The Wine Thief

Love this wine store. Be sure to catch their wine tastings; they always have something interesting and someone knowledgable to talk about the wine. They do a great job stocking their liquor, too.
Their displays always make me want to buy something, but be sure to ask for advice, too. It’d be a shame to miss out and not score the perfect bottle.
Prices can be good — especially with their case discount — but sometimes it feels like the good prices take some digging around.

Great wine store. Great place to pop in and buy a bottle of wine as a gift. Knowledgeable staff, clean, bright store. Very pleasant purchase experience.

by far the best wine store in CT. amazing and helpful staff that is truly knowledgable about the stuff they’re selling. i love how they emphasize esoteric and overlooked grapes/​regions. highly highly recommend this place!

Customer service is written all over this place. As a dedicated wine enthusiast, I appreciate immensely the large selection of diverse wines, beers, and other liqueurs they offer. I was personally helped by their educated and enthusiastic sommelier Jeanine, who helped me identify wines that fit my palate as well as introduce me to hidden gems of the wine world (such as Greek and Slovenian wine). Their Friday wine tastings were also a delight to look forward to after a week at work, and the knowledge and pizzazz brought into each helped me learn more about wine as well as helped me explore my palate. Finally, they have a wide selection of unusual liqueurs that are otherwise difficult to get your hands on. Overall, this store serves the high-​end niche that other stores do not.

Positives:
1.)The store itself is beautiful, clean with many esoteric selections.
2.)All price points from budget friendly to a few wallet busters that I noticed.
3.)Pricing is +/​-​everywhere else and to be honest I wouldn’t complain if it’s $ 2 more than another store since I’m sure the rent for this location is astronomical.
That being said, for having the reputation that the Thief has then your customer service game better be top notch. I’m very disappointed since all of the other Unilocal reviewers brag about their customer service and knowledge. A simple «hello» or a «can I help you?» would’ve been great when we walked in the door or how about a «thank you» after I made my purchase and supported your establishment. That was so disappointing. Hey, I get it. Working weekends suck especially when it’s nice out, but that’s retail. Employee (s) seemed uninterested in helping or communicating with customers. Guess I picked the wrong day to stop in.

High quality spirits, a wide selection of wines, and plenty of craft beer (much of which is already refrigerated) to boot! The staff is very knowledgeable and friendly, which always makes for a quality experience. They’re not pushy not do they try to upsell you at every turn. They take your preferences and needs into perspective and offer selections that fit that (without being pushy about it).
Not sure what else you could ask for when purchasing wine and spirits! This is a favorite of mine. Only downfall is that it can be tough to find parking really close (other than the lot across the street which is $ 4 for the first hour I believe).

Since I live just behind the store, at least once in a week I stop by here. I’m always happy with all the stuffs, they are all helpful and very respectful, but what happens today is another story :(I asked this lady to bring me 6 pack of beer from inside and when she left to the other room to bring me beer, she gave the other guy a sign to watch me. Really ???

As a grad student living downtown, Wine Thief is a great place to go for a quick bottle of wine before a dinner party or to celebrate after finishing a paper. They have a vast selection of wines and they also sell beers. They even have the mini airplane bottles of hard liquor. The only downside is the price, but I guess that’s to be expected in this area. If only there was a student discount! A grad student can dream, can’t they?

The store has a great selection of top-​shelf liquors, but they markup the price on everything by 20−35%, which is substantial when one is interested in buying a high end whiskey, scotch, or liquor. Products that usually cost $ 50 were listed here as $ 60+, and items normally costing $ 60, were listed at $ 80+. If they had sensible pricing, I’d consider giving them my business. For now, I’ll stick to Total Wine and More or even some of the various local shops. I looked all over the shop at various items and I didn’t find a single liquor not excessively marked up. Most Unfortunate…

Amazing selection of liquor, wines, spirits, whatever you need with the approachable, knowledgeable, and friendly staff that a former college student didn’t really appreciate.
College was Dubra. No wonder how intelligent I thought I was. A budget is a budget. Return 3 yrs later on a business trip while staying at the Omni … where could I find a sensible bottle of wine for an old college companion shall I say that I had to get to know again?
In comes the Wine Thief. Around the corner and reasonable prices as well for every budget. Can’t think of a better vendor if you’re looking past 30 racks of Keystone and handles of Dubra.

I’ve been a patron of the Wine Thief far more often than I care to admit. For a smaller shop they stock an amazing selection of wines, beers, whiskeys, gin, aperitifs, bitters… pretty much anything you would require for a well-​stocked home bar. The staff here is great as well. I totally appreciate people who know enough to recommend a good, pricier bottle of wine when you’re in the mood but don’t throw you the side-​eye when you simply require a sub-​$ 7 bottle of red that won’t make your sangria taste disgusting.
The quality and diversity of the beers is also a definite highlight, both for six-​packs and larger individual bottles. They always have at least a few options from my brewery of choice, Stone, but I normally make a point to buy a completely random six-​pack as well just to branch out a little bit. 90% of the time it’s worked out great, and they’ve even introduced me to a few of my current favorites.
Some of their liquor prices are a little higher than you would find in a huge store, but the convenience of having such a great shop in downtown New Haven makes that a moot point. They also do tastings, so you really have no excuse not to check them out!

Most reviewers have already covered what a gem of a place this liquor store is. Located conveniently in downtown New Haven, it’s easy to get to from the areas surrounding the Green and even Wooster Square.
The staff is very knowledgeable. I recently called about a bourbon that isn’t well known outside of my home state, which also happens to be the birthplace of bourbon. Most people don’t know the small distilleries very well, but Wine Thief did. They immediately knew which bourbon I was referencing and they actually had it in stock! Even better, they held it behind the counter until I could come and packaged it nicely since it was a host gift for a recent dinner party.
If you need a drink in New Haven, check out the Wine Thief next time and you won’t be disappointed!

Very clean and polished. Decently sized, although not huge. Most of the store is dedicated to wines. The awesome part is that they have a little table set up dedicated to letting you sample some of their stock. In addition, I’ve heard that you can get a $ 8 bottle of wine there that tastes about triple its price.
I came for their beer, so I can say that their selection is pretty small but pretty good. Their selection consists of the fridges along the back and a square shelf thing in front of the fridges that has probably over 60 different bottles of beer. They sell things loosely and in 6 packs.
Make sure you ask if there’s anything at all that they can help you with. I came in only knowing that 1) I don’t know a thing about beer and 2) I wanted to get some special craft beer to bring back to Maryland that I couldn’t find in Maryland.
I told the cashier my predicament, trying not to sound like a lost high schooler. He told me he had just the thing, and went to the back and came back with a four pack of Gandhi-​Bot DIPA which he said was so high in demand they have to hide it in the back unless people ask for it specifically. It’s rated quite highly on several beer rating sites, so I can only assume it’s a good beer. They only came in packs of 4 cans for $ 13.50 (which will be fun to carry back on the 5 hour train ride back to Baltimore).
I’ve seen cheaper beer prices in Maryland, and with so many bars around (especially Gryphon’s at GPSCY) with insanely cheap drinks, there’s no need for a can of beer to be $ 5. However, it’s located right in the heart of downtown and the staff is AMAZING.
If you are visiting new haven and are staying at the Omni… this place is literally RIGHT DOWNSTAIRS. Give it a try!

Besides wine, The Wine Thief has a great variety of craft cocktail ingredients. They stock a diverse array of bitters (celery, Cajun, peychaud’s) and have a nice selection of the more unusual varieties of liquor. This is the only liquor store I know (in the area) that stocks crème de violette, sloe gin and falernum. Worth a visit if you are looking for more obscure ingredients.

beer selection is all i really looked at, and it was pretty good — lots of single bottles and bombers, some i havent seen around often. some cold ones too. kinda upscale vibe.

Note: This is not a place where wine is supposed to be stolen. But I made that joke when we walked in and I dared my friend to try it. She declined.
We walked into a wine tasting and it was pretty interesting. The guy hosting the tasting was from Italy supposedly but that could have been a load of crap. He talked about a bunch of aromas, tastes, and wine-​making steps that I had no clue about. I ate it all up and was very impressed. I got one of the wines he was pushing and 3 others that he recommended after I asked. Everything was reasonably priced and the first two bottles we tried were very satisfying.
Definitely a cool spot that I will make a stop at if I am in the neighborhood again. :)

Fun place to shop. I especially appreciate that they know the background and tasting notes on the wines that they stock, it’s not just a liquor store full of random bottles. They also have a lot of interesting mixers that I have not found anywhere else. It’s a treat to come here.

Despite the word «wine» in the name, the Wine Thief has a great beer selection. There are lots of American craft brew brands as well as uncommon European (and other international) imports. I was there for wine so I didn’t get to spend much time looking at the beer selection, but I was impressed with what I saw. It looked like most their beer selection was sold in large bottles, but there were a couple fridges with a variety of six-​packs as well.
As for the wine selection, the place is laid out well and ordered nicely. Wines are categorized by type and by origin. There was a varied price range to choose from — I saw bottles of Cabernet from $ 10 to $ 250.
The girl who helped us out was friendly and happy to answer our questions about the wine.

Top shelf wine and liquor store. Their whisky selection isn’t huge, it’s big enough, but it’s extremely well selected. You won’t find bottlings that sat on the shelf for very long, on the contrary you may find a few whiskies that literally JUST came to market and are so new that you’ll have a hard time finding reviews about them. Very nice!
I will say that the prices are a few bucks higher than usual, maybe $ 5 or $ 10 more than what you can find them for if you shop around.

This liquor store is by far the best within walking distance from the Yale Campus.
Although it’s a little pricey, the Wine Thief makes up for it in service and selection. I never feel awkward about asking for advice, even when it’s as vague as «What’s a good wine for a rainy day like this?» or «I’m getting a gift for Professor X who comes in here a lot. What would he like?»
I have yet to make it to one of its scheduled tastings, but there are usually a few bottles cracked at the register for me to try on my way out.
I love the experience of going to this store, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.