William Cross Wine Merchants & Wine Bar

Wednesday night tastings are thoughtful and fun. Curated wine selection — no bad bottles in the whole store, with a very well-​priced gems throughout, and a broad international selection. Zweigelt, anyone?
You can buy a bottle, pay a five dollar corkage, and drink it in the bar area — best deal in town. Just bring a few empanadas from next door, and you are set.
The owner and staff are friendly and experienced. Sometimes they are doing double duty at the bar and at the register, so you may have to go to the back of the store to ask for help.
I can’t leave the store without at least half a case each time I go in.

This place rocks. Board games + amazing wine selection + extremely generous wine flights. Definitely coming back, new favorite.

I come here to buy wine, I have not done the tasting in the back of the store.
They have a good wine selection, I come back pretty regularly and I would recommend shopping here to others.
However, one thing I dont love about this place is that its hard to get the sales people attention when you need it. Most of the attention stays with the wine tasting customers in the back. And that’s fine if you come here knowing what you want. But if you are looking for a more personalized experience and advice, well they could improve in that area.

This place is amazing! I must have walked past it over 100 times without knowing there was a wine bar tucked in the back. The concept is brilliant: there is a wine shop in the front where you can pick a bottle of wine to enjoy out on the back patio at the recommendation of the wonderful staff OR partake in a wine flight. It is a great way to try some new wines and have a sunny spot away from the business of Polk street to do so. You can find something in just about every price range and region, so you can’t really go wrong!

Wow, this was one of the worst customer service experiences my friend and I have ever had. We went into this place (where we have both purchased bottles of wine in the past) late Sunday afternoon. We sat down at the little tasting area in the back. We waited about 10 minutes before a woman (who had been busy playing with a puppy and a kid who were in the store) came up to us. We told her we were interested in trying a flight, and she proceeded to try to convince us twice to buy a bottle of wine to share instead, even though I told her twice that I was driving and couldn’t safely do so after drinking half a bottle of wine. She then told us she wasn’t actually pouring and someone else would come over and help us. We waited awhile longer and a guy came over. We told him we would try the flight, and then order glasses once we figured out what we liked from the flight. He told us they were out of the first wine in the flight we chose, and said they could substitute one from the other flight, so we said sure. He poured us a (tiny) pour and then went back up to the front of the store. We waited over twenty minutes after our first pour, while trying to wave him down. We finally decided we had to leave because we both had somewhere to be. We went up to the register to tell him that we couldn’t wait any longer, and assumed maybe we would pay for ¹⁄₃ of the flight considering that’s all we had. Instead he charged us for a full glass of wine, $ 10.95, which was the same price as a FULL flight, even though I explained that we had only had one pour in the flight. He rudely said «Well I can’t charge you for half a glass of wine». We were so annoyed at this point because we had already wasted about 45 minutes of our time that my friend took out $ 15 to pay so we could get out of there. I was appalled that he actually looked into my wallet and said «She has a dollar, why can’t you use that instead?» Did he not want to take the time to make change on the $ 15 after we had just wasted our time waiting for him? And what did he know– maybe I needed that dollar for bus money? I could not believe how rude they were and how bad this whole experience was from start to finish.
We will never return to this place, and it’s really too bad for them as we both live a few blocks away and have purchased expensive bottles of wine from them in the past. We also have many friends in the neighborhood who use this shop, and we will encourage them not to take their business there anymore.

Very nice neighborhood wine bar. You can buy a reasonably priced bottle of wine and enjoy it at the bar or on their outdoor patio, which is a nice change of pace for a city bar.

Really sweet employee (female, didn’t catch her name) who helped us on two different evenings while we’ve been visiting SF on our honeymoon. We asked to buy a box for wine shipment (we’re flying home soon) and even though it was a pain in the butt for her to go get it and put it together, she was super nice and friendly about it. I would definitely make this a regular stop if I lived here! They also have a display of wines under $ 15/​bottle at the front, as well as a box of wines with 90+ points ratings under $ 20, which helps a relative wine-​newbie like myself get some direction.

My local Russian Hill wine shop, great selection and friendly knowledgable staff. Cool atmosphere with wine bar in the back. Not much else to say than this spot rocks!

Such a brilliant idea, putting a wine bar in the back of an already excellent wine shop. The wine bar is always full of familiar neighborhood faces and pouring two different international flights (today — Italy and new zealand!). Has a warm familial quality that always leads us to stay much longer than we intended. But hey, what’s one more glass?
Dog friendly too, we always bring ours. She won’t let us go on a walk without taking her in! A local staple for us, for sure.

Bad service (only one staff member who’s really nice but when it’s busy it’s difficult to get started on wine and a refill) but otherwise awesome. Friendly, tasty wine and great pours!

At the Slow Wine Italy event tonight, I came across a delicious sparkling and still Moscato wine called Fior Saranico from La Montecchia (Veneto region). The good news is this wonderful, peachy, slightly sweet is sold at William Cross Wine Merchants!

Friendly and fun

Amidst the changing Polk Street food and beverage scene, William Cross has been a steady staple for locals. Whether you’re looking for an inexpensive, but interesting bottle to take home, or wanting to sit down and taste a bit, this local merchant has you covered.

A neighborhood gem. Love this place!

Good enough wines and a fun seating environment, but did I really need to be called a slowpoke?

I adore William Cross Wine Merchants. Steven and his staff are so welcoming, even if you don’t buy tons of wine. I especially love their Wed night tastings. They are perfect for learning about wine regions, or categories of wines. If only there were more wine merchants like Steven around!

I have to move from Russian Hill. BUMMER, cause these guys are the bomb to drop in and leave 2 min later with a killer wine at whatever my budget is!
Unpretentious, Smart, Huge Selection across the price spectrum and a lot of great surprises. Jeremy in particular has a AMAZING palette for wine.
Thanks for being here!

Jeremy is the man.
A great wine merchant with lots of options with really fantastic prices.
I already ate but wanted to buy some for pairing my cooking as well as some cheese. Jeremy was very helpful and quickly introduced a few. He is knowledgeable, either from describing what styles you like, or certain styles you have tried and like and he can recommend a few that are of the same category.
The wines are decently priced and I picked up a few happy bottles!

Nice shop with good selection of wine in various price range.
They don’t bother you as you browse and study their selection but more than happy to help and offer suggestions if you ask.

Who would have known! I’ve walked by numerous times and heard from someone that you can taste/​drink wine here. Sure enough, in the back is the wine bar! Yeah baby! After having had a long afternoon at work, I was in dire need for some vino.
So apparently on Wednesdays they have themed events. Tonight was wine from South Africa; 3 whites and 3 reds for $ 15. The owner was pouring and telling us about all of the wines and the regions — he’s super knowledgeable and friendly. In fact everyone sitting there was real friendly. Next wednesday is a different event and on Friday, Saturday and Sundays they have wines by the glass where the back counter becomes more like a wine bar… very cool. Definitely have to go back and check it out!