The Wine Thief - Downtown

Right next to Cask Republic, this place is mostly a wine store, but has a small but fairly well-curated bottle selection, including ciders (and French ciders at that). Worth a quite perusal to see if you can find anything interesting, which there are sure to be some.

Nice looking store with a small craft beer selection. A small three door fridge and a small stand of beer. Not much in the way of locals, which I was after, and they will not bust up any 6 or 4-packs. Way more imports than I'd have expected. I guess they must not think much of local or American brews. I ended up with a few bombers and a can. Prices seemed fine, but I don't know the area. For Charlorttesville this would be on the cheaper side. Service was limited to "no, we don't break up any 6-packs," and ringing me up. Top be honest, there was almost as good of a selection at the neighborhood liquor store next to my hotel.

Stop in to look for some locals. They had spme but not too much, or what I wanted. Decent selection of interesting beers, and the guy working there in the afternoon was very helpful and knew about beer even though this is a wine shop.

A small, neat store in the centre of town, conveniently located almost next door to the Cask Republic. It’s nicely laid out with small, low islands of wine in wooden crates. It sells mainly wine but there’s also a stand of bottled beers from some of the smaller craft breweries. (Visited 30 October 2012).

Came across this place by accident. Strategically well located in the lively part of New Haven, close to most of the good pubs. As the name implies, this is primarily a wine and spirits store but they do carry a good selection of craftbeer. Mostly typical stuff available in Connecticut, small New-England micros and bigger breweries from USA and around the world. After talking to a few staff from various pubs I was told that there is only one place with a very large beer selection in New Haven and it is Amity Wine & Spirits. However Amity is quite remote on the edge of the city so The Wine Thief is the choice by default if you cannot drive to Amity and want to buy beer, just don’t expect anything above the widely distributed beers in Connecticut.

Mostly a wine store but there is a small but excellent selection of beers here. Staff that rang me out was friendly and chatted me up about beers.

Everyone who has ever helped me here has been incredibly friendly and helpful. For me, the biggest bummer of this store, is actually the lack of refrigerated beers. They have an interesting selection of imports and harder-to-find micros, but they’re all warm and I’m usually in town and ready to drink something cold. Prices are a nip high, but if you’re downtown and looking for something ahead of time, this is a great place to shop.

The nice thing about this store is that it is right there in the middle of bar central and that it is a nice looking store. They also take good care of their beers and wines. The store itself carries a limited amount of craft beer with the occasional seasonal. If you have a car, head to Amity or New England Beverage for much bigger selections. If not, this place is worth a look.