Whole Foods Wine & Spirits

Little know beer gem, this place has a large and well-​curated selection and some of the best prices in town for beer, plus they occasionally have sales where all beer, no exceptions, is 20% off. Their wine selection is great, and there are many very knowledgeable and helpful staff members who give honest recommendations rather than pushing junk to meet sales quotas. The spirits section is good if you’re looking for small and local producers but the prices are not very competitive for mid shelf spirits. Basically I buy all my beer here, trust the wine recommendations, and buy my spirits elsewhere. I really can’t say enough about the beer selection and prices though. Love it.

I was looking for some very specific brand and size items, and though I usually go to the biggest oldest alcohol supplier in Boulder, they did not have either of item and I learned that store has some new management people. So I trekked around town and found one somewhere else, but both in fact were here.
The prices here are actually quite competitive, on these items and some others I bought in the past. They are now promoting a $ 3/​bottle wine selection (Three Wishes) that looked pretty good. Sound familiar?
For a small store, they do seem to have picked a niche that fits my tastes. They already have some local Oktoberfest beers in too.

I’m not sure if it is a good thing that many know me by my name here ;-) but I am always impressed with their knowledgeable service and selection. I doesn’t matter if I need a basic white for cooking, a high end red for a fancy pants din din, or some amazing craft brews. I love how easy it is to find the local products too!

While I am not a fan of having to shop at a separate store for wine than my dinner ingredients — I have to say that the staff and selection here was pretty good. Also the pricing on the Kenwood Cab was on par with what I’ve paid in California. I appreciated that they had lots of Oregon Pinot’s as well. Just need to get on the great Valle de Guadalupe wines :) The gentleman that came to help me was knowledgeable and helpful.

The guy who helps me there is awesome, I dont know his name but he is ALWAYs so friendly to me. I have wine-​o friends who regularly get together and he is my secret weapon! Regardless of how dumb my questions are he is happy to help. Give that guy a raise.

2012 Review #21:
Whole Foods Wine and Spirits is the Boulder Whole Foods’ way of having a liquor store without actually having the alcohol in the store. This used to be Ace Liquors, and overall it seems like a slight upgrade. They have some ongoing deals, like 10% off a case of wine, but they don’t have the discounts you’d expect for sort of a liquor supermarket.
The selection is actually pretty good. There are some good specialty liquors, beers and wines, but there are some strange holes. They don’t carry Bristol Brewing from Colorado Springs, they don’t carry a lot of Avery, Great Divide or Odell’s. They have some gluten-​free liquor and beer options, and they do highlight locally made or sold items. I was impressed when I walked through and they had wine from Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards. They had only one bottle, though, and it was seriously pricey.
I wandered around for a while, basically trying to beg an employee to come help me, but the only free employee was basically standing around chatting about nothing with some customers who weren’t buying anything. I eventually went to them and asked if they had anything else by that Cellar. They said no and basically dismissed me, despite the fact that I was considering buying a seriously pricey bottle of wine. I asked about another specific wine the Vineyard in question made, and they again were really dismissive, telling me «oh you would have had to be at our other store with alcohol, and that sale was like 3 years ago.» Actually, we did go to that sale, that’s how we got the wine in the first place. We liked it, and we wanted more, but they made it clear we couldn’t get it from them. There aren’t a lot of liquor stores that are really convenient for me in Boulder, so I’ll probably end up coming back here but it’s not my preference.