Recommended Online Wine Buying Sites

[dstgolf]

Can people share where they have had good successes with online wine purchases and shipping to USA. Problems shipping to Canada of course but no issues shipping to Florida and the great supply of wine that we've enjoyed has dwindled with only a couple of cases of good stuff left. The rest has been mostly purchased through WTSO or bought locally at Normans or Total Wines in Bradenton.

Jacques forwarded Daniel Posners wine order site and he has had good success over the years so we'll get on his list. Are there others that people are big on? Anyone used www.wine.com? Site looks good.

How are return policies if any for bad wines,breakage etc. I had a bad experience a few years back where we bought a few bottles of a Barolo(can't remember producer etc) but loved it so we went back and bought a case to store for future pleasure. The next year every bottle was cooked and it wasn't from our storage as there were no other spoiled wines from the same fridge. The store refused to accept any returns...frustrating!!

[stefan]

I have had no problems with MacArthur's. K&L is a top place, but I have only picked up from them. However, stefanJr has had good experience with K&L shipping to Oregon.

Zachy's is a pain, IMO. If shipping to Florida, make sure that the store will hold your wine without charge for shipping in Nov. - Feb. Posner will do that. I think K&L will do that if you are a regular buyer, but you should verify in advance by email so that you have it in writing. They held wine for me for pick up in six months.

[William P]

I've always had great dealings with K&L. Further, K&L has excellent shipping in California. I can't address shipping out of the state.


Bill

[DavidG]

Thumbs up from me for:
K&L
MacArthur (they’re local but I hear their shipping is reliable)
Winex
Grapes (Posner's place)
Zachys (never had a problem but prices are rarely favorable outside occasional sales)
HartDavisHart (for older stuff, they don’t ship to me but will hold so I can pick up when in Chicago)

[AKR]

If you're going to be shipping into Florida the windows for that are probably closing fairly soon for ground shipment, assuming you don't want heat cooked wine.

You might consider B21 locally for shipping, or pickup.

I've really trimmed down my out of California state vendors, since I'm worried about eventual/increasing UPS/FedEx shipping problems.

I only really buy out of state from Garagiste up in Seattle, and Chambers St Wines in NYC. Both are direct importers so have some advantages that normal firms don't.

Within CA, I use K&L mostly, with the occasional Winex order.

I like MacArthurs too, but its been some time since I've used them.

Hold Til Ship is a service I prefer, so make sure your vendors will offer it, if that's important.

[jckba]

I've really trimmed down my out of California state vendors, since I'm worried about eventual/increasing UPS/FedEx shipping problems.

Arv makes a great point here and I have pretty much done the same as I don’t want to get stuck with wine purchases that I have paid for that I can’t have delivered to me, so I’d probably be in the camp of telling you to buy in state at Total Wine or B21.

Other out of state stores I might recommend would include JJBuckley (though I would also tell you to ask for a Private Client rep as the offers are daily and the pricing is better) and Grand Vin, in addition to Zachys, MacArthurs and Grapes which were mentioned above.

[jal]

K&L doesn't list Florida as a state they ship to: http://www.klwines.com/Shipping/StateLegality
I just used wine.com for the first time for 3 bottles of 2015 Leoville Barton and they emailed it's arriving in two weeks.
I've had a few wines shipped here from Zachys, Sherry Lehmann, HDH, and of course B21 though it's easy enough for us to drive to B21 in Tarpon Springs and pick up there. Most of my purchases (about 90%) are from Daniel Posner.
I have never bothered returning wines. It feels strange to return a wine a few years after receiving.

[JimHow]

I've been buying mostly from MacArthur's lately, very reliable.

Danny, you brought back a case of opened bottles a year later and asked them to refund you because they were all cooked?

[Blanquito]

I still swear by WineBid. Best way to find mature and rare wines. They are probably the best source of mature Bordeaux in the country, at least when price is a factor. Prices aren’t as keen as they used to be and it is a big time sink if you let it be, but overall I still buy most of my wine there. 1985 Gruaud Larose with a good fill for $100 including the premium? Hard to beat buys like that. And they still seem to ship everywhere. I know some folks have had bad experiences with them especially about storage fees (they do offer free summer storage) but I’ve never had anything but good experiences with them. They do not refund cooked or corked wines however, so caveat emptor.

Prices can be a bit high (by US standards), but both Benchmark Wine and Rare Wine Co have outstanding provenance with a regular supply of older vintages. Both also stand by their merchandise offering free returns for cooked and corked wines (buyer has to pay shipping to return the wines though).

I think Chambers St Wine is a world class wine merchant, but they don’t really have much in the way of Bordeaux. They are more of a Mecca for the “anti-flavor wine elite” who eschew Parkerised wines. Italy, the Loire and Butgundy are their specialities and they get tons of old vintages direct from cellars in Europe with perfect storage. I have repeatedly bought Barbaresco and Barolo from them from the 60’s and 70’s and all were pristine. They also refund or offer store credit for spoiled or corked bottles. They can no longer direct ship at least to Colorado, but they use a third party shipper to get around the crackdown.

In Portland Oregon, I also like really Sec Wines and Vinopolis, both of whom have a terrific selection of well-priced new and hard to find releases.

I buy with confidence from WineX, MacArthurs, K&L, the Wine Library, and the Chicago Wine Co. You’ll need to check shipping options at each store as many have restrictions now on where they can ship and/or they have to use a third party shipper which is more of a pain to arrange (but no more expensive in my experience).

[AKR]

True - CSW isn't additive for me in BDX, but they are good in the Rhone, especially for smaller names.

If the right to return something is important, I don't think buying over the internet or mailorder makes sense.

Costco is the best for that! My wife just returned a box of catfood because our 20 lb (!) cat is too picky to eat it.

She didn't have to explain anything. Didn't have the receipt either, but they found the purchase in her account.

The cat normally will eat anything, especially lace and toile, if she can then vomit them up on important papers.

[dstgolf]

Thanks for everyones quick replies. I'd love to start dabbling with winebid once we get a place in the US but for now my buddy Claude can have some fun. B21 sounds like a good start closer to Sarasota and Posner's site seems like they'll hold back on shipments which is important to avoid the hot months. Costco has wine but they are hit and miss with nowhere near the selection they had in the past. Yes there return policy is second to none but must say most wines that I've bought there recently tend to be pop and pour apart from the occasional champagne. I was surprised at how poor the selection was in Boca!!

[AKR]

Costco is variable depending on the location. My local one (#471) is about average. The other ones in the area represent the lower and higher end, so I suppose I should be happy.

I had one of their hot dogs over the weekend, while fueling up the SO's truck. They are the best. And still $1.50 after all these decades. Crazy.

Our old basset hound liked the Costco hot dogs more than the Ikea ones. Normally I would only give her a half one though, since they are ginormous.

[Chateau Vin]

I pretty much second Blanquito.... Winebid is good and have been using it for around 7 or more years. But I also agree their changed policy of storage sucks. Other than that, never had a downer with regards to merchandise. From winebid end, they also store their bottles temperature controlled. I used to pickup bottles from their Chicago location and their bottles were always cold...

But I would add one thing about westcoast... JJbuckley is terrific in addition to K&L.

On the eastcoast I like McArthur, and in the midwest I like HDH (although they are not as price competitive as JJB or K&L

From the big names, I generally don't buy from Wallys and Zachys... Even if they have sale, they jack up the price and then discount (which was evident when winesearcher was used the day they send out flyer and the winesearcher showed lower price than the crossed out price on the flyer...)

[JimHow]

Yeah, those Zachy's "sales" are laughable.
They jack up the prices and then they cut them back to overpriced levels.
Once every five years or so they have a legitimate sale.
I've been pleased with the service I've been getting from JJ Buckley.
I would buy from K&L but they don't ship to Maine.

[stefan]

I cancelled my account at WineBid after they tried to charge me for storage when I had it in an email that I could store there as long as I wished. I discussed it with them and said I understand that they have a change in policy but that it should not apply to purchases I made before I knew that they changed the policy for me (they did not inform me about the change). They insisted, so I cancelled. The amount was a dollar or two. I told them that I don't like to do business with companies that operate that way. They let a 5 figure/year customer quit them over a dollar or two!

Moreover, while their storage is good, they are not that careful about how the wine was stored before they got it.