Holiday Wine Cellar

Eriktheipaman

Virginia

4.5/5  rDev +0.7%
quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

I lived in Escondido my whole childhood and always used to see their giant "liquor" sign and think it was cool. If I only knew what was really inside!

This place was great! Great selection of Belgiums, American, and German beers alike. All the hop heavy beers where in the cooler for primo storage. I didnt look at the wine very much but they did have a lot so it might be a good place to bring the wife or girlfriend and let them do their thing while you do yours.

The pricing was more than fair. Ive been tired of seeing stores that know they have a good beer selection jack up the prices.

I will be back here for sure!

01-03-2011 17:28:05 | More by Eriktheipaman

Grant35

California

5/5  rDev +11.9%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$

This place is a gem. Their beer selection consists of all of the latest releases and then some. As soon as I walked in someone asked if I was looking for something in particular. I was just curious to see their vast selection of local beers as well as a huge variety of international brews. After about 5 mins, I was approached by Rick who told me that their walk in cooler had a lot more beers, he wasn't joking. After I spent another 15 minutes freezing my nuts off in the walk in (bring a parka if you want to browse), Rick came in and made some suggestions and mentioned that they did beer tastings every Saturday in the downstairs cellar. Downstairs cellar?? As I made my way down the spiral staircase, I found two more rooms. One contained a more valuable selection of fine wines and champaign the other was a quaint little tasting room where they were pouring a number of the Shmaltz He'brew beers. After about 45 mins of chitchatting with some out-of-towners talking about various Barleywines, the gentlemen who was pouring mentioned that they had a few bottles of 'Mother of all Storms' left (I snagged 2). All in all I was thoroughly impressed with their selection, knowledge, and layout.

After returning a number of times, becoming more and more friendly with the staff, I was informed that they rent out storage lockers for beer and wine enthusiasts. I toured the locker cellar with Rick which was unreal. Every time I go to the Holiday Wine Cellar I find more and more impressive aspects that separate them from their competition.

If you need a special beer for a gift or for a tasting, just go in, let them know, and they'll take care of you!

05-09-2013 05:17:06 | More by Grant35

dvmin98

North Carolina

4.89/5  rDev +9.4%
vibe: 4.75 | quality: 4.75 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$$

Great little place on Mission Road. I have ordered from them through the internet, so when I was in town, I had to stop by. I've talked to Vanessa many times over the past 6 months or so

A: Nice open area with beer and liquor. Head around the back and that's where it gets good. The walk-in cooler is like heaven. Great selection of quality stuff from around the world. I was salivating. Downstairs, we went to a beer tasting. There is a small room with a bar and a TV. The guy that runs Ironfire was showing off 5 or 6 of his bottles down there (good stuff btw). There was also the wine cellar.

Q: Great selection of beer and liquor. Not sure what they had wine-wise, but that's not my thing.

S: Can't get any nicer than Vanessa. She showed us around and then had us go to the beer tasting. She's the best.

Sel: great selection of beers from all over the world. Lots of San Diego and Riverside county beers to choose from as well.

V: They are a tiny bit higher than other places, but you can overlook that due to what they offer.

05-02-2013 17:18:41 | More by dvmin98

FosterJM

California

4.36/5  rDev -2.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

Was at a workshop in SD for work and the freeway was a bit open so took a few minute detour.

Atm- From the outside it looks like a old surf shop with a A frame, tiki thing. Reminded me of Aloha in Reno. Small parking right off a corner location.

Quality- Lots of high end stuff in here. A lot of bottles that I had never seen. Didnt have the time nor the $$ to check BA for every bottle.

Service- Wandered a bit before someone asked if I needed anything. Was advised of the walk in and the underground wine lair.

Selection- A lot of great beer in the store. Tons of CA locals, Lots of hard to find euros. Most everything is in the cooler with only a few left out on the floor.

Food- N/A

Value- Everything seemed to be about $1-2 high from some stores that have similar products. Was happy to find the Karl Strauss I was looking for so didnt mind a bit of a price raise.

06-07-2012 21:25:53 | More by FosterJM

UCLABrewN84

California

4.3/5  rDev -3.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 5 | $$$

I visited Holiday Wine Cellar this past weekend since I was in the area. The building itself is pretty interesting looking from the outside. There is a nice old school type of vibe going on inside. They have rows of wine, liquor, and coolers of beer towards the back. There is also a refrigerated beer cellar at the back of the store as well as a staircase that I think led down to an underground wine cellar. The service was pretty good as an employee approached me once while I was looking around. Most all of their beer is refrigerated but there were some warm bottles sitting out on the floor. The selection was exceptional with lots of awesome beer from around the world. They had a bunch of stuff I had never seen before which I obviously bought up. Prices are a bit on the high side but I didn’t mind paying the premium for such an awesome selection. Overall, this is a fantastic beer store and I would highly recommend stopping by here to check things out if you are in the general area.

03-05-2012 16:58:46 | More by UCLABrewN84

Bitterbill

Wyoming

4.7/5  rDev +5.1%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

I bought beer from Holiday Wine Cellar through their online shop.

First off, I saw 3 Oud Beersel beers on their website, the Kriek, Geuze, and the Framboise at what I thought were reasonable prices.

I put in an order and received a confirmation email and reply almost immediately. The next thing I knew, the beers arrived and I enjoyed the heck out of them.

Good prices for both the beers and shipping combined with excellent communication made my experience with Holiday Wine Cellar great. I recommend them highly!

02-11-2012 14:49:10 | More by Bitterbill

hopfacebrew

Colorado

4.78/5  rDev +6.9%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$

Highly recommended bottle shop. Stopped by on our vacation in Escondido. First time they were closed for inventory, d'oh! The next day they were open, woohoo! Walked in and was immediately greeted, I explained I was from out of state looking for some beer to take home. The lady walked me to the cooler where the beer guy was. Both were extremely helpful. I had never been to a true bottle shop before, pretty cool. I told the guy the same story and he literally went row by row asking if we had such and such beer and his thoughts on them. I ended up leaving with some phenomenal brews. When checking out I found out the clerk grew up a few blocks away from our house in Parker, small world. In any event the prices were reasonable and the service was great. Highly recommended.

02-01-2012 15:50:00 | More by hopfacebrew

corby112

Pennsylvania

4.44/5  rDev -0.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Stopped by here before going to Stone during a recent trip to San Diego.

This is a very nice liquor store that mostly focuses on wine but also has a nice selection of quality craft beer. In the rear of the store there are about six coolers filled with common singles and local bombers. Nothing to get excited over but at least the options of singles is there.

The real selection can be found in a large walk in cooler toward the back of the store. Inside there have a very large and impressive assortment of craft beers from around the world. They carry a lot more imports than most stores I visited in So Cal with tons of German, Danish, italian and Belgian offerings. In addition, they had a lot of great locals and harder to find beers that I didn't see anywhere else. Plenty of great local/So Cal stuff along with beers from Russian River, Stillwater, Drie Fonteinen, Eclipse Variations and vintage pannepøt to name a few.

The beer guy was really cool and it turns out he has family from outside of Philly. He was very knowledgeable and friendly, talking with me extensively about beer. All of the other employees that I interacted with were pleasant and helpful.

This was a great bottle shop that I highly recommend. If I lived in the area I would spend all of my money here.

01-17-2012 03:10:37 | More by corby112

notchucknorris

California

4.44/5  rDev -0.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

I've visited this place a few times now and I always leave pretty impressed. The staff is incredibly friendly and seems to be very knowledgeable about their products. I've also been able to find some beers and breweries there that I've had a lot of trouble finding in other places, Midnight Sun being the biggest one. Nearly all the beers are refrigerated and they have a pretty awesome walk-in cooler that has some pretty solid beers in there. If you happen to be in the area, it's definitely worth checking out. One of the best places in North County.

12-01-2011 17:37:48 | More by notchucknorris

brewandbbq

New Hampshire

4.36/5  rDev -2.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

This is a great place to hit if you're making the trip out to Stone. Easy parking and not far off the highway.

Medium size store with cases of new brews at the front door so you can't miss them, and a cooler out back with doors for sixers and bombers. The cooler is also a walk-in and practically all the beer is kept in the cooler. A heavy amount of imports as well as locals and domestics, and it's no problem to find your hands full of chilled goodies in no time.
A very cool spiral staircase goes down to a lower level, which I would guess has more wine (didn't venture).
They also had stacks of a spiced stout made for them by Ballast Point, so high marks for having an exclusive on that beer!
No help was offered or requested which is fine by me, but they do get my approval for simply giving me a box for my beers, which some places actually will not do.
Great store.

10-24-2011 13:09:36 | More by brewandbbq