Pratts Fine Wines

Expensive compared to other stores and the staff aren’t very knowledgeable, making poor recommendations such as «our customers buy this one a lot». Spirit & beer selection is lacking. They had a few good wines but overall the wine selection is small.

We stopped into Pratt’s on the way to a house warming party. I thought it would be a little nicer than a regular liquor store and we might be able to get our host a little something.
The décor inside is very nice-​lots of wood cabinets and displays. There as a selection of unique wines you don’t see at most stores in Calgary which was nice. However as we were looking to get in and out of there quickly, it was a bit frustrating as they didn’t have many of the «common» brands of wine and they were hard to find.
I did find everything to be a bit over priced. When I did eventually find a brand of wine I was looking for, the bottle was about $ 5 more than in a regular liquor store. We also purchased some craft beer and again, it was about $ 10 more than we expected to pay. Spirits were the same, ranging about $ 5-​$ 10 more than at other stores.
They had a selection of glassware available for sale which was interesting. Perhaps if they added to their wine and spirit based giftware it would round out the store a little bit.
The two ladies working there were friendly to start but then basically ignored us as we looked around. With no one else in the store it would have been a good time for them to ask if we’d like some help etc.
In all, it was an okay store that I might go back to if I am in the area looking for something unique. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t go out of my way.

What a lovely upper-​class addition to the neighborhood! I was in Pratts yesterday for a beer tasting and had not realized it recently re-​opened under a new name, ownership and management. I heard other patrons talking about how bad the service was before and what a night and day difference there is. The store is very clean, well decorated and has very friendly, attentive staff. I ended up using the restroom and even the back of the store and restroom is the cleanest and tidiest I’ve ever seen in a liquor store.
By no means am I a wine connoisseur, but I noticed Pratts has a good variety and some unique wines. It was confirmed by overhearing others discussing this while spending a fair amount of time browsing.
Bonus — they host tastings every Friday and Saturday.