Retailer check: Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa, CA

Retailer check: Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa, CA.

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?

Thanks.

I have not been there in a few years, but I have bought wine from there many times and have always had good experiences there.

Ed

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.

Ed

Iā€™ve only shopped there in person when visiting family in Santa Rosa, so I donā€™t 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 Iā€™ve never really perused them. Some older bottles of things like port are out on shelves, but as Ed mentioned, itā€™s a large warehouse space kept consistently cool, and personally, Iā€™d 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, Iā€™d say itā€™s kept at room temperature or slightly cooler, but itā€™s 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.

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Havenā€™t visited their store but ordered a few bottles from their ā€œcollectiblesā€ section a few years ago and they were among the most attentive to shipping temperature of any store Iā€™ve dealt with, so I canā€™t imagine them being too uncareful about storage either.

Thanks everyone, this is helpful.

Agree with everything Ben said about Bottle Barn

Tom

I bought some Krug from them w no issues

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. [cheers.gif]

Thanks for the insight! Will be in SF shortly and will try to make a pit stop (covid willing). Been curious about this retailer for a while!

Iā€™ve only bought from them a couple of times (mail order) but would highly recommend them. Great prices and interesting selection. Havenā€™t purchased any older wines from them.

Cheers,

Hal

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 itā€™s a must shop. Bring an SUV!

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Very good reputation and a ā€˜destinationā€™ type of merchant like Table & Vine in western Mass or K&L in SF.

I havenā€™t been there in several years, but it was a great place to shop when I lived in Santa Rosa.

+1 re what Arv saidā€¦Discovered them on one of our early trips to Sonoma. Also a fan of Table and Vine and K+L

Iā€™ve purchased a few times from Bottle Barn, though my experience with their manager, Barry goes back decades to the early 90ā€™s 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. Donā€™t let him get awayā€¦

Have bought <10 yrs wine from them 3-4 times. have opened 20% of the wines bought w no issues