Wine Advice—Thoughts on Total Wine?
Heading to Sacramento tomorrow, and I’m thinking of stopping at Total Wine & More. I feel like I heard/read a couple of people say good things about it. But when I searched online, I found some fairly negative reviews. I know it’s a chain that is new to our side of the country, so I’m looking for opinions from anywhere, not just specific to the store in Roseville.
Any Total Wine fans out there? Or should I skip it? And if you say don’t bother but are familiar with the area to which I’m heading, please suggest an alternative. (Dave, isn’t that your neck of the woods? I see you haven’t been writing lately, but maybe you’re still reading.)
It’s always nice to shop for wine elsewhere, making it less likely that I’ll have overlap with folks in my tasting group.
Hey Farley- We have one here. I find it okay if I am going to get a bunch of inexpensive wines for everyday drinking or for a party, but otherwise I prefer the staff at my local places and the online shops who can recommend things for me! Here’s my take on the place: http://wannabewino.blogspot.com/2007/06/total-wine-and-more-total-sensory.html
Hey Farley,
I definitely concur with Megan’s review – I’ve been to Total Wine on a couple of occasions (when my personal stash of WineQ vino has run low!) and found it to be pretty decent, though potentially overwhelming, for a big-box-retailer type store. Selection is somewhat organized by region and type (though not by price)…but the sheer number of offerings can still leave you searching through everything and then realizing you’ve been there for an hour, especially if you’re a wine geek on a treasure hunt!
They have uber cheap selections all the way up to some bottles hitting the $100 mark – you’re going to find a lot of stuff that is available in Safeway, but they also have a lot of off-the-beaten-path selection too. Something you’ll notice is the abundance of shelf talkers and “staff picks” – I’ve never purchased a staff pick so I can’t attest to whether they’re actually good or just marketing. One of the things we did like a lot is that they have a very extensive selection of artisan/ import beers, and decent cheese, chocolate, crackers, etc.
So, it’s kind of a one-stop-shop with a lot of mass appeal…not as warm and inviting and personal as a smaller boutique wine shop, but probably better than BevMo. I’m sure you’ll get a little variance from store to store, but I hope that helps!