Acme Fine Wines

Delightful Wine Bar in Saint Helena!
SITREP
It’s not often you get to come to Napa Valley to see a wide variety of wine without it being associated to a specific winery, like Mondavi, or V. Sattui or Beringers, etc.
Acme Fine Wines (Acme) is a great exception to this seeming ingrained rule.
THE SETUP
Located in Saint Helena, in the heart of the Napa Valley along Hwy 29, Acme is in the unique position to not be beholden to any specific winery which allows it to feature many many different wine products and varietals.
Are you like me where maybe you get a little tired of the $ 30 to $ 50 wine tours which sometimes are a prerequisite before you can get to a specific winery’s sales room, or be eligible for a discount?
That’s the beauty of Acme because it permits the wine connoisseur to economize their energies and perhaps taste, and then purchase several different varietals, vintages & wineries at one time:
PLEASANT STAFF
Our wine steward Dylan has been the gentleman I’ve seen the two occasions I’ve been by Acme.
Not only is Dylan (and his colleagues) extremely knowledgeable about ALL the varietals & vintages they feature (and believe me, that is NO small task to keep track of over 100 – 200 wines), since they tend to «play no favorites», they will give you the honest low down and one winery may have had a bad year and which particular vintage you might want to steer clear of and so you can favor another.
This is not the kind of honesty of one’s own products you will find in a specific winery trying to sell their own goods. [Yeah, I’m looking at you Stag’s Leap and some of the terrible bottles you passed off on me years ago when you knew better.]
WINE ART
Something that one may not always appreciate if they tend to stay in a «rut» with the specific wines they get over and over (and over and over AND OVER) again, is the incredible ART in the form of the wine bottle labels that there is. Some of the labels are exquisite. I’ve gotten some bottles just because I wanted the art and didn’t really care so much about the wine inside (I know, I know, «HERESY») ;) These have included:
*Skeletal Cardinal:
*Beautiful Female Torsos Without Arms:
*Covenant (which also happens to share it’s name with one of my favorite Norwegian Bands:
All-​in-​all, there is so much to SEE (more so than most wineries), as well as to taste.
THE LOWDOWN
Acme is a wonderful stop in Napa Valley if you already have been «toured-​out» on expensive winery visits and just want to zone in on some specific varietals.

Why do people join winery wine clubs? I understand getting caught up in the romance of the winery experience but I can’t imagine any single brand of wine I esteem so highly that I’d want to receive it in monthly shipments, month in and month out. Six months in do you open the shipment excitedly or is it more like «hey, more wine from XXX»?
Acme Fine Wines isn’t a winery; it’s a wine shop. Their wine clubs don’t feature one label of wine; they feature any label of wine. Sometimes it isn’t even wine that’s featured. Imagine my surprise when my first monthly box included a Napa Valley Vermouth made by a premier winemaker in his off-​time. This is his little passion project and now it’s mine to try as recommended, poured over ice with a twist of orange peel to accent the aromatics.
Through Acme wine clubs you’re exposed to wine not just from one winery or one winemaker but from the world of wine. Their packages include whatever strikes Acme’s fancy regardless of origin. Along with that Vermouth was a porch-​pounder bottle from Austria and a fine Pinot Noir from a 400 case project out of California’s central coast. The following month included a bottle from a 60-​case offering out of Calistoga, a highly touted Chardonnay from the Santa Maria Valley, and an old-​vine Syrah from France.
Acme benefits by being able to offer all wines and they get a lot of product from small producers who don’t have their own wineries and bigger winemakers who are doing adored little side projects. Their wine clubs offer a really fun way to taste the world of wine and their liner notes (packed inside the carton) read far more interestingly than any others.
Also:
* Acme’s St. Helena store shouldn’t be mistaken as a wine tasting destination. It isn’t. They may have some wines open and may offer a sample but it’s really just a store. Don’t go there looking to do a wine tasting unless you’ve specifically arranged something with them in advance.
* If you go to the store don’t miss the 50 cent soda machine stocked with craft beer.
* Acme has several different wine clubs (check their web site). Through the «Pulse» club you’ll receive 3 bottles monthly for a cost of $ 100, shipping not included. (If you live nearby you can pick your order up from the store and save yourself the shipping costs).
* Acme occasionally hosts in-​store events which allow members the opportunity to meet the winemakers and sample and purchase what they’ve sampled. An upcoming Rhone event sounds like a great excuse to visit. Did you need one?
* «Hey, more wine from XXX» shouldn’t be construed as a bad thing; it’s just that opening a box from Acme is more like a grab bag experience, and elicits far more excitement.

Napa Valley wine shops don’t come much better or more inviting than this. Located on a quiet side street near the railroad tracks only a few blocks away from Highway 29 and within walking distance to downtown St. Helena, ACME offers experienced oenophiles as well as first-​time wine country visitors equal access to some of the valley’s most sought-​after small-​batch and boutique wines. While you can spend to your heart’s content on that prized bottle of Carneros Chardonnay or Oakville Cab, you’ll also have the chance here to taste the offerings of family-​owned vineyards that punch above their weight or sample the small production selections of newer generations of Napa winemakers and vineyard managers who bottle wines under their own labels. And if you get tired of Napa wines, ACME offers many enticing alternatives from other AVAs in California as well as overseas.
What, you might ask? Wine retail in Napa? Why not go right to the source at the wineries or trust the wine steward’s recommendation at the restaurant?
Places like ACME don’t compete directly with the tasting rooms or wine lists but offer instead a third way to try local wines, although with an attractive twist. I think of it by analogy as a kind of wine lovers’ tripod: one leg being the wineries w/​tasting rooms, the second the local restaurants with extensive or simply well-​chosen wine lists, and the third being independently-​owned shops run by locals who themselves love to drink the wines that they put on display. Take away any one of these three legs, and your overall Napa experience is on somewhat shaky ground — and with all that wine drinking going on, staying on one’s feet is exactly what is needed to avoid the dreaded danger of wine country burnout. Break up all those 10 am wine tastings and half bottles at lunch with an afternoon stop at a retail place like ACME, where you can choose outstanding and far-​from-​ordinary wines to take home rather than consume them all at once!
The result is simply a fuller, more well rounded wine country experience. This allows you as an outsider to drink some of the delicious and precious things that Napa insiders do: bottles by friends and colleagues and respected wine-​making families that are often priced in the $ 20 – 60 range, from crisp and fruit-​driven rosé to mineral-​rich floral whites to expressive and indulgent reds like Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Cab Franc, Merlot, and Grenache (
).
The stories behind the bottles are often as attractive as the bottles themselves: French husbands married to American wives who make Provence style wines using Californian vineyards (Julien & Élan Fayard), to family vineyards farmed since the 1860s that still produce some of the valley’s most desirable Cabernet Sauvignon (Hayfork, vinted by Haley Wight). It’s part of the unique pleasure of a visit to ACME that you will discover not just what tastes good in Napa but also learn a little something about who makes it (
).
While ACME is a walk-​in sort of wine shop where you can enter at the spur of a moment and leave with nice bottle of wine for sunset (or sunrise) sipping, you can also contact the staff ahead of time to set up a private tasting. It’s an affordable and elegant way of augmenting your Napa valley visit above and beyond the wine trains and tasting rooms that line Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail. There’s nothing like leaving for home with a few hidden gems for the fridge and cellar. It’s a must-​stop on return visits for their award-​winning combination of appealing wine inventory, artfully arranged retail space, and enthusiastic, experienced, and expertly educated staff.

When you want to discover wines made by the «garagistes» and low volume labels, this is a primo spot. Mostly local wines, but some imports, too.
Space is partnered with Pane & Vino. Best breadsticks I’ve ever tasted. Also the house made salamis are ultra-​premium.
Nice folks own & operate.
Wine tasting by appointment only.

Very disappointed with the customer service. Paid the expense of overnight shipping to have the wine delivered for a present the following day. The wine was shipped a day late and the delivery attempt was made a day after that… so the whole overnight concept goes out the window. The cut rate delivery company used didn’t leave a delivery «attempt» notice on their first late attempt, so no one knew an attempt was made. When contacting the delivery company they said they would not come back that day and they would try again the next day and gave an 8 hour delivery window. We contacted Acme for some help, or at least a forgiveness of the «overnight» expense and they were not interested in accommodating that. Acme informed us that we should have had the alcohol delivered to work to avoid this. Not appropriate when your place of work is a hospital…
Based on other reviews the in store experiences seem positive… maybe the moral of the story is to avoid their online business, or not pay the additional fees for overnight services with any expectations of them being met.

A gem in Saint Helena!!! Do your self a favor and make an appointment to have a tasting. This is a wine shop and not a tasting room for a single winery. They specialize in many small production wines and/​or up and coming places that are going to explode on the market. We did the $ 25 tasting, and since it was a Tuesday afternoon, we were the only ones inside and it felt that much more personalized. I told them what we generally drink and from which producers and they knew exactly how to personalize the flight. Karen and Beth are fantastic. Beth guided us through the flight and she really knew her information [She’s a level 2 sommelier]. We didn’t arrange with the needed 48 hours for the charcuterie, but will have to do that next time. Pours were generous and we walked away with several stellar bottles that I am eagerly awaiting for shipment and to taste.
The room is modern and classy with beautiful wall shelf of wine bottles. Beth and Karen are fantastic and the service is above outstanding. Make sure you go, its an amazing experience.

As with all my reviews, I must give credit when credit is due.
Living in St. Helena I had driven by Acme Fine Wines almost daily — always wondering who would be operating a retail wine shop in a remote corner of downtown St. Helena. Finally, I had know — was this a vanity wine operation or serious retailer/​reseller?
I walked in rather skeptical but was warmly greeted by Erin — one of the resident ACME Fine Wine aficionados.
The space is industrial chic with a minimalist décor. The wines are neatly displayed by bottle on a single wall.
This ain’t no Bottle Barn, BevMo or Dean & Deluca. No boxes, no wooden wine cases, no advertising, no obvious price/​sale tags, handwritten recommendations or wine club brochures — just a display wall chalked full of great Napa vino.
Acme Fine Wines market nothing but «hand picked», «best of breed» boutique Napa product. Of course, you will see some the big cult names routinely revered by cult wine enthusiasts — but more importantly you will see wines that you may not be familiar with. This is where Erin and her colleagues come to the rescue.
I was a bit overwhelmed at the quantity of handpicked treasures on display.
Fortunately, Erin was available to provided detailed information on each and every wine. She was also quite helpful in making suggestions that fit into my budget which was great. It really felt that she was going out of her way to present the best wine for the buck.
I write this review for my fellow oenophiles, wine aficionados and connoisseurs who are not so fortunate to live and work in Napa but are looking for a single point of contact for quality wines sold by seriously oenophiles.
The folks at ACME are people who truly appreciate wine from Napa Valley. It is this passion that will most certainly resonate with most hobbyists like myself, but also with professionals vintners, sommeliers and wine merchants.
I highly recommend that you sign up for the email newsletters and feel free to know that you can place a phone order with confidence.
Hoping this review is helpful to all.

I can’t describe how much fun it was to taste here. Not only that, it’s wonderful to get a knowledge of smaller production wines.
Erin was so helpful in helping us pick wines based on the style we said we liked.
The only glitch is that when it comes time to buying, you might not exactly be in the most clear state of mind. ;)
The wines that we didn’t finish, we corked back up and brought back to the house we were staying at.
It’s really a great experience — much better than a lot of the pretentiousness you can get at a lot of the wineries.

This place is awesome.
We were driving up to Napa and Tra Vigne, the restaurant we booked for dinner, told us that they have no corkage fee for the first bottle! I Unilocaled around the area and found ACME on the list. I called at 7:02 pm and they closed at 7 pm.
It may have been the fact that I was pitifully sad that we missed this place, but the owner Scott asked if I was close by. I told him I was 5 minutes away at Tra Vigne and that we could be there right away. He stayed open for us, and we were able to buy two delicious bottles of Orin Switt wines: D66 and Abstract.
The prices for the Orin Switfts are comparable to BevMo and other discount stores even on the internet. Since the price difference was vast as to the prices we would have paid in the restaurant, coupled with the amazing service, it just made the experience sweeter.
Scott’s friend showed us the tasting room, and explained the bottles to us so that we could fully enjoy it for dinner. We will definitely be back to buy more wine from ACME!!!

These people know wine! Great selection, great events…

I’m the fourth review? Huh!
I make it a point to stop by Acme any time I’m within hollering distance of Hwy 29. Acme is a hub for small, hard to find (ie I’ve never heard of that label before) wines from Napa Valley and beyond. They work directly with vintners and are easily familiar with every wine they stock — both impressive and helpful. It is a refreshing, happy experience every time I step through the door — a total antidote for Big Winery Burnout.
As has been noted, it’s not a tasting room, it’s a specialist shop. They have tasting nights, though, and occasionally there’s a bottle or two open so you can sip something pleasant while you wander around. Most importantly, though, the staff know their stuff, and can /​do discuss any given bottle. They can also work with your tastes and make dead accurate suggestions, which is critically important when one isn’t at all familiar with the small scale vintners they feature (like myself).
We have always worked with Jeff, a personable, witty, and completely down to earth guy. In fact the truly outstanding aspect of Acme is their customer service, both inside and outside of the shop. Inside, for all of the above reasons — but outside, once you’ve left, is really what sets them apart. They’ll occasionally send personal, zero sales pressure emails that maybe they just got more of your favorite pinot in stock, or your favorite vintner is coming in for a tasting night, etc. Their followup sets the bar for other wine specialists.
And as for pricing — as low as $ 15, as high as I’m afraid to imagine. But most are very reasonable — this is not a cult place at all.
5 clicks, and I hope you try it.

Though I live in the wine country, my in-​depth wine knowledge is sparse — white, um, smells like apples; red, um smells like cherries; nice! So in hopes of expanding my wine knowledge, I made my way down the tracks from my house, hung a right and made my way into the refurbished warehouse that now houses ACME wines: wine sales and weekly tastings (Pulse).
High ceilings, clean colors, with a mix of modern and old-​world décor set the stage for lovely, wine tasting experience. I tasted through several wines while having convivial conversation with the wine maker and other patrons. The wine maker was wonderful. He was able to help me articulate what it was that I tasted, and also was able to speak to the nuances of each bottle to more wine-​savvy guests as well.
Pulse: It’s a weekly tasting event at Acme on Fridays from 5 to 7. The setting is casual and welcoming. The wines tasted, which are featured at Acme, are excellent. Usually, the winemaker is present at the tasting, and they have always been very approachable. And best of all, it’s free.
I’ll be there this Friday, hope to see you there.
Cheers,
Malcolm

Wow.
We made our first trip to Napa, my bride and I, a few weeks ago. Our #1 destination was Orin Swift, just south of ACME in St. Helena. Sadly, since we were to be there on a weekend, Mr. Phinney’s establishment was closed. However, despite my Episode III Vader-​esque scream into the phone («NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!»), the OS crew referred us to ACME, where we ultimately started our wine infused day.
Wow.
We had hoped to see Erin, the newest team member and She Who Unknowingly Got Us Into Wine some years ago on a trip to NYC. Instead, we spent time with Tony and David, who were fun, patient, knowledgeable and kind to the neophytes (us). We had arrived in the Napa valley expecting snobbery and derision, but Tony and David immediately changed our perception and attitude. Great guys.
Wine was tasted, tales were told, connections were made, opinions were expressed and advice was given. A splendid time was had by all. Ultimately, we left with a little over a case of wonderful, diverse wines that we would never have had the chance to learn about or taste, and at fantastic prices.
I HIGHLY recommend ACME Fine Wines to anyone who enjoys.. . err.. fine wines. You can call on the phone or order online as well, but I think the magic lies in a visit. If you like wine, you must go to ACME.
Did I mention the «Wow» part? Because there’s that.

This shop is a great place to buy smaller obscure wines that quickly sell out from other spots. I found my 2004 Orin Swift Mercury Head (Cab), 2005 Orin Swift Prisoner, and Three Clicks Sauv Blanc. David is a great guy and really talked it out with me to help me find the exact wines I was looking for.

original posted on
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Date: whenever I am in St. Helena and have a bit of time to kill
Winery: Acme Fine Wines
Owner: David Stevens
Contact: 888.963.0440 — David Stevens
I think a fair amount of folks are familiar with Acme Fine Wines in St. Helena. They are the folks that shares the same office with Switchback Ridge, Realm, Hourglass… etc.
For those of you not familiar, Acme is not a co-​op or tasting room, it’s a shop, although they do produce a label called Shelter. Due to the fact that so many folks share the same space, often time, there are open bottles floating around. Perhaps something from Realm or maybe distributor samples, even bottles David decides to open to entertain guests.
Unlike the small boutique wineries, it’s best to visit Acme on Friday — Sunday. This would be the best time to visit with a chance to sample a few interesting wines and pick-​up some limited production bottling to take home.
Obviously, this not a winery, so please do not plan your visit thinking that it’s a winery tasting counter.
If you do want to stop by and visit, possibly discovering a few new wines, call ahead and talk to David to make sure someone is around.