Appalachian Vintner

Best bottle shop in town by default now that Tasty Beverage is done. Hard to get into the parking lot from the road. Easier to get in from the Hi-wire lot behind them. Tourist trap foodie gifts upfront, along with mixers. Organic wines & meads in the middle. 360 bar also in the middle that obviously hasn't seen use since before covid. Beer starts on the second half of the back right wall. Pitiful selection of singles. Shelf of glassware. Most stuff is sold in large format bottles or 4/6 packs. Taps on the back side of the bar when available are usually very good. Affordable to drink on premise, very cheap fill-wise. Obviously excellent selection of almost everything local, some limited edition stuff, good German section that looks somewhat fresh, Belgians are good, above average to large national cider section(though most local cider is actually pretty ho-hum). Some Spanish, a couple French, but nothing noteworthy. Cooler in the back with rtg beer & bubbly. With Tasty gone & 604 being just weird, there simply aren't options besides travling to the source. They don't take Amex & prices are high. Tasty was definitely cheaper & sold singles of everything. This place is fine, the wine guys know lots about wine, but I miss Tasty.

Visited 3/2020. Huge place with lots of beer and wine. There is a bar with 20 taps. Didn't examine bottle selection much because bar selection was actually pretty good and interesting.

Small lot on one side of the building, so parking is pretty easy, yes go past the dentists office. Beer and cider is mostly in the back. The places is some what dark. I bought three bottles, but should have bought more. Of the top three bottles shops in town this the only one where you cannot get singles of everything, my biggest strike against this place. The selection is pretty good. They have some mead toward the front. Service was average. They have some beers on tap, but nothing I was interested in trying. The prices were mostly reasonable, but price gouging on a bottle of Homage was noticeable. I would come back, but this is not one of the best bottle shops I have been too.

This is a killer beer / wine / beer tasting room. Huge selection of bottles organized somewhat haphazardly, with lots of ciders and meads. Additionally, they have 20 beers on tap, with half-pours available - really nice selection on tap. Friendly service and reasonably priced. Worth a stop if in Asheville.

Stopped by in the morning. Had a draft from a list of about 15; all high quality stuff and not run of the mill regionals. A very extensive bottle selection. Prices varied from reasonable to absurd on certain seasonals. $12 for a single of Founders KBS just seemed ridiculous. Bartender was friendly and quick. Definitely worth a stop. Probably the best of the bottle shops I visited. Also to note the customer after me sat at the bar and asked to sample pretty much everything on draft just to get the "perfect growler fill". The bartender was extremely patient and helpful with this man. I was impressed.

For a town claiming to be a beer mecca, I remain mystified by not only the overabundance of lackluster beer in this town, but the absence of quality beer-shops. I mean, what’s the deal with the top three shops in town storing the bulk of their beer on warm shelves??? Argh! There is sooo much more to being a well-run beer store than simply focusing on how much beer you can put on the shelves.

First the positives: you’ll find a slew of regional and local beers here. However, the singles selection is limited and overpriced and many of them are very old. If you’re wanting to skip the dizzying array of poorly crafted and highly overpriced novelty beers coming out of North Carolina, and are looking for B. United or Shelton Bros. products like I tend to do, then good luck finding anything that hasn’t been sitting on a warm shelf for way too long. This store does such a poor job culling the old beer from the shelves, that my head spins when trying to search for new arrivals. Not helping the matter is that their website and social media pages are poorly run and rarely have updates. For example, clicking on the New Beers link on their webpage, you will find no date, so it’s hard to tell how up to date it really is.

They feature 20 or so taps of mostly regional stuff, and out-of-towners will probably enjoy perusing the aisles with a glass of beer in hand. Sometimes a beer like Peeper or Another One from Maine Beer Co. is on offer, which is nice because at least they are well-attenuated and clean, unlike virtually every beer produced in Asheville. Other tap handles I’ve seen here are things like Founder’s, Logsdon, Epic, Bell’s, Grimm, Coronado, Allagash, etc.

I visit here once a month or so, to scour the shelves for something new from breweries like Thiriez, De Ranke, Blackberry Farm, Dupont (yet another store in Asheville who didn’t make room on the shelf for any 2016 Saison Dupont due to still having stale bottles of the 2015 hanging around), de la Senne, Schlenkerla, De Dolle, etc., but rarely do I leave feeling like I had much luck. Oh, if you really want to punctuate your visit with something more depressing, you can walk over to Hi-Wire right next door for a taste of some of the most embarrassingly defective and dirty lagers you’re ever gonna find. But the people seem to love ’em, so there is that. ;-)

Sorry, Geoff, my review of your place is gonna have to stand. After consulting three very honest and critical-thinking people whom I’ve always trusted to be 100% honest and open with me (even if that means telling me what I might not want to hear), I feel confident that I was only objective in my review and that I didn’t step outside of any ethical boundaries. I wish you guys all the best, truly.

(Visited 06/2015): Appalachian Vintner is a wine and beer store located in Biltmore Avenue in the Saint Dunstan’s area south of downtown. There is a private parking lot next to the building.

The inside is large with the area past the entrance devoted to wine and local artisanal foods (jams, mustards, BBQ sauces etc). The beer is in the rear, with many standalone shelves plus more around the perimeter. There is also a small bar back there.

The bar has around 20 beers on tap, with many local and other craft breweries represented such as Brevard, New Belgium, Wicked Weed, Hi-Wire , Bruery and Urban Orchard Cider. As for bottles, there are hundreds with pretty much every Asheville brewery represented (Wicked Weed, Hi-Wire, Catawba, Burial, Sierra Nevada etc), plus a wide array of domestic and imported craft breweries.

Service both at the bar and during checkout was good. The staff was friendly and knowledgeable.

All in all this is a must-stop place in Asheville and I would put it at the top of the list for future visits.

They are never rude, the dude below is a clown. Anything in the 80’s is not a good score! This the best beer store in WNC period! They maybe a "passing" grade but they are no where near what this place deserves. Where to start here. These guys (Chuck & Jeff) are super service oriented people. It’s kind of like visiting your good pals beer store...everytime. The selection is the best in Asheville hands down, with the prices blowing the doors off the ALL competitors. I’ve scored some real west coast gold here too: Lost Abbey, Russian River etc. unfortunately due to trophy hunters and tickers looking for another notch in their belt, these beers are only available to regulars now. Totally understandable IMO you have to show support to get beers they’ve gone WAY out of their way for. The local brew selection is the best in town too with a large growler selection from Burial, Wicked Weed, Noda, Innovation, Pisgah, Nantahala, Catawba and Green Man. Website is usually not completely up to date with new arrivals so their ratebeer site usually is better, but a phone call has worked too. 20 tap lines rotating local/import sours, barrel aged beers and a cask pump, I had the Olde Hickory Lindley Park. They now have growlers!! NEVER seen a draft beer here that was not at least some what rare. Beautiful space, clean glassware, filtered water, large bar with seating for 25+ with tables and huge patio. Beer area is in the back, well lit and spacious with shopping carts in the front when you walk in. Patio outside for smokers, fresh air. Wine selection is also huge if you are into that and dogs are welcome. Now they have a pizza joint, brewery and a food truck out back. This place gets all the monies Parking lot beside the store is massive, free and clean and there are also at least six other lots around the store that you can park at for free so getting in and out is a breeze. Best in Asheville for sure. If you visit take your time and talk to the owners they are super helpful and usually have something lying around that is not easily seen. If you are looking for specifics give them a call they will usually order beers that are not in stock.

Manager was rude. When passing through Ashville cannot recommend.

Visited on a Tuesday in the early evening. There is a small parking lot on the side of the building, but it looked like you could go down behind it if that was full. There is a brewery down there if you go (Hi Wire). Inside there is a vast selection of wines that you see first and which takes up about the front half of the store. The back half has shelves and some refrigerated shelving full of beer. Awesome selection. They also have a beer bar right int he middle of the store with many taps and plenty of seating. I didn’t get a chance to check out their tap list, but saw they had stuff from Allagash and Wicked Weed on tap. That’s a good sign in my book. Service was friendly, but they mostly just left me to peruse at my leisure. Great bottle shop, and even though I looked at all the aisles, I know I missed some stuff. Hopefully I make it back here someday.