Sec Wines in Portland

Any words of wisdom from those familiar with Sec Wines. They have a few bottles I’d like to buy. Storage? Service?

Thanks!
David [drinkers.gif]

Bought some Ridge from them a couple of weeks ago. Had it shipped, everything was fine. Wine is great!

I ordered a couple of wines last week and got a call saying they couldn’t get the wines from their distributors. To their credit they contacted me fairly quickly and didn’t charge my CC but it irks me when website inventories / prices are not accurate.

I cannot think of a better experience with any wine retailer. Shipping is prompt, tracking provided and service is great. Prices are almost always the best. Eric will tell you about his storage. It’s a point of pride for him (no its not the tiny closet in his tiny office).

Had quite a few transactions with Eric in the last year. Extremely happy with Sec.

had a similar experience

published distributor items, didn’t actually have the wine on hand

I’m a satisfied customer, and have bought over 20 cases so far. Eric seems to do a reasonable job maintaining his online inventory - I haven’t had any more short or out of stock issues with Sec than I have had with Vinopolis, or even Chambers Street - who had to adjust my last order. There is no physical store, so maybe your expectations are higher, I don’t know. But you are getting rock bottom pricing on a lot of things. Not every wine, but most of them. If that means some are still at the distributor, then so be it. You may feel differently obviously.

I pickup my wines, so no experience with the shipping. Eric always has my orders ready, and has AC in the office and storage closet as needed.

No experience, but I’ll check them out since they’re close by.

Agree with Jim’s point… it’s tough to ask for rock bottom pricing and be annoyed at the occasional inventory mishap as long as it’s corrected quickly and accurately. Should it happen? Nope. But if the on-demand ordering from distributors saves you noticeable money and it’s a once in a great while issue… meh.

I have ordered from Sec a couple times recently and have been very impressed with the selection, price, and service by Eric. Lots of great Oregon pinot’s I am going to try once my bank account allows for it.

I’ve known Eric Pottmeyer for more than a decade. He’s the guy behind Sec Wines is about as good as guy as I"ve ever met. Nothing’s perfect with any retailer, but if you want a relationship with someone with a great palate, who’s savvy about finding great wines at great prices, you are in good hands with Eric. Disclosure - he has sold exactly one bottle of my wine, so I don’t see any conflict for me to recommend him

I have had really good service from Sec Wines. Good prices and reasonable shipping.

I guess I should add that when buying Oregon pinot, in many cases, Eric gets a delivery from the winemaker within a day (or sometimes two) for what I’ve ordered. So no, he doesn’t always have all the wine sitting around, but this seems to allow him to keep costs down. I like the fact that it’s direct from wineries, personally. I can also request wines that aren’t on his web page and he’ll follow up with winemakers. Eric is doing a great job and is a real pro, IMHO.

I have had many positive experiences with Sec. I buy mostly Barolo from Eric. His prices are very low, especially if you buy by the case, and all the wines have been in perfect condition. I tend to email him what I want and ask if he can get it rather than buy from what is listed on his webpage.

I only have good experiences with Eric. I will buy again.

+1 [cheers.gif]

+1. His pricing is very good, and shipping has been without any problems.

No worry at all- Eric was great to deal with!

Recently purchased 2 bottles of Continuum from Sec Wines for $122. Great price, and Eric adjusted the shipping date to accommodate my schedule. And, the bottles arrived cold!

Although I have yet to actually purchase any wines (lack of money moratorium), I like that he has access to WA wines and is midway between home and work for easy pick-up. Good by Garagiste, hello Sec. [cheers.gif]

Sec wines gets 99% of my business anymore. I am not a terribly profitable customer. I buy 2-3 full cases of wine priced between $250-$300 a year and a couple of inexpensive daily drinkers every month that likely don’t yield him enough profit to be worth the hassle of tracking them down. Inspite of this, Eric bends over backwards to serve me. He has delivered small orders to my storage unit, (unsolicited and for no extra cost), called to give me first right of refusal on wines that I have expressed interest in but have very limited availability, been understanding about slow pickup of ordered wines, etc. Quite a contrast to the other major discount retailer in town which decided to ban me from their email list for pointing out on this forum that Sec Wines normally has better pricing.

The pricing, as others have already noted, is rock bottom. The single bottle price on most wines are cheaper than the by the case price at other retailers. Out of state shipping cost me half what I would have paid at Vinopolis. If you don’t need a bottle for dinner tonight, it’s hard to imagine shopping anywhere else.