Planet Wine & Gourmet

We had not explored this local wine shop until last week. In about a month we are headed to France and we wanted to find a wine from the Chablis Burgundy area and was happy to find a selection. We will reach out to the vineyard to see if we can capture a travel video there for our somedaytrips travel website.
During our visit there was a wine tasting for Italian wines. Nice to see some free wine tasting and the wines were good and a reasonable price. We walked out with a Antichi Giochi Giabine.
For a final pairing with a red wine we spotted some John Kelly chocolates. These are amazing chocolates and so wonderful with a good red wine. We will be back for more.
Lastly we were happy to see a Willakenzie Estate wine in stock. A favorite of ours that we have shipped quarterly from Oregon, it is good to know we can get some locally. A favorite Pinot Noir of ours.
Enjoyed the visit and will be back again. Who knows, we might even do a short video on the shop someday.
Cheers

They might have an okay selection, but with no descriptions of their wines on shelves– it’s hard to tell what’s what and the staff isn’t very knowledgeable about their selection. I’d like to shop here more– we live down the street, but we chose to go elsewhere

We have found our favorite wine shop! After attending a tasting at Iron Gate restaurant we ran over to Planet Wine to get our favorites. After discovering only two of the bottles were available, Joseph took our information and told us to stay tuned. Sure enough, he secured our desired wines. Considering we were only buying by the bottle, and therefore not spending that much money, we were still treated like VIPs. We are forever customers!

I haven’t been to Del Ray in three years and this wine shop was always a favorite. There are over 2000 wines and beers to choose from, many excellent choices under $ 15 from all over the world. We were there during one of their weekly weekend wine tastings and the choices offered did not disappoint.
The bonus of this shop is you can have your purchase uncorked next door at the Evening Star Café for dinner.
Definitely give this place a tour if you’re in the neighborhood.

Super sweet beer selection and reasonable prices and a 4 minute walk from my house? Yes please.

Staff is helpful and friendly. Good selection. However, I bought a four pack of beer and later found that one had expired a year ago. Attached is a picture. Check expiration dates in the store!

We needed to pick up a bottle of wine tonight for a dinner party. We just moved to the area and saw the place from the street yesterday. We saw people inside and went up. We got to the door and realized it was locked. After noticing they had closed at 5, we were getting ready to turn around. However, a helpful looking young man walked up and opened the door. I was impressed and asked if they were still open. He then rolled his eyes and said they were definitely closed and then shut the door. We were a bit shocked at his rude response, but luckily there are other wine options in the area. No need to be rude! Just let us read the sign and walk away next time. Then we would probably come back during business hours, but not now.

We dropped in this wine store while walking around at Art on the Avenue. This is nice little wine shop with a decent selection of wine and craft beer. They offered wine tasting that included tasting of some Virginia wines.

While they have a large variety of wines, hence their name, they also carry a large selection of beer. If you cannot find it anywhere else, you’ll probably find it here. There won’t be a lot of any one offering, but atleast you’ll get to try many unique beers from around the country and globe.
Expect the prices to be a but higher but that shouldn’t be a surprise as it essentially is a boutique for beer and wine.

Helpful staff and good wine. Prices can be a little higher than you might be able to find elsewhere, but the service is far superior. If you happen to make it to a tasting there, you get the full experience because you know what you’re taking home. I believe they do some tasting (if small) every Saturday.
Enjoy!

Paid $ 30 for a sparkling wine that averages $ 20 retail. Planet Wine should be ashamed of itself.

I have two words for you: Farm Table. Look it up. Find an excuse to invite 13 of your closest friends to celebrate a milestone birthday, promotion to SES/​Admiral or selection as an appeals court judge. Then sit back and enjoy. This is a hidden Del Ray gem, and a venue I’d choose over some of the city’s priciest, better marketed food emporiums. Skip them, come here, leave delighted. Thumbs way up!

Great selection of wines and beer. Major kudos for service too b/​c on our first visit we asked about a wine that they didn’t have in but they offered to see if they could get it for us. Having never done this before we had no clue what to expect and also felt kinda bad b/​c we only really wanted one or two bottles and well as mentioned we were first time customers so I kind of felt like we should just be happy w/​what they have in stock, but they said they’d be happy to look into it so we proceeded. So glad we did b/​c low and behold we had it in less than a week! Awesome service emailing us right away to update us on our request and very professional. We’ve been back several times and are officially loyal customers :)

The selection of wines in the $ 15 and under rack are often unique bottles I’ve not found anywhere else. Every time, I find some of my favorite grapes or interesting blends from pretty respectable places. I’ve never been disappointed. Keep in mind, these same wines would be marked up 3x as much at a restaurant (except the one next door, where they only charge a small corkage fee).
After trying each one, I’ve always said, «Damn, that’s a good wine» and never an «Ew, that’s too acidic» — which seems to happen at least half the time when picking a random $ 15-​and-​under wine from somewhere else.
Their 15&U rack is like my personal sommelier who is always wanting me to try something new. Unless I’m looking for something specific, I don’t see a need to look outside of it again (except to see what the current Red Apron charcuterie goodies are on offer in the back cooler). I always go in for a bottle or two and end up somehow with an entire box.

This is my goto place for microbrews. Their beer selection is small, but they frequently rotate their selection with new and hard to find brews which makes any trip over there an adventure. They also have a nice small selection of cheese and sausages if you don’t want to make the walk over to cheestique.
There is a great selection of wine, though 0 times out of 10 I leave with a sixer.
The customer service is excellent.
I do want to try the farmers table sometime…

Stopped in last night, and looked around. The people there were nice, and asked if I was looking for anything in particular. I wasn’t, but just wanted to see what they had. Nice selection of whites, reds and rose’. I definitely think their service has improved, and there was a small wine tasting I was invited to — but again, declined for personal reasons.
While the prices were a bit higher than other locations that sell wine, there were some nice selections. I noticed a single bottle of Duckhorn 2006 Three Palms Merlot… but decided not to get it. Still, that indicates someone knows what they are doing in the selection and stocking of the store.

Went in to get a bottle of wine and as I grabbed a bottle my hand became covered in some type of sticky syrupy goo. Not sure what it was, but it was all over the bottle.
Politely showed it to the woman and the counter and asked her if she had something to wipe my hand off with. She suggested the restaurant next door. She didn’t offer to grab me some wet paper towels from the back or anything.
Just on that rudeness alone I would not go back again. It’s easy to find good wine.

In my quest for add-​on V day/​anniversary gifts for the Welshman, who happens to adore pinot noir, I stopped in Planet Wine to check out the wines, see if they had cider (which Welshie is missing) and also to peruse the chocolate at the suggestion of the ladies from ACKC Cocoa, who said this place might have some nut-​free chocolate options.
They had a sizable rack of wines $ 15 and under. I’m horribly under-​educated when it comes to wine, so I usually go by price. After watching «Mondovino» the other weekend, I realized that was a stupid method. I settled on a $ 30-​ish bottle of pinot for my cariad and also found a South American chocolate bar that was nut-​safe. I asked the owner if she carried cider, and she said that she often does, but happened to be out at the moment.
I did scoop up one each of the dried, cured sausages she carried. There was a red wine sausage, a chili pepper sausage and a chorizo. My man loves sausage and bacon, so I thought it’d be a good touch. It was. He loved all three!
Planet Wine also carries imported and rarer beer, cheese, the above-​mentioned sausages and lots of other wine-​associated nibblies (crackers etc.) in addition to lots of imported chocolate.
Definitely a place I’ll return to.

So we’re walking down Mt. Vernon Ave. on a nice Saturday, and see a sign that says «We’re tasting!» in front of a store that called Planet Wine. Like I’m going to pass that up?
Inside to the left of the door was a small stand and a couple of friendly employees, who invited us to join them for some hefty samples of a sparkling Pinot Noir (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it) and an organic Chardonnay. There were others wines to try, but we drew the line at two as we were on a schedule and picked up a couple of bottles to go.
I’m surprised to read Peter’s (below) complaints about wearing a nice suit and not getting good service. I don’t own any nice suits, but I found the service to be a good balance of available to answer questions but not so close I thought we needed to trade home phone numbers. This isn’t really a «nice suit» kind of place, more of a casual friendly neighborhood store.
We happened to have been to Total Wine earlier that same morning, so I was in a great frame of mind to comparison shop, and the selection and prices were impressive. There were those pricey-​once-​in-​a-​while wines and plenty of nice-​Saturday-​afternoon wines, organized by country of origin and grape. Yes, Total Wine is cheaper, but the parking lot/​traffic situation there is a disaster that makes me hate all of humankind, so it’s really not worth saving that $ 1 on a regular basis. Instead I’ll go to Planet Wine and leave with a smile on my face.

This is the best wine story that I have frequented. The staff is friendly and helpful. Some of the staff even greet me by name, which is a rarity in this area and in this day and age. — right?
If you’re like me, you may not want an expensive bottle of wine for everyday, so there sections up front that feature 20 or so bottles of whites and reds for under $ 15 are fabulous. Also, each month they feature a «Planet Pack» that features a certain region.
Then, there’s the nightly tastings and the small, but sufficient deli in the back, as well as selection of beer and other goods.
Daily makes wine very approachable.