Bell Wine & Spirits

It’s convenient to my office, but charged me $ 38 for two bottles of Goose Creek Bourbon County stout and barleywine. It’s what I get for not shopping around, since it’s markedly cheaper elsewhere. Total gouge. I won’t be going back.

3.75 Stars
Bell’s has seemingly been around forever and they do frequent wine tastings (full disclosure: I went here for a wine tasting on a blind date 15 years ago; it didn’t go anywhere). It won’t rock your world, but it is a good place to pick up something on your way home if you have a hankering and happen to work in Dupont or the Golden Triangle. Anyway, this is exactly the position I found myself in not so long ago: in the neighborhood and craving a few brews. Bell has a fridge full of craft beers but only a few in large-​format (e.g. Blue Ridge Sleepy Hollow). I opted for a four pack of Victory Kirsch Gose just for something a little different.
In addition to beer, they have a decent selection of wine including from less well known known/​not as trendy wine producing regions like Greece and Germany. They also have a good selection of «stickies» (port, sherry, and Madeira). The layout is a little strange; due it to being in a converted rowhouse it extends back and down and actually feels like you’re descending into a wine cellar (the lack of windows in the back increase the effect.) As far as hard liquor goes, they have a good gin selection from a number of artisanal distilleries, although no Green Hat.

Pros: Great selection of wines & spirits.
Cons: Staffs’ lack of knowledge on wines make them ill prepared for recommendations. No parking available.

They have a great selection and a great floor plan… WHO would have known all of this was back here?! Here for a wine tasting. .freee, customer service is great. They are very helpful in choosing pairings for the holidays.

Twice this week they’ve been rude and unapologetic. At no point should a long-​time customer feel ignored and unwelcome. They clearly forgot that when they walked away from me today while I was speaking to them.

Decent service. Close to hotels. Open when I needed it to be. Thats good enough for me.
They have an eclectic and cross price range on all types of wine but beware if you linger too long looking they may start to offer suggestions and such — which can be good but sometimes I just want to know when I see it.

Heard they are going out of business. Not surprised. No customer service.

I can understand why people have been giving this place high marks, but don’t be fooled by the extensive collection of eclectic wines. For starters, during my visit to the store, the temperature inside was easily in the high 70s. This does not bode well for the wines. However, my biggest gripe with this store is the way they handled a rather basic customer service matter. I purchased a bottle of Valpolicella that was marked down by a couple of dollars with an «on sale» sign. After getting home and realizing that I had been charged the original price, I called to point the error out and have them adjust the difference off of my credit card. All I got was a dismissive response that the sale had expired and they could not offer me the discounted price because the distributor of the wine would still charge them the original price.
I could care less if they have to eat the cost of the discount, as it was their own incompetence that left the sale price listed. Additionally, if they did receive a post off on the wine, every bottle purchased from the distributor during the post off period would have been at the lower price. Therefore, only the customer’s discount expires and not theirs. What a load of crap. A simple and sincere apology would have sufficed and an actual refund of the difference would have been even better.
Product Selection: 4 stars
Storage Quality: 0 stars
Customer Service: 0 stars
Bullshit excuses: 5 stars

They have a great selection and reasonable prices. I love their monthly tastings.

This place has a grand tasting once a month and I can fully attest to it being extremely grand. For a mere $ 5 you can taste up to 50 wines. It really lets you try a bunch of wines that you might not otherwise purchase. The staff also knows a lot about the wine, so you end up learning through the tasting — but you probably won’t learn much at the last table because you have tasted over 40 wines by then!
The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because the place is really dingy. It really needs a revamp.
If you don’t make it to the grand tasting, there are free tastings throughout the week — and many times you get to try bottles that are in the $ 45 – 60 range.

I haven’t found better wine shop in DC, I love the Saturday wine tasting and associated discounts, and the staff have been very helpful in recommending bottles at various price points. Very good selection of French and South American reds. Prices are fair in general, plus I’ve found that when they get a good deal on a lot of something, they’ll pass on the discount; because of that I’ve been able to drink some great wine that I otherwise wouldn’t have wanted to pay for.
Overall, excellent choice, and the place to go if you’re hosting a dinner and need the right wine plus a bottle or two of other items for cocktails etc.
Downsides for me is that I find the store’s layout to be confusing and therefore I sort of require help in finding the right section (it’s an odd retail space), and I think there are better places in DC to by scotch. Oh, and the real reason I took off one star is that they don’t seem to carry decent calvados, which I like to serve after an autumn meal.

Probably one of my favorite liquor stores in the city. Friendly staff, large wine and liquor selection, and great in-​store tastings. They have free wine tastings on Saturdays which are rather extensive-​usually about 7 wines, plus one «mystery wine», where you try to guess what it is and they send the answer in their email newsletter the next week. They also have a grand tasting once a month, where $ 5 gets you samples of about 30 – 40 wines. And if you’re tired of wine after tasting so many but still want more booze, they also have a pretty extensive beer selection.

This is my hands down favorite place to buy wine and liquor in DC! They have the best staff who really know what they are talking about when it comes to wine. I was able to have a convo today about the subtle difference between brands of port, then talk to another person about the different types of MollyDooker wine (which they had a full inventory of). They have tons of bottles on the shelves and if you dont see something you are looking for ask, because they have a large computer database which catalogues wines they might have in the back.
Also to top it off their prices are very competitive, obviously on the more expensive wines their prices will be higher than online, but on most entry and mid-​range wine they always have the best prices. Also their liquor selection is extensive and priced below other dc retailers in the area. I picked up a 1.75 of Makers Mark for only $ 42, versus $ 50+ everywhere else I have looked. Overpriced «Best in Liquor» charges $ 55!
By Far as good as it gets in the Foggy Bottom, Dupont, Logan area when it comes to wine and liquor. Also only 2 blocks from Ferragut North.

Decent selection and prices for DC. Wide range of choices and well-​chosen offerings. Unlike a lot of places, they do not have a lot of stuff that isn’t worth buying. That said, there are only two great places in DC — 1 West Dupont & ACE Beverages. This isn’t close.

Honestly, maybe because I just moved to the area (it’s been a few months now), maybe I don’t know what places have a decent selection of wines in the District. All I know is, this place always seems to have what I’m looking for when a particular mood (or varietal) strikes my fancy. Just an FYI, I’m from California, so I will admit that I’m in to full body reds most of the time (sometimes I’ll veer off course for an obsession with a particular pinot or viognier, etc.).
This little-​place-​that-​could happens to be on my way home from work, so I had to stop in early on out of curiosity. I had heard that this place didn’t have a good selection of wines. Well, apparently they recently underwent a change in ownership, and since then their selection of wine has exploded… comparatively speaking, of course. The owner keeps the 3 or 4 wine room temps at a perfectly low temp, too. They are all in the back with no exposure to outdoor light as well.
Bell also has tastings every Wednesday night, Friday night, and, I believe, every Saturday… for free! I recently went to a Wednesday night champagne tasting, and they had seven stations set up, each with about 7 different champagnes to try. Of course I had to go straight to the Perrier Jouet and Krug stations (yep, they had them!). I can’t begin to imagine the cost of the amount (and quality) of champagne I sampled for FREE.
The Friday before they’d had a Macallan tasting (17 year olds, 18 year olds, and 21 year olds… again, not cheap, but the tasting was free).
I really can’t speak for their collection of other alcohol, except that I know that the owner married someone whose father is straight from Ireland, so they have a solid selection of good Irish whiskeys thanks to him.

As it happens I happen to know a few employees at Bell and have to admit that they know their stuff when it comes to wine, beer and liquor.
One of the great things about Bell’s is the fact that they have different tasting each week.
All in all they have a fantastic selection of wine, and an okay selection of beer (I am more picky about my beer too).
Become a regular and things will get much better!

This shop is much deeper than it appears, both literally (it’s a really long store) and figuratively (there’s a couple people here that know something about wine).
At first glance it looks like your typical rundown DC liquor store. You look at the staff, they kind of look the same way but when you go inside but it’s not as dreary as it seems. After all, you’re getting booze!

There gets to be a point in your life where you want something more. You’ve gotten to that age or that stage in life where you finally realize you can indulge in nicer things, so you start buying imported beer vs. domestic. Nice dinners at a restaurant vs. ramen. Designer jeans vs. The Gap. Trying to establish an actual relationship vs. trolling for booty with self-​esteem issues at the local watering hole.
Now, I’ve consumed wine for years, but it was mostly the cheaper stuff, like $ 10 or less. There’s nothing wrong with that (in fact, a bottle of Turning Leaf chardonnay is one of my guilty pleasures). But after a while you want something… more. Something with more substance. Something you won’t find at Safeway.
I stopped in here a few days ago with the sole intention of getting some beer. That plan got nixed (see the first «con»), but I thought I might as well stick around and try finding some new wines.
I will say that they have a good selection. I haven’t been to a full-​on wine shop in ages, so I really can’t compare it to the others in the city. But if you’re in the neighborhood and want to get a bottle of something different, I don’t think you’ll leave here empty-​handed. French and Italian wines come out the winners here, Australian and South American wines not so much. The California selection was so-​so. You won’t find rack upon rack of Sutter Home, but I still felt the California selection could have used more variety. For some reason, California wines aren’t held in such high esteem in the DC area, which is a shame, because they’re some of the best wines out there.
Prices seem to be competitive for the most part, though the Burgundies are definitely pricey, and there isn’t quite as much of a selection of them. At any rate, I got a great Chateauneuf du Pape and two other wines that escape my recollection (must’ve been noteworthy, right?) for about $ 60 total.
Cons:
For starters, either they let people break up six-​packs, or they have horrible loss-​prevention strategies. There were two different beers I wanted (one of which I can only find here for some reason) and both of them had a bottle missing. Why? Does anyone honestly set out to buy a five-​pack? I’m sorry, but that projects an «I don’t give a sh*t attitude.» Tag the walls with graffiti while you’re at it.
I’ve also seen DMV employees more cheerful about their jobs. Seriously. They weren’t rude or anything. But I think you can find convicted felons on highway trash detail that are more upbeat.
Errata: As Tom says, this place has a musty feel to it. For some reason, I don’t mind it. It’s like you got invited to the estate of a recently deceased relative, and while the attorney is going over the will, you lean back in your chair, bored out of your skull, and a bookcase slides open, leading you to some hidden wine cellar. I can’t say that it’s a complete draw, but I don’t find it to be a turnoff.
The verdict: I’ll certainly come back here again, but at the same time, I’m even more motivated to check out some other wine shops in the DC area. But if you’re in the Golden Triangle area, I can say this is a solid recommendation.

2.5 stars
Good store — with a fairly decent selection of French and California wines. really neglect the Aussies… Spanish selection could use some attention too.
I have to say that they really could have a better selection — at least in terms of the amount of space they have. There are like 2 choices for Peite Syrah in the store…
Prices aren’t anything to get excited about — some of them are over retail — they are still working on the 2003 Marquis Phillips Shiraz — and no wonder at $ 17.99 a bottle.
The staff tend to be pretty helpful and know their wines — they seem to have a thing for ugly ducklings and underdogs — things that might not be from the «in» wineries — some of these are real finds — and others are less so…
A couple of months ago I picked up a nice bottle of wine — happened to mention it was a gift — and they did a really nice job on the gift wrap without asking.
The place is definitely a bit musty — which does make me want to get my wine and get out as quickly as possible.