Vintage Wine Cellar

Honolulu, United States

4.2

Closed now

20 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards

Contacts

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Telephone:
+1 808-523-9463
Website:
www.vintagewinehawaii.com
Address:
1249 Wilder Ave Ste 4, Honolulu, HI, 96822
Makiki
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
0.9 mi986
1 mi760
1.4 miAlakea St + S Hotel St
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Bussiness info

Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Parking
Private Lot
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
No

Today

Today 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
Closed now
Local time (Honolulu) 5:46 AM Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Business hours

Monday 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
Tuesday 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
Wednesday 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
Thursday 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
Friday 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
Saturday 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
Sunday 10:00 am – 7:00 pm

Description

Specialties

Vintage Wine Cellar is proud to be Hawaii’s oldest fine wine shop, and has won numerous national and local awards. We’re the only wine cellar in Hawaii to receive an invitation to the prestigious Wine & Spirits Guild of America, and the only wine retailer to have won the prestigious Market Watch Leaders Award.

We feature wine from around the world at reasonable prices, and we take pride in our service.

History

Established in 1968.

Allen Kam started Vintage Wine Cellar after he developed a love of wine when he lived in San Francisco. It started small and grew to the largest fine wine business in Hawaii with 9 locations. It was a conscious decision to downsize back to one store to offer better service and offer better deals to our customers. Allen’s son, Jay, now runs the business. We love fine wine and spirits just like you do, and want to provide the best products to our customers at reasonable prices.

Meet the Business Owner

Jay K.

Business Owner

My father started Vintage Wine Cellar in 1968. I grew up in the business working from delivery boy to warehouse manager to retail sales to President. Even though I have engineering degrees and a law degree I decided to work in our family business because wine is fun. I like to cook and eat. Finding the right wine for each meal is the thing I enjoy the most. Wine and food bring people together and are most often associated with happy times. That’s why I chose to be involved in this business.

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20 reviews of Vintage Wine Cellar

No registration required
Place rating: 5
Honolulu, HI
Great wine selection. Reasonable prices. They also have craft beers, including the cheapest Chimay on Oahu — only $ 11.25 per bottle for Chimay Red!
Place rating: 4
Honolulu, HI
This wine cellar is easy to miss, but should be on everyone’s radar. It’s a treasure trove of grape goodness that ranges from very affordable to break the bank. When you first walk in, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. There are cases displayed all over the floor, wine bottles lining all the walls, and it’s hard to understand how they are organized (they are basically trying to fit as much wine in the store as possible, it’s a small space). They also sell some beer, sake, and liquor, like tequila in painted skulls perfect for a Dia de Los Muertos party.
I’m always immediately helped by the young, tall gentleman that works there. He is very knowledgeable about wine and is quick to point out wines that I want in my price range, but has also steered me towards different varieties that I didn’t intend on buying but (based on the info I gave him: what I like to drink, price point, food I’ll be serving) I end up loving. I feel like I have my own personal wine shopper sometimes.
I docked a star only for my wishful thinking. I wish they offered free wine tastings like other shops in town (Fujiokas, Hasr, etc). I really love those because I learn more about my own tastes and I’m more apt to buy higher priced wine when I know I love the taste already. Oh well, I’ll just have to settle with trusting my personal wine shopper. :)
Place rating: 4
Honolulu, HI
Vintage Wine Cellar
SALE!!!
Who doesn’t love a good sale– I mean it is good bottles of wine — not the Arbor Mist $ 4 liter bottles of college years but the $ 80 bottles of Spatelasse Germany 8% alc. that you may have been able to taste on European travels– but it is on sale for $ 25.
Sales are clearly highlighted in nice little flag signs so you don’t have to ask each and every time which is on sale.
Yes, things are a little dustier than I would have expected. The store is the walk down a flight of stairs– so if you know this location, it is a walk back to your car.
Perfect time and location to pick up a bottle for the next UYE to share something unique that one won’t find at 7⁄11.
It is heavy on wine, so don’t go in trying to find the new bud lite anything.
Place rating: 3
Honolulu, HI
Looks like they have a decent selection, but the prices are a bit too high for me. Very convenient location, has parking. Would like to see more value wines. Will probably continue to go to Fujioka’s even though it is not as convenient.
Place rating: 5
Honolulu, HI
great place. incredible wine selection, prices range from 6 – 7 dollars all the way up to 500 dollars. owner immediately pointed me to a great wine to pair with the dinner i was planning.
Place rating: 5
Kansas City, MO
I’m a new wine drinker. Have mostly experimented with sweet wines like Moscatos and the occasional Riesling. I went into the store with the single purpose of trying red wines. I told the gentlemen my goal and He pointed me to a sweet red wine (as sweet as they can get lol) to help transition. I went back a day later (don’t judge) and bought 3 different kinds.
Service is friendly and knowledgeable. The prices are from cheap ($ 6) to expensive. Plenty to drink under $ 25.
Place rating: 2
Honolulu, HI
Guy behind the counter was super unpleasant. I asked if they had anything other than wine when I walked in and he took it really personally and just pointed to his incredibly limited beer section. He followed me around like I was going to steal something until I walked up to the counter with a single bottle. He took my ID for about 3 minutes straight just staring at it and flipping it over in his hands. He told me I should look around the store before asking more stupid questions. I wouldn’t recommend doing business here ever just on the mere fact that this guy is an a**hole. Maybe the wine is good, maybe it isn’t. I for one, will never know.
Place rating: 4
Honolulu, HI
A must stop for one on the O’ahu wine tour. Good international selection of wines, floor plan organization (discrete geographic sections), and an abundance of cartography from vintage to post modern, including a framed piece by renowned cartographer Alessandro Masnaghetti.
Place rating: 3
Seattle, WA
I love my hole in the wall wine shops, but two out of the three wines (a 2001 Doisy Daene sauternes and a petit chablis table wine) I’ve ever bought here came with severely dry, crumbly corks! The service is fairly nice, however, and if you want a good sauternes, there is a decent variety here. In order to avoid the dry cork situations I’ve had, check to see if they have wines (especially for the «stickies» like sauternes and the ones meant to age for awhile) that have been laying down. Corks can get pretty dry when standing upright in a shop for awhile, so laying them down gives the corks contact with the wine, which in turn helps «moisturize» the cork. Nothing is as unromantic as straining your sauternes over a bowl with the hope that you get the cork silt out!
Place rating: 5
Honolulu, HI
I found this gem of a place completely by accident. I was at Makiki Shopping Village and needed to kill some time. I decided to wander down the staircase leading to this wonderful wine shop. I was immediately greeted by an older gentleman who was more than happy to help me find what I didn’t even know I was looking for. I ended up with 2 absolutely amazing bottles of wine that day have gone back several times since to be met with the same level of enthusiasm and quality service. They have made a more knowledgable wine drinker out of me!
Place rating: 1
Honolulu, HI
Got a $ 40 bottle of sherry with a cork that disintegrated when I tried to take it out. The shop refused to take it back saying there was nothing wrong with the «product». Well, I do not care for rotten cork in my sherry. Never will shop there again. The distributor would have reimbursed them, so that is just a lack of integrity.
Place rating: 5
Portland, OR
I loved this place when I lived in Makiki. The selection and prices are great, and if you don’t know what to get, the employees were/​are always helpful. Brian and Dorothy always greeted me with a smile, and some funny story of the day. Brian also turned me onto a tequilla they had that was bottled by the same distillery that makes Patron, but just put another label on it. It was like ½ the price as Patron, and just as good.
Place rating: 4
Honolulu, HI
Not being a big wine drinker, I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that Vintage Wine Cellar carried beer. Not just any beer, lovely selection of imported beers. I only wish they had a larger selection. Mahalo, to the gracious staff, whom have always greeted me with a smile and warm hello.
Place rating: 5
Honolulu, HI
Most wonderful place on earth. Selection of Sauterne is awesome. Port selection not vintage but they make up for it in other places.
Place rating: 5
Honolulu, HI
This wine cellar is located in the same little shopping center as Pizza Hut and Peppa’s. It is on the basement floor right next to the video store.
I’ve been here a few times and have never left disappointed. The staff is friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable, and they stock a wide variety of wines at a wide variety of price points (think $ 5 – 500, and the quality is there even on their less expensive options). Don’t be too shy to ask for help given your wine preferences, because the gentleman who has helped me on each of my trips here (the owner, perhaps?) has helped me to make some lovely discoveries of the vino variety.
Found out today that they now stock what looked like a pretty nice selection of craft beers!
Place rating: 5
Honolulu, HI
This is a great little shop jammed packed with a great selection of wines! We needed some help picking out a bottle of red wine for my wedding and the gentlemen working had some very good suggestions. We took home three very well priced bottles (less than $ 20) and tested them out. Lucky for us we liked his favorite which also only happened to be $ 9.99 a bottle! Woohoo! We also bought a cause of Cava (Spanish sparkling wine, $ 9.99) at his suggestion and it was a big hit at the wedding!
They didn’t have enough of each wine for a case of each but we were able to pick up a case the following day. They have a very large selection ranging from budget to very high end expensive wines. This really is a one stop shop for any wine lover. My only problem is they are located downstairs of the main entrance so you have to haul those heavy bottles up some stairs on your way out.
Place rating: 5
Honolulu, HI
I’m so disappointed in myself. I’ve sauntered past this place numerous times on my way to the video store and never even stepped inside. «nice, little rinky dink wine store.. . «I’d think as I’d walk past.
Anyway, I needed to grab a bottle of wine the other night in a pinch and wanted desperately to avoid the awful holiday traffic, so I was determined not to drive anywhere. I remembered this store was up the street, so I thought I’d run in and take a look.
I walked in and notice some moderately priced bottles of wine up front and thought «eh, that’ll work.. .» but when I rounded the corner it nearly took my breath away. Wine! WINE. Glorious wine. Everywhere.
This store looks nice, but dinky at first glance, but you walk around to the back and see that’s its a legit wine store. It opens up into this huge space.. . filled with wine! And they have everything from cheap-​o $ 5 bottles to lots of middle-​y range stuff to the super expensive stuff I’ll never get to try. Go here to buy your wine. I’ll never go anywhere else again.
Place rating: 5
Honolulu, HI
Simply the finest High-​end Wine Shop on the Island.
Pricing is fair and the assortment is great!
No other shop has a selection of Italian, Burgundy, Bordeaux and Cult Calif like Vintage does near downtown.
Place rating: 4
Houston, TX
If you love wine, this place is worth the search!
Imagine a rainbow and searching for it’s end, at the end of this rainbow you will find «WINE»… Not just any wine… I’m talking wines from all over the world!!! If your a wine lover… you would be stumbling into a goldmine!!!
I have a preference for German Riesling Wines… specifically Spatlese.
The staff is very friendly, knowledgeable and make good recommendations!
Place rating: 4
Portland, OR
People have many similarities to wine.
Most but not all get better and more mature with age.
There are many different varieties, but not all are palatable.
Sweetness is endearing to some, and maddening to others.
Quick (mis)judgments are formed based solely on outer appearance.
The most expensive aren’t always the best.
I wasn’t impressed at all with this place when I first stumbled in seven years ago.
It doesn’t look like much from the outside or inside. But back then all I knew about wine was that it came in red or white. Walking in here a few weeks ago I saw this place in a different light.
It looks exactly the same, but my blurry ignorance has since been replaced with prescription glasses.
This place looked less like a glass bottled mess and more like a treasure trove of old and hard to find wines. Wine newbies are probably better served at friendlier more approachable establishments, but if you know what makes red wine red you’ll probably appreciate strolling through this cellar.
Staring at the beautiful Barolo section I realized that I’m not quite in the right tax bracket for much of what I desire. Fortunately I’ve learned to be open to all wines as long as they’re good (regardless of color, price, and label) and that should keep me satisfied, at least till my economic compensation catches up with my maturing tastes. Although thinking about it, even if I did one day make some big bucks (not likely at all – I love non profit work) I’d probably still choose value over luxury (eg Toyota even if I could afford Lexus).
Who knew a return to a wine shop could be so soul searching? Wonder what I thought seven years ago? Oh that’s right I walked in there by accident while looking for the video store.