Ball Square Fine Wines and Liquors

I’ve used these guys for a number of important occasions. Two examples:
1. The other day I bought my friend a bottle of scotch for his 40^th birthday, on the recommendation of James at Ball Square; it exactly matched my request, and my friend loved it.
2. Before the birthday, we ordered 100 nips of bourbon to hand out as welcome gifts at our wedding, with Nate’s help; all our guests loved them, and the price was exactly right. At the same time that we ordered the nips, we asked Nate what his dream bourbon would be, were he to receive bourbon as a gift; we wanted to buy a nice bottle of bourbon as a gift for a friend who designed our wedding invitations. Nate’s bourbon suggestion was a home run with our friend.
I love supporting them for lots of reasons. First, their staff are incredibly attentive. Second, they can handle the Internet: I’ve emailed with them, and searched their inventory on the web. (The latter is HUGE. Why do no other liquor stores around here do this?) Third, they will chase down every obscure liquor request I send their way: they’ve found me any number of bizarre bottles. Fourth, the staff are so, so friendly. Fifth, they’re a local business, and I like supporting my community.
I’m going to use these guys as long as they’ll have me. They’re the best.

Way overdue review. I live right by BSFW and have been a customer for a few years now.
I love BSFW for many reasons:
— the cheese: as a French expat, I can tell you they know their cheeses and have really good quality cheeses. I order my platter for Christmas and happy with it.
— the wine selection is awesome. When you enter they have specials in bins on your right. They otherwise have a very decent selection from all over the world. And they know their wine! I have never been disappointed by a wine they recommended to me
— the beer: I am not a connoisseur but my husband is. They can order kegs and have (apparently) a really cool selection.
Staff is pleasant and very knowledgable.
On Fridays they have tastings for wine and beer, which can be overrun but usually a great way to start the weekend and worth the wait!
I recommend the place!

Friendly staff and great selections of wine and craft beer. Cheese section in the back is also a plus. Friendly helpful staff that always jump to help you find what you are looking for and if they don’t have it they will order it in for you!

This is, without a doubt, my go-​to liquor store. I’m a member of their bottle club, so I get discounts on some purchases. They have an amazing selection of beer. I’m always able to grab a favorite alongside new beers I’ve never tried before. I love trying different beers, and the singles they have available in the back of the cold storage as well as the delicious tastings they put together mean I’m always able to try something new. When I’m out of my depths buying wine or liquor as a present, the staff has been extremely helpful with their suggestions. They are incredibly accommodating. I recently purchased a large bottle from a smaller brewery that ended up having a defect resulting in absolutely zero carbonation. I messaged Ball Square Fine Wines and Liquors on Facebook, and they got back to me immediately, telling me to come down and exchange the bottle. How great is that?! This is the kind of stuff that keeps me coming back. Not only do they provide delicious beer, but they are awesome to their customers. These folks are wonderful and I will continue spending way too much time and money in their store.

I’ve been there twice. The first time my boyfriend and I went for the free wine tasting. They were serving Greek wines and the gentleman serving them explained the history and flavors in a very pleasant manner. It was a fun experience and if you’re around Davis Square, it might be worth it.
The second time, my roommate and I got some vodka and were disappointed at the selection. Overall, I guess this is a good place for wines, but not much of a selection in terms of beer, vodka or rum.

Ball Square Fine Wines has a great selection and an astute staff. They also have a very nice selection of olive oils, cheeses, and some antipasti (e.g., olives, pepperoncini, roasted ‘peperoni’, etc). I really liked that they had a laptop on hand that was pointing to their website — available for customers to either search for a specific wine or type of wine/​varietal), or to join their wine club (specials!). Very pleasant experience overall, from the browsing to the buying.

Beer and wine heaven! Extremely friendly and helpful staff.
Definitely a neighborhood favorite. You can even check out their specialty food section that goes along with their huge beer and wine selection!

Staff is super friendly and helpful! They have a great selection and even better suggestions. This is my favorite area liquor store!

Very fun, helpful staff. Great selection of wine, beer, and spirits.
They’ve got some cheese, meats, and snacks too. Everything you might need for a picnic in the park.
The wine might be priced a teeny bit high but if you’re a club member you get 10% off the monthly wines. It helps! But like I said, the staff is super knowledgeable and always leads me in the right direction.

Amazing selection of beers and wine. The employees really know their products. They will let you try any of the cheeses and they have samples of the sweets (I got to try caramels). Great specialty food section that pairs well with their huge selection of wine and beer!

Very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful staff. Usually like 3 – 4 guys that work the store. I don’t know them by name yet. It’s a relatively small but very dense store. It feels like some rich guy’s private cellar.
Great selection, a wide variety of stuff, plus there’s a little of everything. I was pleasantly surprised to find this gem. For instance, there’s quite a bit of Burgundy, Bordeaux, Californian, Italian, etc. (There’s not a huge selection but a little of everything, and some items have quite a few items.) They also have some beers and craft beers and liquors.
I can usually find street parking in the evenings for free. It might be a block or two away.

I adore this place. Regular tastings of beer, wine, sometimes spirits. A great artisan cheese selection, knowledgeable staff but not too pushy, and an amazing selection. Some of my favorite beers and wines come from recommendations here.

My boyfriend and I always go out of our way to come here, it’s probably one of our favorite places. They have a great selection of wine, beer, and alcohol. They also have a pretty good selection of gluten free beer. I especially love this place because of the tastings that they have. I have been to many of the wine tastings and I recently went to a large cider tasting that they had. All tastings have an interesting assortment of products and the staff is very knowledgeable. Thank goodness my new apartment is just down the road!

This place is awesome. I stumbled in accidentally one day and saw they had the wine tasting. We had so much fun.

«American Distilling Co. Bourbon, $ 10.99, EVERY DAY!»
«You guys should put up a sign for that outside.»
Stern, serious look:
«We don’t need one.»
«…Fact.»
If you’re looking for PBR, go elsewhere. Please and thank you. If you’re looking for people who geek out over good beers, wines, and liquors, well, you may have just found some new best friends. Or something. Maybe that’s a little weird.

This is the only place is Boston/​Cambridge/​Somerville where I can find Kina l’Avion d’Or. They also sell Crema de Mezcal and the half-​size bottles of Dolin Vermouth (Rouge, Blanc and Dry). I’m so glad I found this store, and I’ll definitely return for any unusual spirits on my list!

I absolutely love this place, and am so excited that my new apartment will be a lot closer to this store. Everyone is really helpful and knowledgeable. The other day, I went in and asked about a wine I had previously bought but couldn’t remember the name of. One of the women who works there spent a good 10 minutes trying to help me find it based purely off what I could remember of he label. She also does a great job leading the wine tastings most Fridays and is very personable. The fellow who does the cheese bar is wonderful also, as are the rest of the employees.

This place is awesome. There is a HUGE selection of wine, liquor, beer, and beyond– any concoction involving alcohol is seemingly carried here. My favorite part is the walk-​in fridge in the back where they store leftover singles so you can do a mix-​and-​match six-​pack. Or just buy individual bottles. It’s great.
Other bits of awesomeness to note: free tastings, which apparently happen every Friday, and a small but decent selection of gourmet foods, which could be way pricier than they are.
Hurrah Ball Square Fine Wines! Many a fun night has started here.

Amazing wine selection and staff, the only thing keeping from a perfect 5 is the lack of a truly great craft beer selection

What a great little wine shop, that’s not all that little!
Huge selection of wine, beer, and gourmet food (and even my favorite Annie’s Mac and Cheese!)
Came here for a tasting night on a Friday — and it was packed! That said, they did a good job of making sure everyone was able to share in the tasting. First, we lined up for the wine, and in line we tried some delicious cheese they were sampling. So good, that we bought a block of each!
All the wine pours were good, and at less than $ 10 a bottle, very affordable. I appreciate that they sample wine that you do not have to think too much about going up and buying, which we did.
The beer sampling was Nantucket specific — and all the beers were good, though a bit pricey (craft beer prices, I suppose).
Sister is also in the wine club, so she got us 10 or 20% off our already well priced wine. Great spot, and cannot wait to go back for another tasting/​shopping night!

I still am here almost every day. Join their Wine of the Month Club, you get 20% off a case of wine and you can track all your purchases online!
Always pleasant shopping here and that’s why I’m a regular!

One Star:
Hey, it’s open.
Two Stars:
It doesn’t smell like urine nor do they sell Sparxxxx.
Three Stars:
Organized, competitively priced beer, wine and spirits. Specialty cordials and liqueurs are well stocked and multi-​sized. Because, honestly, do you really need a fifth of Chambord?
Four Stars:
Looking for something not on the shelves? The staff begs you to let them order it for you. Gluten-​free brews because celiac is so in right now. In-​house cheese counter and constant tastings that cost ten dollars minus ten dollars.
Five Stars:
Bombers of Rogue Chipotle Ale, 21^st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon Wheat and a refreshing selection of perries, whittled down to what you’d want to drink. It’s as though they’ve taken the massive foot space of Downtown Wine and Spirits, and bring you the bottles that never gather dust.
Bravo.

Although I have been in the habbit of making Downtown Liquors in Davis my go-​to liquor store, this one is closer to my house, and within walking distance. After a quick emergency store trip there for some Sour mix and some ice, I found it to be the kind of liquor store that every other one should strive to be.
The level of service there was incredible and I was able to easily and quickly get in and out of it. There was a wine tasting event going on inside and people seemed to really be enjoying themselves and I might want to investigate and try to get in on one of those in the future.
Their selection of liquors and wines is solid and so is there beer and they even have a giant walk-​in cooler where you can find all sorts of beers in individual bottles as well as packs of twelve and more. Everything from Heineken to Geary’s Summer Ale, and tons of other various ones.
Street parking is easy to find, their prices are good and they also carry a wide variety of other things, like bartending accessories of all sorts and even all kinds of cheeses! What’s not to love?