The Wine Cellar

I’ll start out by saying that the Wine Cellar had an awesome offering of wine. There are some hard-​to-​find vineyards and I even found a bottle of fun wine from Lebanon. Not so much any more.
He is expensive – especially in the Northwest suburbs where we have a dozen wine shops from which to choose.
The Wine Bar used to be a fun, happening spot, too. Seems he’s lost all interest in that side of the house.

Great service from the owner of the store. I was on a wild goose chase for two bottles of particular wine. He was able to supply one from his store, but unfortunately did not stock the second. He went out of his way to locate the local distributor of this wine and from its database showed me where they had it in stock even though it was one of his competitors. He then drew a map for me to get there as I was unfamiliar with that area. Great ‘customer comes first’ service. Will definitely return.

I see lovely Larry has since seen my review and responded with nothing other than pure lies and vulgarity. Thank you for staying true to yourself Larry, it only supports what people have said about you.

Wanted to share a recent experience with Wine Cellar.
My wife has been looking for Rock Hill bourbon and it’s been hard to find in our area.
Last week she stopped by the Wine Cellar and to her delight found a bottle. She decided to buy it for my anniversary gift. When she went to pay for it the lady advised it would be 89.00. Normally Rock Hill is about $ 45 to $ 50 per bottle.
When she said that seemed high she was told that was the price take it or leave it.
She purchased the bottle anyway.
When I opened my gift I was delighted until she mentioned that the price seemed a bit high. She told me she paid $ 89.00. I said that seemed like double. I checked on line and easily found several sellers with a less than $ 50.00 price. I bought 2 bottles shipped from California for $ 119.00.
When she went back to return the bottle and get a refund, Larry only refunded the price of the bottle and said ‘we’ve already paid the tax so you don’t get the $ 9.00 sales tax back.‘
Doubling the price is one thing but I’ve never had a store refuse to refund the sales tax on a return.
Both practices mean we won’t be back to the Wine Cellar again.

I always get the impression that I am disturbing it the person sitting at the front. Of the three times I’ve been in here, I’ve been the only one. I can see why. The location probably isn’t as suitable as they’d like. It comes at the end of a strip mall where a lot of the other stores are vacant. When I enter there are unopened boxes of wine on the ground that you seemingly have to step over.
While they do have a wide variety of wine and beer, the beer is always in not the best condition. I found a scotch ale that had been released in 2011. Held up to the light, the beer had petered out for quite some time. Same goes for all the IPA’s that are left in a colder-​than-​should-​be fridge.
If you are looking for wine, you’ve probably come to the right place. However, the beer isn’t the most taken care of. Hit up Cardinal in downtown Palatine if you’re looking for beer.

Excellent selection of wines, separated by country of origin. Incredibly knowledgeable owner, who will gladly discuss wine with less knowledgable people (like me) without being condescending. Excellent customer service. It is the best selection of wines in the county. Very nice guy. Excellent, high-​end selection of Scotch, Tequilas and non-​wine drinks. One more thing I noticed is despite the superb selection, prices are less than Bin-y’s Bev-​rage D-​pot on the Rye and Scotch. The Wine Cellar is wonderful.

I’m so upset I have lived in Palatine for 3 years and never came here until last week!!! Brandon (I think, I’m bad at names) helped us pick some GREAT wines. We had an ’89 Bordeaux that my husband loved and was very reasonably priced, and a beautiful 2003 Ribera Del Duero from Aalto that is probably in my top 10 of wines ever. I won’t even tell you some of the other stuff we picked up because it is so hard to find and I don’t want everybody running here and taking it!
We also happened to be there on a Thursday which is when they do wine tastings. It is $ 20 a person and we got to try five interesting wines made only in limited production. Three were pinot noirs and it was so fascinating to taste them all up against each other and see how different each could be.
So, long story short, I’ve found a new place to blow my paycheck!

Very friendly staff/​owners. Amazing selection. Truly a hidden gem in the NW Burbs!

I can’t say enough good things about this place. Who would think you’d find such a stellar wine shop in the middle of a Palatine strip mall?!
My brother who lives overseas is a huge wine-​o and always makes this one of his first stops when he comes home and definitely gives Larry and The Wine Cellar a huge stamp of approval.
I myself am first really getting into wine and the couple times I have gone in on my own Larry has been incredibly helpful and knowledgable. He knows everything about every bottle of wine in that store and says he’s tasted every one. And you know, I absolutely believe him!
If you want a true neighborhood, personal shopping experience you MUST stop into The Wine Cellar!

The man who runs this shop, Larry, knows so much about wine that it is, frankly, amazing. He has a wine cellar in his own basement. The extensive shop has a vast selection of wine in every price range. Larry knows all these people who run vineyards. I was looking for Palliser wines… no one sells them in the US retail (just at expensive restaurants like Nomi where I got hooked on it)…he called the vineyard and got me a case of my favorie sauvignon blanc. I drive two hours roundtrip to buy from this place. If you need wine or wine advice or want to attend a tasting, there is no other place to go in the burbs.