Sunday, February 17, 2008

V&V Merchant Review: Hi-Times Wine Cellars

Had the the chance to visit Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa Mesa yesterday (my second visit ever) and was mostly impressed with the store as a whole. The staff was funny and friendly enough, the location off on a side street near 17th is good as this is a destination store, and the wine cellar was very impressive. Since at Vino and Vistas we deal mostly with wine and travel information I will focus on that but it should be said that the gourmet food, candy, cigar, beer and liquor selection at Hi-Times is really great. The 'wine cellar' itself really is a wine cellar, it is a half basement that has been converted into a very large wine cellar (probably 2,000 sq. ft.) and is organized by both region and varietal. From my observation, the wines from other countries were all stored together with mixed varietals and then the US wines were all sorted by varietal so the Oregon Pinots got to mix with the more expensive (though not necessarily better) California Pinots.

One of the reasons I visited Hi-Times on this occasion is my wife and I had a gift card from our wedding last year (thanks Laura!). It was a $50 gift card and even before I entered the cellar, I was doing little calculations in my head as how best to spend the fifty. First I thought one really outstanding bottle of Napa Cabernet or a mind blowing Shiraz from the Mclaren Vale to enjoy on a special occasion. Then I said to myself, 'hey, we can get 4 nice bottles of wine and the gift will give for several meals and evening'. The moderate in me then agreed upon getting two nice bottles for $25 each. I thought we would get one bottle from a vineyard I was familiar with, in this case the Tobin James James Gang Reserve Paso Robles 2006 Zinfandel (that's a mouthful of a name!). The other bottle I decided would be a Pinot Noir as I have been sampling, reading and hearing about how you can't get a decent Pinot for under $20, and thought the $25 price point would be a great opportunity for a nice Pinot. I ended up selecting the Argyle Willamette Valley 2006 Pinot Noir. As both of these wines are quite young (especially the Zinfandel), we should have plenty of time to decide when and where we will enjoy these.

Overall I would definitely recommend visiting Hi-Times Wine Cellars. They have a great selection of wines, good staff (the cellar staff are reserved and due to the tight quarters of the wood rack lined cellar keep the aisles clear). While I don't think they focus as singularly on wine as The Wine Exchange in Orange they do have a nicer looking and very well stocked cellar, nice tasting area (though we didn't taste) and helpful when asked but not pushy staff. One of the side benefits of this store not catering only to wine fans is it can draw people looking for beer or other liquors into the cellar for a different, more varied and interesting beverage.

Hi Times Wine: http://www.hitimewine.net/

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