Val De Cole Wines & Spirits

I have very mixed feelings about this shop.
They sometimes have great deals, however, the people who work there are so unwelcoming.
They are either outside smoking and talking on their cell phones, or on the phone inside. They can be abrupt and down right rude.
I’ve asked for different kinds of wine, then told to go to Acme up the block, a deli/​mini-​mart, it’s not good enough for them.
Yet they also sell some of the cheapest vodkas, and other terrible hard liquors that will kill you.
Recently I got some great bottles that normally go for $ 25 a bottle for 3 bucks! You can understand why it’s a love hate relationship.

mediocre liquor store — typically overpriced. I had to buy a bottle of vodka for a party close by, so it was the only shop on the way. Who is the witch behind the counter? Or was she just being witchey because it was Halloween?

I’m giving my local wine shop only 2 stars because lately every time I go in to purchase wine (which is weekly – sometimes bi-​weekly – don’t judge) the lady the owner has working during the day until he gets in around 7pm, is rude, cold, annoyed that I’m asking her questions about a certain wine and then the last straw was Sunday when I went to return a bad bottle of wine that I got there on Friday. It happens to the best wineries! One bottle in the batch will sometimes be bad and every time I receive the unlucky bottle, I have no problem returning it to the vendor – that is until Sunday. The mean woman was working and this time she was outside on the phone smoking a cigarette. I hesitated to go up to her because I didn’t want to interrupt her but I didn’t have time to wait for her to finish her call and smoke so I approached her and she hung up fast and looked at me like she wanted to hit me for interrupting her. I told her – in that sweet voice you all the sudden get when you’re trying to be the nicest, sweetest and least confrontational person on earth – that the bottle of wine I purchased from her on Friday was no good and asked her if I could exchange it. She rolled her eyes and said, «NO. You have to wait for boss to get here tonight at 7pm!» I asked again if I could just simply switch the bottles and she said NO. I then left the bad bottle on the counter and ran out muttering something about how I’ve spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars in that store – blah blah blah. She completely ruined my night. I had tears in my eyes when I met up with my fiancé. This was one of my favorite things about my neighborhood and being treated like that felt like a punch in the stomach. If the owner would fire her and hire someone with some people skills who actually knows wines and l would consider going back and changing my rating to a higher score because the wines and wine prices are some of the best in the city.

This shop is hugely underrated.
To be fair, it doesn’t look like much. I have this attitude about local wine shops: I assume they’re either super-​fancy (and out of my price range) or they’re mediocre (and I’m probably better off at BevMo/​TJs/​Safeway anyhow). I would occasionally buy stuff here (what, I don’t remember) but I basically regarded these purchases as a sort of «shop local» charity, did all my stocking-​up at the big box stores, and otherwise ignored the place for the entire eight years I’ve been living in this neighborhood.
Then one day I needed a bottle of wine on short notice and I didn’t know what to get, so I asked the lady behind the counter to find me something nice for ten dollars with a screw top. She did. And it was FANTASTIC. It was easily better than any of the ‘great wine scores’ I’d found for the same price at the places I usually shopped. Everyone I shared it with loved it. (For the record, this was a Mercer Canyon Cabernet, and I’m only sharing that info because I kept buying until they sold out.)
Apparently, there are a lot of great wines at good prices that you’re only going to find at your local wine shop. The reason for this is that every wine you see on a shelf in a store got there by being evaluated and chosen out of a bunch of other possible wines by the store’s buyer. This selection and procurement represents a certain amount of work. Big box stores only have a few people doing this work. Therefore, they have to choose wines that are produced in large enough quantities to stock all of the stores in that chain that the buyer is responsible for. This is a massive amount of wine, and there are many, many smaller wineries that produce good wine, but not enough of it to make it worth it to be chosen by a big box store.
A wineshop, however, can afford to offer these smaller wineries, and (in a mom and pop shop) you’re quite likely to get referred a wine that was chosen buy the actual person selling you the wine. It’s also way, WAY more convenient not to have to stock up on wine (because there’s a store two blocks away where you can get it any time) which involves using a car (and parking, and traffic, and more parking) and finding storage space for it when you get home (rent is about $ 5/​mo per square foot now dontcha know). I have a totally different attitude about local shops now :)

I am a big wine lover. This place is my local wine shop and I couldn’t ask for anything more. The guy that owns the place always has a great opinion of great red wine. I have never had a bad bottle of wine actually! You can also get beers and liquor (liquor is a bit overpriced). I have had some great bottles of wine for under $ 10.

Ask Behrooz about what’s good and he will steer your towards a fantastic bottle for somewhere around ten bucks! A SF gem!

Plusses: They have some good, cheap wine and good, expensive wine. Prices are comparable to listed prices – sometimes higher and sometimes lower than online. Decent beer selection as well and I like the musty dusty european ship’s hold atmosphere.
Minuses: The woman who we asked to show us some selections of Burgundy around $ 40 a bottle didn’t seem to know anything about wine. She showed us a bottle or two of burgundy and several other French and non-​French reds which weren’t even similar to burgundy – basically anything expensive she had and some over $ 60.
Moral: If you’re going to shop here, know your wine. Know what you like. Don’t expect advice and you’ll do fine.

They have consistently good wine for the price. The very picky might want something higher end, but dollar for quality, this is the best wine in the city. You can more or less pick at random and get good bottles. In fact, I’ve never had a bad bottle here. I’ve stopped buying wine anywhere else.
For other liquor, I wouldn’t shop here. Their beer and spirits are overpriced. Go here for the wine.

Good selection of wines, can do better with liquor. Dang it, when I want Jaigrmeister or Goldshlager shots off the back of a Castro lady-​boy prostitude, I want it now!!!
Decent prices too.

Great shop. Great wines! Low prices. Smells funny. :)

Great neighborhood wine store that we happened upon after brunch at Zazie (yum!). Got three bottles of wine, all under $ 10. Checked prices on the net when we got home and they were all at least a few dollars less than the lowest prices we found. A lot of choices here in a somewhat chaotic order. At least, we couldn’t figure out the order, but that made wandering through the shop more interesting.

Anytime, I need to pick up wine or beers, this is my place to stop. They have reasonable prices and a decent selection of wines and beers to choose from.
The store clerk at night is friendly and likes to watch TV. My only suggestion would be no min charge for credit cards and open late at night.

I like a place that has flowers outside for sale. This place is the type of place to have flowers and booze. That is a good combination. Also the dude who I bought flowers from told me to get more expensive ones… so I did.
Why would I want to argue? They also have some pretty decent scotch, if that’s your thing. It’s mine.

+‘s: Near N-​judah stop.
-‘s: Smells like musky old balls.
Good beer and wine selection. There’s always some cheap wine on special. The guy who works there is inconsistent, sometimes friendly and sometimes cold. He occasionally cards me (22), but mostly doesn’t. He should know me and my partner by now! We’re there at least once a week. Maybe that’s just hurting my feelings. There is some weird back room that I haven’t visited and there is a big fugly stinky rug outside of the beer cooler. This place is a good neighborhood wine store but not worth traveling to from outside of Cole Valley/​Haight.

Yeah okay, li’l on the dusty side but you can find some decent wines here that don’t break the bank. Just found a winner, River Road Pinot for about 15 bucks. Fruit forward on the lighter side with low tannins and oh, so easy to drink! The owner recommended it. Just bc they sell less expensive wines doesn’t mean that they don’t know their stuff.
Oh yeah, you can buy tons of beer boozey in the back.

Let’s make one thing clear: this is *not* a corner liquor/​convenience store, it’s a real wine store. However, the aura inside is more shabby than snooty, and they have by far the most dirt-​cheap wines of any shop in the city (see the $ 2.99 close-​out bins). I decided to keep it classy with a couple of $ 8.99 bottles of Cycles Gladiator, but still, I appreciated the fact that I could slum it, especially in Cole Valley of all places. But hey, that’s the CV magic – where else would you see a grizzled old cigarette-​smoking barfly-​looking type show up to grab his booze… in a SmartCar?

Great if you need to run in and get a last minute bottle, but their selection of $ 10 — $ 20 California wines is limited. They do have many foreign wines and «specials», but they are typically not as good.
There beer selection is above par. They’ve got a great 22 oz bottle assortment that is great for a Saturday couch potato session.

Val De Cole now carries 21 Amendment Brewery’s (
) Hell or High Water Watermelon Wheat Beer — Take that BevMo!
My liver just cried a little knowing this beer will now be available in walking distance from my house…
Oh yeah: cool owners, decent wine selection and the fact that they hooked up a generator to power the store when the power went out in the neighborhood a few months back shows their commitment to destruction of your liver! Again, take that BevMo!

The wrong expectation is set with their name — *Wines & Spirits* makes it sound like they’re a wine shop first. Calling it *Val De Cole Spirits & Some Dusty Bottles of Average Wine, Several Coolers of Beer and a Guy Sitting Behind the Counter with His Eyes Glued to Jerry Springer* would set the right expectation.
Nothing wrong with that. If I drove over there because I was looking for a high end, small production bottle of wine suggested by the oenophile behind the counter, I’d be disapointed. If I walked in looking for a bottle of vodka, a couple cases of beer and a quick lesson on how best to pull the hair of my mother if she sleeps with my boyfriend, I’d be set and maybe even happy that I’d been able to do a little multi-​tasking.

Val de Cole could be many things. For awhile I used to think it was a bar and the owner frequently butted heads with his counterpart at Kezar for dominance of the block.
I put my mafioso delusions aside and discovered its almost something better; a pretty awesome liquor store.
We could go on and on about what it doesn’t have but let’s focus on the real reason this place is here: sweet delicious booze.
At first, I used to think this place sucked. I think I came in for something like a red bull and a gatorade and found they were out of both. I came back to purchase some beer and found myself spending about 15 minutes in the process, trying to decide what to buy. I love beer. Not (always) in a «hey, let’s get tanked right now!» sort of way but more like a «wow I’ve never tried this, it might be good» sort of way. Val De Cole has many varieties of Rogue, Speakeasy and New Belgium 6 packs and that’s only like one of the cases. The rest are filled with other delicious european beers or other brews that should appeal to all tastes. They do have a good area of 22oz bottles including bottles of one of my favorite «up and coming» varieties, St. Peter’s.
Add this to the fact that the guy who’s usually working the front is a pretty helpful guy and you’ve got a winner. I agree he probably looks a little creepy but if you strike up a conversation, he’s nothing but nice and humorous. If you need something not available at Val de Cole, he’s pretty helpful in directing you where to get it (this answer is usually Alpha Market).
I’m not saying you need to go out of your way to get here, but if you need a place to find some good booze in Cole Valley, I can’t really think of anywhere better than Val De Cole.