The Vin Bin

taez555

Massachusetts

3.7/5  rDev -3.1%
quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3.5 | $$$

The Vin Bin is located in the heart of Marlborough in the little plaza with Coral Seafood and a Starbucks. The store itself is a small wine, cheese, and specialty food store. Rectangular with beautiful wooden shelves holding wine along the walls. A cheese counter is located in the middle of store and to the left, with beer on the right behind it.

Beer selection is small but what they have is pretty much only the good stuff. The beer is located in the back in about 4 cooler doors, with an extremely small selection of 750ml Belgians and some American crafts on a small shelf directly across from the coolers. Local and national micros, English, German and other in 6 packs. A small assortment of American 22oz crafts. Stone, Bear Republic, etc. On my last stop I picked up some Gouden Carolus Noël , St Bernadus and Anchor Christmas. Again, small, but you can't fault them for selection. Quality has always been good, and prices are on par with every place else in the area.

Overall this is a great store for giving the gift of fine food. With all the cheese, beer, wine, crackers, chocolate, gift baskets, gift bags the Vin Bin makes it very easy to get someone who loves good wine/beer a great gift. Beyond that, I really don't' go here that often. It's a great store, just limited when it comes to beer.

05-16-2008 16:43:21 | More by taez555

n0rmann

Massachusetts

3.7/5  rDev -3.1%
quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 3 | $$

The Vin Bin is more of a wine store, than it is a beer store, not that's it's a surprise when you look at the name.

The selection is not the largest, but all of the beers they do sell are good, quality beers. They have several imports and craft beers.

My one complaint about the beer selection is all of the beer is cold, so you have to refigerate it when you get home. I often have too much beer to refigerate right away, but that's just me.

It's a fantastic place to go though if you know what you want for beer, but need help in picking the wine -- the sales people know they're wine.

They also have a good size gourmet cheese selection.

10-26-2006 22:37:15 | More by n0rmann

crispybone

Massachusetts

4.05/5  rDev +6%
quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 2.5 | $$

It's tough to rate this place on beer selection because at it's heart, and by its name, this is a (very good) wine store. The owner (Rick) has steadily been improving the quality of beer selection despite the limited space in the back cooler, but the quantity is only a fraction of what the larger stores can offer.

However, there is an excellent variety of cheese available (what better to go with your beer?) and they're not shy about giving samples (of the cheese, not the beer.)

All in all, Vin Bin is a great place for wine, cheese, and some beer, but if you 're looking for overall beer selection, head to the bigger places.

08-13-2006 13:30:53 | More by crispybone