Majestic wine merchants

[CardShark]

A Majestic opened it's doors for the first time last night in my town, in fact it's only a few doors down from where I live. The GF and I had a nose around and bought half a dozen bottles, we enjoy a tipple now and again and we thought we'd try out some wines we'd never had before.
Now it's the first time I've been into one of these stores and I could see that one or two wines I recognised are available for less in the supermarkets, Yellow Label Wolfblass for example is quite a chunk cheaper when on special offer in our local Tescos.

What's Majestic like in general for their pricing?

[LooneyTunes]

CardShark said:

What's Majestic like in general for their pricing?

Not usually too bad on price - but probably can't compete with the supermarkets on volume for the "brand" wines.

BUT the good thing about them is their staff are usually pretty good... so don't hold back on asking them for their suggestions and try even more that you don't recognise.

[Mobile Chicane]

My experience of Majestic has not been good.

I've bought cases where several bottles were affected by obvious wine faults such as cork taint or refermentation; there being clearly a problem with a batch rather than just the odd bottle.

Rather than try each bottle individually to confirm or deny, I returned the case for a refund. Of course they obliged, but I can't help thinking that Majestic buy duff wine at rock-bottom prices and pass this on thinking the consumer won't notice.

Tin foil hat time, perhaps.

However to put it another way, I've had far more duff bottles from Majestic than anywhere else...

[mattdaniels]

LooneyTunes said:

BUT the good thing about them is their staff are usually pretty good

+1

Especially for a non-wine buff such as myself. Whenever I go in there the staff have been extremely knowledgeable and helpful and nothing has been too much trouble.

[REM2112]

We have always found them excellent, particularly for parties - free ice, glass hire, delivery etc.

[escargot]

Our local majestic is excellent. The staff are knowledgeable and friendly, the selection is good and the prices are comparable to other places. Plus, if you ask you'll be put on the mailing list and invited to various free wine tastings which are always fun.

[SVX]

Reasonable for South African wine, which is what we use them for - to keep Mrs. SVX topped up

Very unimpressed with their beer prices and variety - often find that the local Lidl is better for ales...

[militantmandy]

Worked as a driver for Majestic in Edinburgh and found them them to be very good to their customers. Would definitely recommend.

[James P]

Sam Adams is currently £1.59 a bottle in my local Sainsburys vs £1.25 in Majestic. You do 'have' to buy it by the case though, not a hardship really

[CardShark]

Many thanks for your responses chaps, good to hear that they have a good track record in general. We also found the staff to be both helpful and knowledgeable, and there's a wine tasting evening later this month which we'll be attending.

Look's like it could be a dangerous thing having this place no more than a minutes walk away

[havoc]

Been to a couple of wine-tastings at the local one in town, and found them to be very restrictive on the wines they offer to taste, and the wine itself to be overpriced. This is compared to a couple of independent merchants in town who also run occasional tastings, so there's no excuse re: buying power.


Discussed this politely with them at the 2nd tasting (the poor quality of the wines for tasting both times against their price-point and against the other merchants), to effectively be told I didn't know anything and that wine-X had won this award and wine-Y had won another award.


Unsurprisingly, we've not been back, but use a very helpful indy instead.



Oh - and Majestic only sell by the case (mixed, but you can't pop-in for a single bottle or even two or three).