Riley's Wines Of The World

brdc

Wisconsin

4/5  rDev -1.5%
quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | $$

This is a lot better than it looks from the outside. The selection is not huge, but it has a decent size, although you have to look around as it is spread around the store. The coolers and shelves mentioned on other reviews belong in the area of singles, but further back in the store there are additional six-packs and other stuff.
You can find just about evrything that is worthwhile from the region, and some good imports. The best feature is a very nice selection of singles, better than most places I have seen. If you need to try a lrge number of midwest beers and do not want to come out with a lot of six-packs, this is your place.

04-28-2008 17:30:49 | More by brdc

crossovert

Wisconsin

4.28/5  rDev +5.4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

This is a great shop in Madison, right net to Brickhouse BBQ.

The craft is split up into singles which is great, too bad I was broke when I went in and just got 1 can of 8 Bit Pale ale.

A lot of shelton beers are represented including 14.99 bottles of Mikkeller weasel and those expensive as all fuck Italian beers.

Most of the beer was in the coolers except the big high abv brews and some seasonals. I didn't even get to the 6 pack area. This place probably has everything distributed to Madison giving it a pretty wide selection.

The service is pretty good too. A great store.

03-24-2012 17:27:21 | More by crossovert

jegross2

Illinois

4.51/5  rDev +11.1%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

Riley's is great for three reasons:

1) Selection. They have almost every beer you could want to drink that is sold in the state of Wisconsin.

2) Quality. Rileys not only has a lot of beer, they have a lot of GREAT beer. Impossible not to find something new and interesting to try there.

3) Holding beer for me. I've bought a lot of beer from Rileys over the past 18 months, and a lot of it has to do with not only the helpfulness of their beer guys, but also their willingness to hold beers for me. I'd never been able to try CBS if not for the help of Rileys, and I am very excited for the Oak Aged Old Rasputin they're going to hold for me!

Riley's is the priciest of the quality beer selection places in Madison (the other two being Woodman's and Steve's), but they are not any more pricey than your average corner-liquor store. Making the trip to Riley's is certainly worth browsing their selection, getting their beer help, and most importantly, reserving those rare releases!

11-12-2011 21:22:29 | More by jegross2

4DAloveofSTOUT

Illinois

4.14/5  rDev +2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

Stopped by this store today to pick up a bottle of Founders CBS!

Looks like a fairly small store front, especially for the city of Madison. I was really surprised with how big this store was when i got into the store!

Atmosphere: Reminds me of a grocery store. Fully stocked shelves that are neat, clean and organized.

Quality: We are in Wisconsin...the quality beers are everywhere, but nothing was expecially exciting thatwas on the shelf.(except for the bottle of CBS of course!)

Service: Very friendly and laid back staff.

Selection: Wide variety of beer here. Tons of craft beer from all over the USA. Lots of popular sours and huge belgian selection to compliment the USA craft. Also lots of overseas beers. nice variety, but it definately caters to the popular beers that beer geeks love.

Value: Little pricer than I like, but we are in a big city so its to be expected.

10-08-2011 02:30:09 | More by 4DAloveofSTOUT

northyorksammy

Ontario (Canada)

4.08/5  rDev +0.5%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Top notch beer store. Everything they can get their hands on from the state, plus great stuff from other states. They do not concentrate on Stone and the like, just their top picks. This put me in the unique position of picking up almost everything in stock, ex the Shelton brothers stuff. Single bottles of everything. I was here well over an hour fulfilling my customs import limit from cooler after cooler. Only the very high abv are available non-cooler, and given the shelf life of most regular beers, and the heat in the state over the summer, cooling makes good sense. Service OK, mostly younger guys, and it was buzy.

09-05-2011 13:59:24 | More by northyorksammy

CuriousMonk

Virginia

4.3/5  rDev +5.9%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

A gem in downtown Madison right off the UW campus. I heard about this place through other beer seller who suggested that I stop by this place for 3F bombers. This place sold all the New Glarus beers among the many microbreweries of Wisconsin. They also sold an arsenal of Mikkeller, 3F, Stillwater, and Dark Horse beers. This place is a little disorganized, but still you found the good stuff if you look long and hard enough. Friendly service but didn't come to you while looking at the beers. Just am glad I was able to buy a bunch of New Glarus and 3Fs here due to the extremely limited distribution!

06-20-2011 21:01:57 | More by CuriousMonk

cwcolby74

Indiana

4.24/5  rDev +4.4%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

I enjoy visiting this liquor store whenever I visit Madison. It keeps an outstanding selection of Wisconsin brews, with enough numbers that you can often find some of the seasonal releases a few months after they're over because the store stocked so many.

They also keep a separate cooler of singles that is a great mix of Wisconsin and out-of-state choices.

The staff is generally helpful and will look for whatever special requests you need.

The prices are a tad higher than at Woodman's, but given Riley's central location right down on State Street, and that it has its own parking, it's worth a visit.

03-25-2011 14:43:00 | More by cwcolby74

richkrull

Wisconsin

4.24/5  rDev +4.4%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 5 | $$

Being so close to the Wisconsin campus, Riley's caters to a lot of students. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised at the vast selection of great beer they have. Lots of brews from throughout Wisconsin as well as the country. At least 10 doors of 6-packs as well as a walk in cooler. There were also 4-5 doors of singles and bombers available. This place had a ton of good stuff I wanted to try. I was able to slip out of there with 3 mixed 6-packs but I'll definitely be back for more very soon!

02-24-2011 21:51:36 | More by richkrull

MarcatGSB

Michigan

4.35/5  rDev +7.1%
quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Another highly recommended stop on your way through Madison. We went to Woodman's first, and stocked up on some bombers of FFF, and some four packs of DFH Burton Baton, but saved some money in our wallets to head over to Riley's, and are glad we did.

The back wall is a large cooler, with a great selection of beers from Wisconsin and abound. The main reason for stopping at Riley's for the slim hope of scoring some Central Waters Peruvian Morning, and sure enough, they had it. I had never tried to beer, but read alot about it, and glad I picked up a few four packs. They had more of the limited releases from Tyranena, Central Waters, New Glarus, and Ale Asylum than Woodman's did, and a better selection of bombers and singles. They stocked quite a few (maybe 8-12) varieties of Jolly Pumpkin, which I was happily surprised with. Also some of the limited release DFH (Namaste, Theobroma, WWS, etc).

Woodman's is definitely cheaper, but Riley's will have some things that Woodman's does not. I would suggest stopping at both, and get the best of both worlds.

02-14-2011 16:58:12 | More by MarcatGSB

MilwaukeeCrusher

Wisconsin

4.35/5  rDev +7.1%
quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | $$

This is probably one of the better stops in Madison if you want to get high end micros. Their service is top notch and the place really uses their space well considering their size. Pretty much everything is there you can get, with the exclusion of maybe some lesser or lower demand stuff. If something comes out new, this is a place to go and get it. Staff is courteous and knows quite a bit about beer. Will be back again, and probably would be more often if parking wasn't a pain and all the wild college traffic in the area.

01-13-2011 19:04:19 | More by MilwaukeeCrusher