Chuck's Fine Wines

Dogbrick

Ohio

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

Stopped at Chuck's after the first annual Winking Lizard Real Ale Fest and happy I did. The store is located in downtown Chagrin Falls, and there is a fair amount of street parking in the surrounding blocks.

The interior has sections devoted to wine, cheese and of course beer. Many of the usual beers found in higher-end stores are either in one of the coolers or on the shelves. Regional brewers like Thirsty Dog, GLBC, Bell's, Dark Horse, Hoppin' Frog and others are represented. In addition there is a solid selection of imports, especially from Belgium. On top of THAT, the proprietor offered to take up "behind the cooler" after asking us if we were "beer hunters". Needless to say there are some real goodies tucked away back there.

Obviously from the above, the service at this store is top notch.

Overall this store is a must stop for anyone in the region.

04-04-2009 20:01:32 | More by Dogbrick

northyorksammy

Ontario (Canada)

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

Fate was with me on the trip to Chuck's. I pleasantly found it to be on the street that is on the 271 express (chagrin), it was in a nice small town, and it was near the off-the-wall Buckeye's. More than 400 beers, at fair prices, with a very knowledgeable and involved owner and backup. Lots of hard-to-finds. Bonus points for throwing in a glass and other freebies, telling me about future brewery beer tastings, and breaking up some 4-and 6-packs which was a pure pleasure for my ability to import despite being a bit of hardship to them. (NOte: return trip 14 months later, staff did not break up like the owner did)The Bell's(and other Michigan brews) distributor in Ohio strongly urged me to go there "These guys take a bit of everything" Worth the trip.

04-23-2004 20:05:24 | More by northyorksammy

DaPeculierDane

Wisconsin

4.65/5  rDev +1.5%
quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Truly Outstanding Selection and Service

My personal beer haul included: several beers from Southern Tier, Fantome, Stone Verticle Epic 06, Double Bastard, an assortment of French and Belgian ales unheard of in Wisconsin, a bottle of 04 les bon voex, some Speedway, a couple of Japanese micros, some South Hampton stuff, and so much more. Be sure to ask Mike about the Vault. You’ll have to figure out the password but it’s not too difficult. I nailed it on my first guess and once I got back there I was floored…old FFF stuff, some vintage stone, loads of Ale Smith, weird Weyerbacher and Jolly Pumpkin brews, etc… Many thanks to BA Scott for the tip about the vault.

Mike and I chatted for a while and he was very helpful. He asked to see my want list and as I showed him he would run back to the vault, a back room, or some hidden shelf in search of what I was looking for. Often he would return with just the bottle I was looking for. Other times he would have something similar to suggest. As I left, he handed me his card and told me to call before my next trip to Cleveland. He said that with enough notice he could put together an order for me including any brews he could get his hands on. He even said he would package it and store it in his cooler for a few months or ship it if I wouldn’t be able to come get it right away.

I really enjoyed the layout of the store and the location made for an easy sell to my girlfriend and inlaws. Chuck’s is located right across the street from the Popcorn Shop and the Chagrin Falls. We spent the afternoon hiking and swimming at nearby Squaw Rock and then went to the Popcorn Shop to buy ice cream and look at the falls. I was able to run across the street and do some beer shopping.

I highly recommend Chuck’s for the service and selection. Prices were generally good. I found a few of the beers to be about 10% higher in price then they would be at a larger liquor store in Cleveland but many others such as the Stone Vertical were an absolute steal. All in all the quality, variety, and bargains more then made up for any high prices.

I will try to go back to Chucks each time I go to Cleveland from now on.

06-18-2007 19:41:22 | More by DaPeculierDane

blackie

Virginia

4.15/5  rDev -9.4%
quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Chuck's is just a couple miles from my aunt and uncle's house in Novelty, set just off the main square in downtown Chagrin Falls in a building with the look and feel of an old general store

it's absolutely essential to gain access to the storage area behind the display coolers - my first couple visits were underwhelming and didn't inspire any purchase (well, there was the legendary Siletz Spruce a few years ago...Siletz closed? nooo), this visit I merely expressed interest in Midwestern stuff unavailable to me at home and was pointed towards the cooler door

on open display was some adequate but pretty widespread (in Ohio) stuff - a range of Great Lakes, a Dark Horse, Erie, New Holland, Thirsty Dog, Bells, and many other common but quality selections to include a nice range of imports and Belgians, though nothing worth lugging home; things looked much better in the back room - Hoppin' Frog, Buckeye, Jolly Pumpkin, Two Brothers, The Bruery, Brew Kettle, more Dark Horse, AleSmith 750s, Clipper City bombers, Penn St. Nikolaus, actually had to limit myself to in-state breweries to keep from going overboard, keep a sharp eye out as there were more than a few not on display, requiring a peek into a few boxes to weasel out

the service was friendly and helpful, though I didn't have the "above-and-beyond" experience that others did

encountered a few dusty six-packs, and the warm ambient temp may or may not be a concern for those beers not in the cooler, but quality seemed to be generally in order

11-28-2009 18:02:05 | More by blackie

adamette

Ohio

4.65/5  rDev +1.5%
quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Quality. Very high indeed. All products displayed with care in organized way. Hardwood, uneven floors give it some charm. Many products displayed in wooden boxes or apple crates. Really pretty cool. This place is nearby several other unique shop type places and Einstein Bagles, a great outdoors (hiking, biking) shop and I am sure coffee and ice cream places as well. Chagrin Falls is a very nice place.

Service. This might be the strongest part. Very helpful, even funny staff who taught be several things about beer during my 10 minutes there. They provided good information but then also let me browse freely. Owner, operator is clearly passionate about beer and it shows. He spoke of Canadian beers (not Molson and Labbat's but micros from Canada) and that Speelman's had bought Unibroque recently. Despite my brief visit, service could not be improved upon.

Selection. They had this great big (2 gallon..4 liter?) double bastard bottle for like $80 and many of the more common micros from Ohio, PA, but STRONG selection of imports from Belgium, England, Ireland, Canada, and likely other countries. They had a "make your own 6 pack" area although those singles were not beers that excited me too much. Place is divided between wine, cheese, beer and other supplies. After I made my purchase I saw another out of the way cooler and saw Oak aged Yeti Imperial Stout. I'll have to return for that.

Value. I bought something like 8 beers (5 of them were various Unibroque 250ml) and my bill was $49.49 It was reasonable.

Notes: Really a nice place with even nicer people. Anyone in the area should stop in there.

11-09-2008 01:02:25 | More by adamette

BuckeyeNation

Iowa

4.25/5  rDev -7.2%
quality: 3.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Chuck's Fine Wines is located just off Main Street in quaint little Chagrin Falls. The white clapboard building backs onto the Chagrin River, within sight of a portion of the Falls, where dozens of ducks paddle placidly along, unaware of their proximity to great beer. There's plenty of parking beside the store and along the street, most of which was empty since I got there before the opening time of 10:00 AM.

The interior is quaint as well, made even more so by the extremely creaky hardwood floors. Some beer is present on the right hand wall; German imports on shelves and a pretty good selection in an old cooler. The really good stuff is in the center of the store near the cash register and on tables, shelves and a cooler to the left. The *really* good stuff is in The Vault, the walk-in portion of the cooler.

All in all, I'd say the selection is similar to some of the best of Ohio's beer stores. I did see some things here that I hadn't seen anywhere else though. American micros were pretty well represented (more singles would have been nice), but I would have liked to have seen a bigger selection of top shelf Belgians. I guess John's Grocery in Iowa City has spoiled me in that regard. Prices seemed a little on the high side, but not so much that I wouldn't shop here if I lived in the area.

The biggest negative for me was some less than fresh beer that was still sitting on the shelves. I'm talking 'best by' dates of 2002-2003 for pales ales and pilseners. Completely unacceptable. In fact, I put about half a dozen bottles back since I was leery about their age. Faded labels and floating junk is not something that I want to see when I go beer shopping. Overall quality is great, but the score will have to be knocked back a notch to reflect the need to weed out the oldies. [Edit: I'm going to decrease the quality score another half-point since I've had to drainpour two bombers that were extremely old; total cost was more than $10.]

The biggest positive was the service. Mike was a tremendous help and took me into the cooler where the quality beer lives. Needless to say, if one doesn't know about that cache, one doesn't have any idea of what riches await at Chuck's. He even broke a 4-pack for me 'since you're here all the way from Iowa'. He also offered to mail me beer (Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard) that hadn't come in yet. Even without the great selection, this is a place that I'd come back to just to hang out and talk beer.

It was a little out of my way, but I'm glad that I stopped at Chuck's Fine Wines on my most recent trip home. The BAs of Northeastern Ohio are lucky to have a place like this and I'll be sure to stop in again if I'm in the area.

11-18-2006 12:28:29 | More by BuckeyeNation

Bones54

Ohio

5/5  rDev +9.2%
quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$

I can't believe I've worked and lived so close to this place and never knew about it! This place simply rocks! The staff is more than friendly to offer up their vast knoweledge of beer and help you find whatever you might be looking for. The selection is one of the best in the area, and as far as I can tell the rotation is very good as well. Selection wise- anything that you they can get in Ohio they seem to be willing to bring here for their customers. Not to mention they also have some fine glassware, cheese, and wine. Truly a classy place. Cheers to you Chuck's!

11-30-2006 14:24:32 | More by Bones54

bruachan

Rhode Island

4.7/5  rDev +2.6%
quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

my impression is that beer is a little more expensive around here than other places, but the prices at chuck's are good. the selection on the other hand is great. esoteric belgians, classic english ales, outstanding domestic offerings. good service, too. i will definitely be back!

came home with a Schelenkerla Urbock, Cantillon Iris, Jolly Pumpkin, Moylan's Kiltlifter, Founder's Centennial IPA, Adnam's Broadside, Sammy Smith Winter Welcome and a new Duvel tulip to replace my shattered chalice

they've got some fun stuff they've been holding onto iin back, too, if you're nice

11-02-2006 04:15:25 | More by bruachan

ThirstyBird

Germany

4.65/5  rDev +1.5%
quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

I was in Cleveland visiting a friend and found Chuck's using Beerfly. I'm happy I made the drive out to Chagrin Falls!

I did a quick walk through and was impressed with their selection. Good Belgians (many I've never seen before) nice Germans and British as well. They also had a great selection of regional craft beer as well.

Mike then helped me and I proceeded to find many things of interest and it concluded with a tour of the "vault" where I grabbed several interesting brews. Mike was awesome, so much so that I ended up out there a couple of days later to round out "catch". Leipziger Gose, Lion Stout, Bell's Two Hearted, Reinaert Flemish Wild Ale, Thomas Hardy's, Weyerbacher Heresy and many more.

I know where I'm headed on my next visit to Ohio!

08-14-2008 02:59:54 | More by ThirstyBird

neenerzig

Ohio

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

This store is an excellent place for any wine or beer lover. They have more wines than beers available (hence the name Chuck's Fine Wines). But they have more beer than some other stores around the area I have seen. Great Lakes, Bell's Unibroue, Corsendonk, Stone, Dogfish Head, Flying Dog, Sam Adams, Konningshoeven, Victory, and Rogue can all be found here, among tons of lesser known, but just as tasty, brews. Mike, one of the employees certainly knows his stuff when it comes to beer. I was blown away by the selection and knowledge of the employees of beer. Worth a trip for sure if you live in the greater Cleveland area or are passing through.

Eric

10-30-2006 22:20:47 | More by neenerzig