Crow Canyon Wine & Liquor

Service was awful and they seems to be very unreliable. Have you ever tried calling them? They only seems to pick up their phone, 1 out of 10 tries. When they do pick up, they always say «we are too busy to answer your question, come by the store to look it up yourself» or «call back when the owner is here to answer your wine question» If the employees that work there can’t answer simple wine questions, why does he even work in the wine shop. Furthermore, the owners (Parag) only intention seems to be to bring more people in since when I did get a hold of him to inquire about a wine availabilities, he said that more will be coming in next Wednesday (no matter what) and when you visit next Wednesday to to look for the wine, he said «on, I didn’t mean today, I meant, next Wednesday» You are probably wondering why I didn’t call before coming in? I couldn’t get the Crown Canyon Wines to pick up their phone. I am not too sure with their service so bad, how they have survived so far in this competitive market. But then they might not be for long since I went in last Saturday and they were empty of any customers and the guy behind the desk didn’t know anything about wines… I still believe the best wine shop in the bay area are K&L Merchant or The Wine Club.

Searching through Unilocal event’s I saw a blurb about a wine tasting event for $ 20 (actually it should have been $ 25) 16 wines, and the cost was completely refundable if you purchased a bottle of wine that sampled. Sold. The exterior looks kinda dingy, but once you walk inside you see a little area to the right that is gated off and can only be called a wine lovers paradise. It has none of that snotty feel that you get when you walk into some wine places. It has a counter and chairs and reminds me a bit of the bar counter at that one steak house in San Francisco, but I digress.
The owner takes a QVC approach — educate you, then you let you come to your own conclusions. Every bottle has a stellar write up on a business card, right on the display. It includes the name, type of wine, where it is grown, a detailed description (i.e. oak flavor with a hint of vanilla, etc.). You know — the kind of information that you are looking for if you are trying to pair a wine with dinner.
The tasting included some regulars, which made everything super relaxed. The owner was super knowledgeable and despite my protests (I don’t like Zin’s that have a pepper kick at the back. I much more a fruit forward kind of girl) insisted I try all the wines, which lead me to a wine that I would never have sampled on my own. Eventually he mentioned my objection to the pepper. This observation totally surprised me, since I certainly hadn’t mentioned it. One of the winemakers was also on premise to answer questions.
He also brings out some stellar chesses from whole foods (which is where I went directly after buying my bottle of wine). He is a wine lover and a salesman. He gave me some great recommendations on starting a nice wine collection (which I might institute if I ever want to start a wine collection, but I am trying to move overseas, a wine collection is not a good investment for me). The recommendations included picking up multiple bottles and waiting a year to see how the wine develops overtime, because you might end up liking the mature wine better. (Does this sound like dating to anyone else?).
Another point of interests are the prices. They are less than whole foods and bevmo. I was a little pissed about the price difference. He saw the look on my face and laughed. If I had been shopping here instead of Whole Foods or BevMo, I might be well into a serious wine collection. There are also disocunts, if you pay in cash he pays the sales tax and there are discounts on multiple bottles, buy 3 10% off, buy 6 get 15% off. Dude, buy multiple bottles and pay cash and you can save some serious moolah, it will all go to cheese, but whatever.
Wine tastings are held Friday and Saturdays, but it looks like some of the events are held Saturday and Sundays. The event I attended was for Zin’s and Petite Sirah, some nights are themed by type and some are themed by grower/​brand. See you for the Italian tasting, I am still debating the Spanish wine night.