Princeton Corkscrew

Good wine, and they deliver! Range of prices & free delivery if you order enough, which I always do.

My fav wine store in the USA.
Let’s face it, most wine stores are too damn big with loads of crap wine. This place though small is well stocked with hand picked wines by the owner.
The owner is about as friendly a dude you could ever meet. If you love wine and support Olympique Lyonnais, you will have a lifelong friend. Laurent travels constantly with a hands on approach at vineyards throughout Europe. He comes from a family with a wine history (I believe but could be wrong here) and his knowledge is superior than any faceless giant wine outlet. Any question you have, he will answer.
The staff is about as friendly as they get, all with rich knowledge of wine. Any question you have, they will answer and get you EXACTLY what you are looking for. A special word about two staff members I deal with alot. Russ hooks me up with what I’m looking for instantly, he is beyond nice, he is the type of guy you would want to drink a 12 pack with and ponder the meaning of life. Then we have Olivia, she is without doubt the coolest female wine employee on the planet who exudes bohemian cool, she makes people like Nico and Marlene Dietrich seem as chic as Mama June!!!
In summation, we have a wine store owned by a French bloke with ace employees who will hook you up with what you need 100 times out of 100 with smiles always on their faces.
BUY HERE!!!

The service here is outstanding. The staff is friendly and super knowledgeable. We bought bottles of wine for Christmas gifts this year, and they took thier time finding us the perfect bottle at our price point. They wrapped them nicely too.

Great selection and best of all great customer service. I’m sure the other reps are just as good but but I’ve dealt with Corey from day one. He is a wealth of info and has such a positive attitude (listens to what you like and has great recommendations).
C u all soon (Thanksgiving is just around the corner). Thanks again!

I’m sorry to say that after a year of doing business with them, I’m not to pleased with their lack of savvy in good customer service. I recently placed an order for a $ 150.00 worth of a dessert wine that was recommended to me and had the misfortune of having a young lady help me. I called the wine by the name on the label and I guess they thought it was humorous, after they had a good laugh she took my order and failed to mention about an $ 16 charge for handling. When I finally received my bill and noticed the charge I called and asked that they reverse the charge. She offered to give me half, but after her pompous attitude I felt she should give me the entire amount. I had just purchased 2 weeks earlier $ 230 of wine and the same twice before. Needless to say she did not make the right decision. She lost the sale, and a repeat customer all for $ 16.00. I can get the wine somewhere else, but when most people are looking to keep customers she chose to let one walk out the door. A Princeton address does not warrant merchants to treat customers poorly.

Great wine selection, reasonable prices, and friendly staff. Will be coming often. Highly recommended.

I have never had a single bad wine from here. Ever. Everything has been handpicked by Laurent to be delicious and of excellent value. You could go elsewhere for slightly cheaper wine, but when I pick wines myself from Joe Canal’s or something I always end up with at least one untasty bottle in four. So this is the best way to not waste your money on wine, when you know whatever they recommend will be good. And if you bottle is corked or has some defect, you can bring it back and they will happily exchange it or refund it.

This is the absolute best wine shop I’ve ever shopped in! Love the selection, owner, staff and location!

It’s a pleasure to join the chorus of Unilocalers who have sung the praises of Princeton Corkscrew.
I first came about 18 months ago to buy one or two bottles of wine. I added my email address to their database and have been getting interesting newsletters from them ever since. (Many of their messages concern free wine tastings in the store!) Corkscrew tends to like offbeat wines that represent good value. Their tastes and mine are quite compatible.
I stopped in most recently to buy a few bottles of wine for a birthday dinner. I had a pretty good general idea of what I was looking for; the staff recommendations were spot on. I walked out ten minutes later with a small carton that contained four bottles: a sparkling wine from France that had a lot of Champagne qualities, a sauvignon blanc from the Loire, a killer Italian red and a second red that I can no longer recall (whoops!).
As other Unilocalers have pointed out, Corkscrew will be happy to remind me about that last bottle if I ever decide to ask them. I might just do that when I next saunter in.

Very knowledgable, interesting selections and great recommendations!

Princeton Corkscrew is a great wineshop, has decent prices, and has a hell of a staff. I came in with some very vague and general ideas of what I wanted and the lady who helped me was great. She knew immediately what I wanted and, now that I’ve drank all of the wine, great suggestions! They also keep track of what you buy on their computer system so you’ll never forget that one bottle… with the red label… I think it was merlot… from Australia?
I’ll be back!

The best wine shop in Princeton. The owner, Laurent, and his staff are always very helpful. When I started coming here, I knew almost nothing about wine, but Laurent was able to recommend one for me after asking me what kinds of wine I’d liked in the past. To my surprise, the wine he recommended was a cool $ 15 (way less than I was expecting to pay).
The store keeps a database of its customers and their wine purchases (it’s voluntary, of course), so you can come back in a few weeks and say, for example «I’d like to try that wine I got last time… I think it starts with an ‘M’ «and they’ll be able to find the wine from your purchase history. You might notice it’s a bit chilly in here — the owner keeps the shop at the appropriate temperature to cellar wine.
The tastings here are great — they’re well-​attended, the staff really know their stuff about the wines being offered and the winemaker usually attends tastings of his/​her wines. The first tasting I attended here included a sangiovese red wine. I’d never heard of it before, but it remains my favorite red wine. You can really learn a lot here.

great selection and helpful. really great staff. nearby ajihei, byob. small selection of sake though. which is a lil sad.

Beautiful store, excellent selection, knowledgeable staff. I wish I knew of a wine shop of this caliber near my apt in NYC!

Yes, what the other reviewers said!

Couldn’t be better. Amazing selection for any price point and style you’re looking for. Incredibly knowledgeable staff (seems to be the theme of the thread).
My favorite is finding the lovely Frenchman behind it all, and chatting him up about what I’m going to have for a meal, and then he asks me a pricepoint, and hand selects a bottle or two to pair well with the food. That just doesn’t HAPPEN anywhere else. It just doesn’t. He’s wonderful, and I won’t offend him by misspelling his name, but I thank him for being so helpful.
Oh, and also most of the guys who work there are hot, and that makes things better in general.

Knowledgeable staff, cool (literally) environment, and a well thought out selection of wines make this the best bet for a good bottle to drink with dinner in Princeton. No reason to go anywhere else.

This place is great and (by far) has the best selection in Princeton. The shop is well organized and run by a friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable staff. I prefer to buy wine here because it’s always a pleasant learning experience and I always leave with a good bottle of wine. Prices vary, there’s definitley a bottle for everyone’s budget.

Probably one of the best most pleasant wine stores I have ever been to! In fancy Palmer Square in the middle of Princeton, don’t be intimidated because the folks that work here are down to earth and very happy to help those buying a couple of cheap bootles to those Princeton locals buying 3 cases for a weekend soirée. Every wine they sell is carefully selected by very knowledgeable staff. Perhaps the biggest surprise is how many good wines are available for under $ 15, and even under $ 10. And you can track your purchase history on-​line, another plus! Best place for French wine in NJ, I get stuff here I have never seen anywhere else.

The Corkscrew is one of perhaps five or six small, locally-​based wine shops in the Princeton area, but is distinct amongst its peers for creating a pleasurable, educational, and memorable shopping experience. Strongest in French wines, with some American, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German varieties represented as well, this Vinotheque clearly prides itself in the quality of its products and superior customer service.
When I walked in the other day to pick up this year’s freshly-​arrived Beaujolais, a steal at $ 14, none of those «WINE SPECTATOR 91 POINTS! FANTASTIC BARGAIN!!!» labels were anywhere to be found. Instead, a gregarious man who seems to be both the proprietor and French was there to guide me, gently, to exactly what I was looking for. After securing my Beaujolais, I wandered over to the German section looking for any old bottle of the somewhat elusive Grüner Veltliner. This they had in abundance, in addition to the Saint-​Laurent and Zweigelt red varieties, exceedingly rare in Central Jersey. A comprehensive stock of obscure Austrian wines indicates nothing if not a well-​informed and creative wine shop more interested in surprising (and delighting) customers than profiting from a boring selection of predictable bestsellers.
In a town in which you can find an intersection boasting a Bank of America in an historic building, a high-​end jewelry store, and the gates of a prestigious university all facing each other down in some vortex of money, power, and influence, it’s probably unreasonable to expect great wine on the cheap. Arrive here knowing that bottles under twenty five dollars are scarce, and you’ll be able to truly appreciate this fantastic shrine to viniculture.