Wine Stores in or Near Vancouver

[donaldsc]

We are going to be driving to Vancouver from the states to meet our AK cruise.  I want to buy some wine before the cruise.  I also want to buy some more Canadian (Ontonagon) wine after the cruise to bring back home w me.  Any suggestions for a good wine store will be appreciated.  We will have a car.

 

DON

[cruiseryyc]

Presuming you will be staying at least one night prior the cruise in Vancouver, where are you staying?  Much easier to give you a wine store nearby if we know exactly where you'll be.

[Heidi13]

22 hours ago, donaldsc said:

We are going to be driving to Vancouver from the states to meet our AK cruise.  I want to buy some wine before the cruise.  I also want to buy some more Canadian (Ontonagon) wine after the cruise to bring back home w me.  Any suggestions for a good wine store will be appreciated.  We will have a car.

 

DON

 

Throughout Metro Vancouver we have an abundance of Govt Liquor Stores, private beer & wine stores, private specialised wine stores and even some grocery stores now stock BC wines.  

 

To provide some perspective, our Eastern suburbs town of about 90,000, has at least a dozen outlets selling wine. Our local grocery store has the most extensive selection of BC wines, of all the local outlets. Therefore, if looking specifically for BC wines, a grocery store selling wines may be your best option.

 

If you can provide where you will be staying pre/post cruise some of us may be able to provide some specific suggestions.

 

We also have some excellent wineries close to the border, with Chaberton Estate Winery on 216th Street one of our favourites. Using the Aldergrove or Abbotsford border crossings would provide ready access to a number of wineries close to the border.

 

 

[martincath]

Assuming you mean Okanagan wine @donaldsc Don, then with a car you might consider actually driving up there Pre or Post cruise! It's a fairly popular area for minibreaks locally, especially for sunworshippers, and for really limited run wines the only way to get some is to deal direct with the producer.

 

In addition to the gov't liquor stores - look for Signature branches, as they have some extra-well-trained staff as well as a wider selection - some of the private stores sell things that BC Liquor don't due to lack of volume (there's a whole weird legal thing here when it comes to anything with 'Sin taxes' so technically BC Liquor are always involved behind the scenes, but fancier stuff that there might only be a few cases of left after direct sales to regular customers almost never make it to the BC Liquor retail shelves).

 

If you have specific wines in mind, check if BC Liquor has stock first (just use Product Search on the homepage, it'll tell you which if any stores have it and how many bottles are in stock) - if they do, they'll be the cheapest as the discounts for retailers are very slim here, only a handful of popular-but-crap brands ever get sold for less than regular gov't retail price with most private stores instead putting prices higher rather than even matching them.

[donaldsc]

4 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Throughout Metro Vancouver we have an abundance of Govt Liquor Stores, private beer & wine stores, private specialised wine stores and even some grocery stores now stock BC wines.  

 

To provide some perspective, our Eastern suburbs town of about 90,000, has at least a dozen outlets selling wine. Our local grocery store has the most extensive selection of BC wines, of all the local outlets. Therefore, if looking specifically for BC wines, a grocery store selling wines may be your best option.

 

If you can provide where you will be staying pre/post cruise some of us may be able to provide some specific suggestions.

 

We also have some excellent wineries close to the border, with Chaberton Estate Winery on 216th Street one of our favourites. Using the Aldergrove or Abbotsford border crossings would provide ready access to a number of wineries close to the border.

 

 

 

We are driving in and will be staying in Surry the night before the cruise.  After the cruise we will be driving back to the states and not staying in Vancouver.

 

DON

[Heidi13]

3 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

We are driving in and will be staying in Surry the night before the cruise.  After the cruise we will be driving back to the states and not staying in Vancouver.

 

DON

 

Don - Surrey is a huge city that we rarely visit, except driving through to go somewhere else. So unfortunately, I can't suggest any specific stores. May i suggest doing a Google search for Save-on-Foods stores in Surrey selling wine.

 

The best BC wine selection locally is at one of our local Save-on-Foods stores, so I expect the Surrey stores have a similar selection. If no Save-on-Foods is close to your hotel, then a local Govt Liquor store or private beer & wine store should have a reasonable selection. 

[donaldsc]

Thanks to everyone for the info.  It is all very useful.  DON

[jrcooper]

We will be arriving in Vancouver and staying at the Hyatt Regency one night before our Sept. 10, 2024, cruise and will be looking for a grocery store and wine store. I was wondering if anyone who is familiar with Vancouver would know if any of the wine stores or grocery stores happen to carry Stella Rosa semi-sweet Italian wines. I am looking for the Stella Rosa Original or Black. So far, I haven't been able to find it, but was hoping someone here might know. 

[martincath]

7 hours ago, jrcooper said:

We will be arriving in Vancouver and staying at the Hyatt Regency one night before our Sept. 10, 2024, cruise and will be looking for a grocery store and wine store. I was wondering if anyone who is familiar with Vancouver would know if any of the wine stores or grocery stores happen to carry Stella Rosa semi-sweet Italian wines. I am looking for the Stella Rosa Original or Black. So far, I haven't been able to find it, but was hoping someone here might know. 

For wines, try the Alberni & Bute Signature BC Liquor Store  (government = cheapest prices, but sig stores have better-trained staff to advise on comparable wine to your preferred type, which I've never seen in BC myself and no searches of the bigger private liquor stores have proven fruitful either). If you like slightly-sweet red wines, and you can't get a better recco from someone in store, we really enjoy a dirt-cheap blend called Bodacious - their bourbon-barrel aged red is a 'semi dry' with just discernible residual sweetness that's super smooth and easy to drink, and for the the price is ludicrously good value. It's the 'quaffing plonk' we have in the house constantly for cooking with, or to open a second bottle after dinner, but we've fooled a few fancy friends about the pricepoint by decanting it too 😉 

 

For groceries your closest supermarket to the Hyatt would be Urban Fare, also on Alberni - map of both stores and your hotel here. But depending what you're after and where else you go in town, there are cheaper supermarkets (No Frills at Denman Place Mall probably the lowest-priced in downtown) and also large pharmacies (London Drugs, Rexall both have large branches downtown) which stock plenty of e.g. soda and snacks - check who's got what on sale if it's common stuff you're after!