, especially with hard to find allocated gems from the US.
Iāve only bought from them a couple of times (mail order) but would highly recommend them. Great prices and interesting selection. Havenāt purchased any older wines from them.
Buy with confidence, Bottle Barn is where wine country shops for wine. Barry does a fantastic job with the inventory. Older and more prized wines are kept in a temperature and humidity controlled room in the back of the store. If you are shopping them
online you are barely scratching the surface of what they have in stock. Was there the other day to buy some bubbles and a few dry Riesling, the Alsace section had 20-30 selections. If you are ever in Santa Rosa itās a must shop. Bring an SUV!
Iāve purchased a few times from Bottle Barn, though my experience with their manager, Barry goes back decades to the early 90ās when he was the proprietor of the Wine Reserve in Glendale. Not since then have I had a better mentor on what to drink and how much to pay for it. Still miss him here in Southern California and suggest you Nor Cal guys do what you can to support him. He is a real asset to whatever wine community he happens to be in. Donāt let him get awayā¦