Great Wine Buys

Huge 10 stars for customer service. I called them up and it turns out they had closed for the day. I told them if they would stay open for another 15 I’d come by and make it worth their while.
The owner let us in and his knowledge of wine was beyond impressive. He carries very small labels and bottles from local vineyards with small acre production that you will never see at Costco.
Give these ppl your business. They deserve it!

Love this place! Knowledgable staff, great selection of wines and a wide variety of prices depending on what you want to spend. It’s great to get 1 on 1 help when buying wine!

Always on it great knowledge about every wine & I just simply just appreciate them & the prices

Of the many things I miss about living in Portland, this wine shop is one of them!
John, Murray and the whole team there are friendly, knowledgeable and they provide an excellent wine experience for ALL levels of wine consumers.
The GWB team took the time to learn my palate and had a selection of wines from all the world for me to explore. Whether your are stocking the cellar in bulk, looking for an everyday drinker or in need of something for a special occasion, Great Wines Buys has multiple options from which you can choose.
And, it is not just about selling wine. Get on their email list and you’ll receive plenty of information about wine as well as invites to a number of fun/​education events with other people in the wine industry.

I love Great Wine Buys! Ever since my first visit in 2007, I have been hooked! John knows what I like so well that I always call ahead and have him use his discretion to put together a case or two in the price point I’d like to be in. He is always spot on. The other day, they even brought the wine and credit card slip directly out to my car because me 3 year old was asleep — you don’t get any better than that!
My only complaint is that I rely on John so much for selection help that when I go to a restaurant or am forced to buy wine elsewhere — I’m handicapped. I need an ‘ask John’ wine app on my phone.
I can’t recommend this place strongly enough. The whole crew is friendly and helpful, the prices are great, and the selection is fantastic. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

Asked for help, and unlike the other reviews, we had to wait. I’ve been treated better elsewhere, for sure.

Walked in and asked to be directed to the best cab/​cab-​blend for $ 20 and was spared the snobbery I have come to dread when walking into a wine store with a budget.
Helpful and friendly with lots of info on coming events.
I’ll be back soon and highly recommend.

John and his crew are they best! It’s amazing when I come in and they say, we think you will like this, from what you liked last time. These guys are worth building a relationship with, they are great for large business orders, Friday nights on the porch and the perfect pairing for a high end party. It is a perfect example of a local business that I think is worth making a part of your life.

Excellent Selection, Knowledgeable Staff, Reasonably priced and interesting tastings.
Our wine group meets every Friday and has met at GWB for years. We love it here. It can be crowded depending on the tasting, but it doesn’t compromise the atmosphere at all.
Love this place.

Do they have knowledgable staff to help you? YES
Do they have a lot of wines from different regions and varietal? YES
Do they wines for every price point? YES
Case discounts? YES
This is my go to place for pairing wines with different meals and for tasty wines to drink on their own. I’m famous for purchasing way more wine than I intended here.
Recommend having the staff help you find exactly what you are looking for. The selection here is daunting and they will guide you to exactly what suites your taste and needs.

Great wine shops on NE Broadway. Fantastic selection especially of NW wines. Free tastings on Saturday afternoons and a knowledgeable staff.

Oh my goodness this place is wonderful. As someone who is going to school to study wine, I found Great Wine Buys very well organized and easy to find what I wanted. The sales person was incredibly helpful in answering my questions. I found a Sancerre from 1996 that was under $ 40 — an amazing price if you ask me. Wonderful selection and great service. I can’t wait to go back.

This is a good place to buy wine. John in particular is very helpful and knows his wines. This is not a large shop, but it is a good shop with a great selection of wine at a fairy ice.

There is very little that needs to be said about Great Wine Buys. These guys all know their stuff.
Terrific, terrific, terrific.
The selection is amazing, prices are competitive and wide-​ranging. Quality, attention to detail and customer service is the best in Portland.
Cheers fellas!

Birthday presents for your former bff now boyfriend’s mom are tricky. You want to get it right. You want her to enjoy it. You don’t want to outshine your bf. Well port and chocolate seemed to be the way to go (at his suggestion). Sadly, I know nothing about port and certainly had no idea where to go to find a decent one. So I did my homework and made a list. I then texted my wino aunt for a place to go and she suggested Great Wine Buys.
I walked in and while the steward was helping another customer I perused the selection. While it is a smaller shop it was great to see a lot of local varieties (on the list of types of port to get mom). Not finding the ports (on the corner in the back) I asked when the steward was free. He was very helpful and even wrapped it up nicely for me!
When anyone asks about wine and where to go I will send them here.

Went to a wine tasting in Yachats and had some Guild Winemakers Red Lot #3. Only bought one bottle. what the heck was I thinking?
Must drink more!
Must have more on hand!
Must get a deal!
Lot #3.
What does that mean?
I’ll tell you what!
It will be gone and Lot #4 will be up next.
Went to the Guild website and
it made me all the more anxious.
Get your Lot #3 now before it’s all drunk!
Immediately contacted GWB
and sure enough John was on it!
I got a few cases left, he replies.
And it’s cheaper by the dozen.
Give me a box of 12 please!
Put my name on it!
How do you spell Sherry?
Like the wine I say back!
Phew!
Saved by GWB again!

GWB has been open and successful for a long time, and it shows. They have a pretty large selection that spans the globe, with a definite focus on Nowrthwest wines and Pinot Noir.
The case of the month (for $ 102!) has been a godsend many times over, taking the guesswork out of putting together my own case and rarely producing a bottle I didn’t like.
The staff definitely knows their juice and they’re always happy to steer you toward the perfect bottle.

I’m basically a cerveza guy. Oregon is like beer heaven, but recently I’ve been doing a little wine tasting, and have dropped into Great Wine Buys a couple of times. Friday nights seems to be prime tasting time and the place is full of happy people heel-​toeing it around the place — glass in hand.
I walked in and began looking for an Oregon pinot noir. The resident wine expert, John Kennedy — yep, and he has a brother named Robert — walked up and said: «you bought the J. Christopher the last time you were in. How was it?» Now I’m approaching retirement age, and recently I’ve been walking a lot; not because I want to you understand, but because I can’t remember where I parked my car, so having a young fella like John to remember these things for me is super service.
They have a large selection of wines and I don’t have to remember any of them. Bingo!

Some wine shops I’ve been in have bottles open all the time for tasting. Although I wish that my local shop did this, I have to admit that it’s not exactly fair to expect it.
Great Wine Buys has distributors that find some pretty small wineries in Europe (and elsewhere?), so in addition to having very reasonably priced wine, they also have some special bottles there. I’ve gone in for their Saturday tastings (2 – 5 every week) and been able to taste while talking to the Italian winemaker, using my limited knowledge of Spanish and the interpretation skills of the distributor, who brought the guy over for a distribution tour. Pretty cool!

We were running a tad late for a dinner party at a friends’ house when we suddenly remembered that, since 2 of the 6 adults in attendance are preggo, we were advised to bring booze if we wanted any.
My Lady and I were not actually dying for a drink, but decided we wanted to bring a bottle of wine anyway, but we’re driving down NE Broadway and I don’t really know where we can stop to get one without going out of our way.
«Hey, over there is a Plaid Pantry, I’m sure I can find something there.» I know what you’re thinking, but none of us are wine snobs and we’re in a pinch. But, of course the selection is somewhere between «uggh» and «wtf?»
Luckily another customer sees my look of distress and says, «around the corner there’s a wine shop… like seriously, just around the corner.» Thanks I say, and I book it out the shop…
As promised Great Wine Buys was literally just around the corner (I think there was one shop in between). I run into the kinda small, but not cramped place, and was met by a gaggle of people. Maybe 6 – 10 people seated around a table chatting over their glasses, 2 – 3 other couples browsing the shelves, and a few more scattered around sipping from a glass from in front of one of the many open bottles — they must be doing a Friday wine tasting!
I ran straight to the wall labeled «Oregon Pinot Noirs» — but was unable to quickly find anything less than $ 19 or so. Prices on the bottles were clearly labeled, but I was in a huge hurry, and didn’t have time to figure out the organizational system (didn’t seem to be by price, or alphabetically by name of winery) — so I just asked one of the workers if he could point me towards any Reds that would go well with Thai food in the $ 10 – 20 range.
He immediately pointed a few out, and I picked out 2 really quickly (a $ 12.99 Zin from Central Coast, CA and a $ 13.99 Syrah from the Columbia Valley). Both were quite enjoyable — the Foxglove Zin especially so. And those prices were really no higher than what you’d spend at a quality supermarket.
Based solely on my one limited visit, I’d have said it was a 3* rating — with the potential to earn 4 or even 5*s on a subsequent visit where I could fully explore the place. But I’m gonna give them the 4^th star right now for no other reason than they were in the right place at the right time!
I’d definitely go back to Great Wine Buys, especially if they do wine tastings every Friday!