I read that there are strict controls on wine sales in Utah. Is Salt Lake City a wine lover's hell?

There are many threads on this - do a search. but the short answer is no, not really. Make the system work for you.

I don't have any trouble finding bottles to put in the cellar and bottles for everyday drinking. Now, if you buy via mail order, you'll have to ship to ID or CA or CO to store them. The biggest short coming in the state is Bordeaux, if you are a collector of bordeaux, the prices are high, and the selection is low. Otherwise, I find wine hunting here an all too easy event. Why do yo ask, Hex38?

Despite some backward liquor laws, Utah has a surprisingly good selection of wine. There are 3-4 stores in the Greater Salt Lake area that have adequate selections. However, RR is correct, Bordeaux is in short supply. The Main Store in SLC has a few bottles of Lafite, Haut-Brion, Latour, etc. but only single bottles.

Most of the other selection is pretty decent: Napa, Rhone, Burgundy, Alsace, Spain, Austrailia, etc.

The inflated prices are a result of the exhorbitant tax that is place on liquor; however, there are some good bargains to be found.

The Downtown, Park City, Ft. Union, Sandy, and Draper stores have the best selections.

The downtown store will also special-order cases upon request.

Good luck!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: gigabit,

I am considering a move to take a job in SLC and am trying to consider the intangibles. I am a wino and heard that Utah had ridiculous liquor laws, including no wine at Costco!!

quote:

Originally posted by Roentgen Ray:
I don't have any trouble finding bottles to put in the cellar and bottles for everyday drinking. Now, if you buy via mail order, you'll have to ship to ID or CA or CO to store them. The biggest short coming in the state is Bordeaux, if you are a collector of bordeaux, the prices are high, and the selection is low. Otherwise, I find wine hunting here an all too easy event. Why do yo ask, Hex38?

quote:

I am considering a move to take a job in SLC and am trying to consider the intangibles. I am a wino and heard that Utah had ridiculous liquor laws, including no wine at Costco!!

You are correct. You can't buy wine at Costco. The State controls the sale of all wine and spirits.

The current governor, John Huntsman Jr., has been trying to "soften" the laws since he entered his office. However, that type of change happens very slowly.

Correct, no wine at Costco; you MUST buy from a state liquor store, and as much as one can talk about selection, all the stores are controlled by the same purchaser (btw, this "purchaser" decided to shun Torbreck several years ago, so no more Torbreck - among others - in UT), so ostensibly they've got essentially the same 'selection.' (It's not like in other states where competing stores will offer different products.)

BYOB, however, is FANTASTIC in SLC! Since most restaurants can't afford to invest so much $ in a beverage which half their constituents don't even touch, many of them welcome BYOB with very low corkage - usually $5-$15.

That being said, in order to take a bottle to a restaurant, the bottle has to have a sticker on it to prove that you paid the state taxes on THAT bottle, or else the restaurant can't cork it for you. In fact, that bottle would be considered 'illegal' in the state. Which leads me to the ultimate absurdity: (Are you ready for this?) When you move your wine (assuming you have a cellar) to Utah, for those bottles to be officially 'legal,' the state wants you to do a one-time declaration that you're bringing alcohol into the state as part of your possessions. They will charge you the appropriate tax ('appropriate tax' - HA! ) and issue you stickers for the bottles. This, of course, means no shipping or carrying wine into the state thereafter. Obviously, no mailing list participation here.

As ridiculous as it may seem, a very reliable source once told me that the state makes over $1mil/year (this sounds like a lot to me, but it was his figure) re-selling confiscated illegal alcohol. Whether from confiscating packages that have been illegally shipped or from arresting people bringing un-stickered bottles or otherwise illegal alcohol across the state line (apparently lots of folks get the wise idea to run across the state border to buy kegs - which are illegal in UT - in Evanston, WY).

If you're a beer drinker, 3.2's the thing in the state. There are baffling laws for any beer with greater-than 3.2 % alcohol which I never bothered to learn. If you go to a brew-pub in SLC, you're getting "three two" beer. IMO, it tastes just as good, so no big deal to me. Not all mu buddies agreed.

Nonetheless, there are avid wine-drinkers in SLC, and I continued to collect during my time there. Collecting is much easier now, to be honest, but I can't take a bottle to a restaurant in CO as it is against state law.

Alcohol is not an illegal substance; when will we stop treating it as if it is?

I visited SLC for the first time last week and stopped in a downtown liquor store to check the offering, and was horrified by the selection that was offered. I suppose that if I live there, I will be doing alot of interstate bootlegging ! Sounds like Utah needs to come into the 21st century where alcohol is concerned. I suppose that they feel that abusing consumers of wine is easy since so many residents don't drink. Oh well.

quote:

Originally posted by gigabit:
Despite some backward liquor laws, Utah has a surprisingly good selection of wine. There are 3-4 stores in the Greater Salt Lake area that have adequate selections. However, RR is correct, Bordeaux is in short supply. The Main Store in SLC has a few bottles of Lafite, Haut-Brion, Latour, etc. but only single bottles.

Most of the other selection is pretty decent: Napa, Rhone, Burgundy, Alsace, Spain, Austrailia, etc.

The inflated prices are a result of the exhorbitant tax that is place on liquor; however, there are some good bargains to be found.

The Downtown, Park City, Ft. Union, Sandy, and Draper stores have the best selections.

The downtown store will also special-order cases upon request.

Good luck!

quote:

I visited SLC for the first time last week and stopped in a downtown liquor store to check the offering, and was horrified by the selection that was offered. I suppose that if I live there, I will be doing alot of interstate bootlegging ! Sounds like Utah needs to come into the 21st century where alcohol is concerned. I suppose that they feel that abusing consumers of wine is easy since so many residents don't drink. Oh well.

Hex-

There are a couple of stores downtown; however, the State Wine Store is the one you needed to go to. It appears that you may have gone to a smaller store with very limited selection.

You must realize that Utah is a theocracy. In many ways similar, but many ways different than Iran.

Ninety percent of the state's population are members of a religion that prohibits the use of alcohol. And coffee.....

That said, Utah is a wonderful place. I am a non-Mormon from California that attended the University of Utah. I stayed for 10 years after graduation.

I found plenty of opportunities to party and drink and it was my time working at The Shallow Shaft Restaurant at Alta that I really began to learn about wine.

Yes, you may have to get more creative in accessing some wines, but the selection is decent and the laws in Utah can work in your favor.... Enjoy it....

quote:

You must realize that Utah is a theocracy. In many ways similar, but many ways different than Iran.

Ninety percent of the state's population are members of a religion that prohibits the use of alcohol. And coffee.....

That said, Utah is a wonderful place. I am a non-Mormon from California that attended the University of Utah. I stayed for 10 years after graduation.

I found plenty of opportunities to party and drink and it was my time working at The Shallow Shaft Restaurant at Alta that I really began to learn about wine.

Yes, you may have to get more creative in accessing some wines, but the selection is decent and the laws in Utah can work in your favor.... Enjoy it....

Not that it makes much difference, but only 70% of the population of the state of Utah belongs to the LDS Church, and much of that percentage lives outside Salt Lake and Summit - Park City/Deer Valley - counties.

The problem lies with those that enact the laws which govern the sale and consumption of alcohol. Things are very slow to change, but they will eventually. Case in point, the State just passed a law which will increase the size of a shot of liquor from 1 to 1.5 ounces. It may not seem like much, but it is a quantum leap for Utah.

As for wine, you are correct. The selection is decent, not great. The greater problem is the inability to ship wine into the State from outside. Hopefully, that will change someday as well.

Minnesota has stupid laws on wine and liqour too. All liqour stores close at 8 pm during the week and 10 pm on fri and sat and are all closed on sunday. You can't buy beer or wine or liqour at a grocery store, only a liscensed liqour store. You can however purchase beer with 3.2 percent alchhol at grocery stores untill midnight 7 days a week. Luckily I have plenty of wine in my cellar at home where they can't stop my purchases or consumption!