Been purchasing wines from this company for 15 years, online from the East Coast, and have had a generally good experience throughout. The wine selection is very good, prices are usually fair, and only once in a while have I encountered a corked wine that had to be discarded. The two stars is for the fact that there is a $100 minimum on all orders, but their website is not set up to override this in the event one is adding to an existing large order. In that case, one might miss out on purchasing a desired wine that's offered on the site. Specifically, if one requests that a wine order be held at the Flickinger warehouse and then one wishes to add a lower priced bottle to that order, it's impossible. Their website does *not* allow one to add a $99 (or less) bottle to the existing order (even though the goal is to have them all ship together in one delivery.) It gets worse: As a work-around, I contacted the company and a staffer happily added a bottle to my existing order. No problem. Later, when I wanted to add yet another lesser-priced bottle to my existing order, the staffer did add it, but then I got an unfriendly email from the owner, Tom Flickinger, who told me he'd done me a 'favor' by adding the wine and that, next time, I should [take multiple complicated steps not explained on the website] if I wanted to add any more bottles to the existing order. Thought that was super rude of him, especially when *he* had created the issue in the first place with his sub-par website. read more

Found this place as I was googling for rare well-kept wines early this year. A lot of wines from local wine shops are too young or selections are good but limited. This place has quite a European and Us selections the at unheard of prices. If you order online, it is easy to schedule a time to pick up at your leisure on your way to or from Chinatown. Kind, very responsive staffs. This place is a storage unit and the staff will deliver the wine to you at the entrance door / elevator. read more

You have to be sooooo bad to get me to stop what I'm doing to post a review. So here's the first one I've ever posted. I am an experienced wine collector who has purchased TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS from this company over the past ten years. I am a customer who typically buys about 80-100 cases of wine annually that I serve at corporate events, large home parties and either consume or age in my 3000 bottle wine cellar. I attempted to place an order through their website, but the site is substandard and clearly very old and utilizes out of date technology. Fine. So I call the place and a woman named "Susie" answered the phone and her response to me asking for assistance to purchase a large, multi case order of thousands of dollars was to berate me for not using their website. She is truly the biggest a hole I've ever encountered in 35 years of wine buying. Typically you get the opposite. She was so combative that I started worrying that she was emotionally unstable, perhaps in need of medication, and that my order was going to not get placed properly. When I asked to speak to the owner, she got verbally abusive and I ended up hanging up and sending an email through the website to a Peter Mesrobian. His answer to her treatment of me and my subsequent complaint was to tell me to buy my wine elsewhere in the future. Don't do business with these people. There are great sellers of wine out there, like Sokolin Wines in NYC and Total Wine out of VA and really a zillion great purveyors. I own several businesses and if I had ever received a complaint like that from an established premium customer, I would be MORTIFIED. I'm writing this review because I believe in Free market Capitalism and Peter doesn't deserve to get your business. Imagine if you actually had a REAL PROBLEM with an order. All I was trying to do was give them THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS to process a simple order and they treated me like crap. Worst I've ever been treated in my life. Don't do business with a company who treats their customers this badly. A ten year long customer. There are many well run businesses that will treat you with the basic level of human respect, if not down right friendly. read more

An excellent online retailer (no brick and mortar store) that specializes in older wines from across the globe. I have picked up several times at their location in Chicago, which is conveniently located near Chinatown, with nary a hassle. The location itself is in a storage facility, so you have to arrange pick-up ahead of time. My only quibble (and the only thing that keeps it from getting a 5-star rating) is that it requires a minimum order of $100. Definitely a nice change from Binny's if you plan ahead. read more

Looking for that 2001 Chateauneuf-du-Pape that has been out of stores for 5 years? You'll find it here, and any other long lost vintage that is no longer in stores. You won't have to deal with late night TV adverts, just friendly low key emails with the latest private cellars and pre-orders that the Flickering proprietors have snagged for your benefit. Sign up and reap the rewards, but leave the Rhones to me! read more

I've been addicted to flick since I discovered them a few years ago, but only now does it take me to write a review on them. Lets just say that I have my own version of island time and that's just how I operate. It should be noted that their "store" is only online and there isn't a B&M store front to go into. They have offices in wilmette (previously northbrook) where you can sometimes pick up or have it courier delivered to the north shore, but the main place is here in the south loop at a big storage facility. There is a waiting area where they will bring your wine down to you, and they are usually very quick on that. what I love most about them is that they are always easy to get a hold of and treat all of their customers very well. I certainly don't have the bank account that many of their customers posses, but I have never been talked down to because of my younger age and am always treated with the utmost respect (I can't tell you how many times I've been talked down to even though I usually know more about certain regions then the person doing the talking down). most of all, their selection is tremendous. They don't just have current release and newer wines, they have a full stock of aged wines and one can always find good prices on these higher end wines. I know that most don't necessarily go that route, but to get quality aged champagne for under $100 is ridiculously hard to find, and yet Flick repeatedly has come up in spades on this. They take full advantage of people wanting to liquidate their cellars or consigning with them and its we the customer who ends up getting the best of it. The only downside right now is that there is a $100 minimum order. Granted, I go to flick for special bottles so its not usually a problem filling that out, but I unfortunately can't just get the odd bottle of donnhoff or two and pick it up from them. It makes things slightly harder, but for flick I'm willing to go that extra bit since they do a great job or going the extra bit for everyone read more

Excellent source of wines on the web. Reputable, friendly, and well-stocked in older vintages and harder-to-find producers. Besides having an excellent wine alert and Daily Notification email services, Flickinger stocks a wide variety of Burgundies, Rhones, Provencal, and Italian wines from various producers and vintages. This is one of my go-to places in hunting down that hard-to-find vintage/producer bottle. And until recently, they had a great selection of older-yet-very-reasonably-priced Domaine Tempier and Angelo Gaja wines (of which I had help liberated) :) I mean, who would have thought that a 1993 Gaja San Lorenzo can be had for about $150 as of the Spring of 2008? Granted it was not one of the best vintages for San Lorenzo barbaresco but it was still quite a steal. The wine was beautfiul, elegant, almost Burgundian in its essence. Truly amazing! Thanks to the staff of Flickinger Fine Wines and its great website, now I know where most of my disposable income has been disappearing to in the last few months. :) read more

While I have not received my wine yet, I have been charged for the wine, almost a month back and now shipping at what I consider an exorbitant rate, $28.84 for three half bottles from Chicago to Washington State via ground. I did learn that the wine was from the Chateau's library but when I ordered they gave no indication that the wine would be shipped a month later and the shipping price was not listed. I called and they said they did not know how much the shipping would be, by then it was too late to cancel without a fee. Suffice it to say, I do not like the way they do business even though they have very hard to find old growth bordeaux wines. read more

Don't buy anything aged here. I bought a case of wine that was bad and they wouldn't stand behind their product.

Corked!!! 1985 Offley port, could smell it after releasing the capsule. Very strong smell, could have probably smelled it through the capsule, but didn't think to inspect so thoroughly before opening because of the great reviews. In the moment, I couldn't believe what I was smelling; I had to open it. Lesson learned. A present for my wife's 31st birthday at dinner with friends. Will not order from this vendor again. Hoping my other purchase (Joh. Jos. Riesling 2012) is not flawed as well. I'm aware of their buyer policy, that as the consumer we take the risk in the wines, but they do claim to have a team that carefully inspects their bottles and makes every effort to secure and offer wines that have benefited from consistently proper cellar conditions. This was my first and only interaction with Flickinger, so I do understand that I have a limited interaction here, but this wine was so badly/obviously corked that I believe they could have been a little more careful inspecting and securing this particular wine. Just be very careful ordering late vintage anything from this supplier. read more

This is an online distributor but if you live in chicago you can pick up directly from their warehouse (ie its not a store front). In addition to the basic, everyday wines you will find at most wine shops, they also have rare and aged wines which you could never find at Binny's. The problem I find with shopping at binnys is that most of the fine wine you buy there has to be put in a cellar for 5-10 years. Flickinger's has wine that is already aged and ready to drink. Their prices are usually close to the best in the country and by picking it up directly from the warehouse you save on shipping cost. I'm serious in saying that Flickinger wines has changed the way I enjoy wine. The staff is great and super accommodating. I am just so impressed! read more