Another day, another strange wine store experience...

Earlier this week, I had received a "mistake" price on a bottle of 2005 Burgundy at Gordon's Wine in Waltham, MA [see my prior thread from this week]. They didn't treat me so well. Today, I had ANOTHER mistake experience at another Boston-area wine store, Brookline Liquor Mart. I've had not-so-great experiences with that store in the past, but today my experience was excellent.

I was in the area, so I poked into Blanchard's and BLM. At BLM, they had a bottle of Domaine Saint Martin/Rene Lesec Bonnes Mares 2001 for $70. I'd never seen this bottling before, but I've had the Saint Martin Santenay and Fixin in the past, and the bottles are correctly made, if not to my style. (It's not like, say, buying a bottle of 1990's Albert Bichot [apologies in advance to the Bichot lovers in the forum, but the next good bottle of Bichot I encounter will be my first]).

Anyways, I figure that for $70 and an OK vintage and producer, a bottle of Bonnes Mares is worth the flyer. I pay, and make it almost all the way back to Waltham when I discover that they charged me $100 for the bottle. I pull over, call my girlfriend at work, and she checks online and confirms its listed at $100 on the BLM website.

So, I U-turn and make my way back to BLM, fully expecting to return the bottle (which I didn't want at the $100 price). When I got there and told them of the mistake, not only did they INSIST (over my protestations) that I take the bottle at $70, the manager offered me some nice looking Italian cookies because he felt bad that I'd had to go back and forth from Waltham. (I declined the offer).

I thought this was a nice contrast to the way I was treated (rather, laughed at) at Gordon's, and was a distinct improvement upon past experiences at BLM.

As an aside: does anyone know of any decent wine stores in the Boston/MetroWest area? The ones I go to are Blanchards, BLM, Gordon's, and Berman's.

Things seem to have gone down hill a bit at Gordons since David Raines left although they always seem quite busy so they must be doing well. Some of the staff there seem a bit less knowledeable these days and a bit quicker to quote Parker scores. It sort of reminds me of the scene from Jurraisic Park where the math geek was saying that the danger was that they didn't gain any knowledge themselves the just piggy backed on other work.

BLM was much better 10-20 years ago when Classic and BLM were one in the same.

I've scaled my buying back the last 5 years but Wine Cask in Somerville, Post Road in Weston/Wayland and Vintages in Belmont Ctr and West Concord are worth a visit. I haven't been to Silene's in Waltham in years but it might be worth a stop.

Berman's is the place where I had my "famous" Pol Roger incident that I mentioned in another thread. Again, much better years ago when Mark Sachs was there. Joel certainly knows his stuff but he's not there much from what I'm told.

Tom T.

Hi,
If you're willing to venture out to the 'Burbs, try Busa Wines in Lexington (55 Bedford St).
The wine manager has been there for years and really knows her stuff. The managers and staff are really nice and are willing to help. There is a good selection of wines from $10-30 that changes quite often. They are often way ahead of the trends.

I've been going there for over a decade, and they have never steered me wrong.

Gordon's is right in my girlfriend's backyard, so I'm there all the time. They still have the best selection of burgundy that I've seen in the area, albeit overpriced compared to NYC. The problem is that far too many of the bottles show signs of improper storage. Lots of wine-stained labels and seepage marks. I pretty much stay away from any bottles that look like they've been there more than a year. Their prices are generally right in line with Blanchard's and less than BLM, so run-of-the-mill Massachusetts prices. Their Italian selection remains excellent, I think, but Italian wine isn't really my thing.

The difference b/w BLM in 2004, when I first visited the store, and today, is astounding. They used to get tons of random Classic Wines bottles at great prices. I once picked up this shoulda-been-awful 1990 Remoissenet village white for $15 that remains my benchmark for aged white burgundy.

Silene's is...OK. My girlfriend works very near there, so I go sometimes. Overpriced for what they have. They don't raise the prices on some of their older "rare" bottles from when they entered the store, and I've taken risks on a couple of those with decent results. Storage is again an issue, though. The pricing on the 2005's and newer is prohibitive, IMO

Things seem to have gone down hill a bit at Gordons since David Raines left although they always seem quite busy so they must be doing well. Some of the staff there seem a bit less knowledeable these days and a bit quicker to quote Parker scores. It sort of reminds me of the scene from Jurraisic Park where the math geek was saying that the danger was that they didn't gain any knowledge themselves the just piggy backed on other work.

BLM was much better 10-20 years ago when Classic and BLM were one in the same.

I've scaled my buying back the last 5 years but Wine Cask in Somerville, Post Road in Weston/Wayland and Vintages in Belmont Ctr and West Concord are worth a visit. I haven't been to Silene's in Waltham in years but it might be worth a stop.

Berman's is the place where I had my "famous" Pol Roger incident that I mentioned in another thread. Again, much better years ago when Mark Sachs was there. Joel certainly knows his stuff but he's not there much from what I'm told.

Tom T.