Wine in Costa Rica
 

Okay - yes, we are from California so I have to ask about wine in Costa Rica! Usually when we travel to Europe, we don't bring wine since there is great wine available. When we travel to Mexico, we do bring wine since the wine available is either not very good or extremely expensive. So... what is the wine availability in Costa Rica? We like good wine from all over... Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia as well as our own wonderful California wine. Will we be able to bring some decent/good wine in Costa Rica at local stores and/or restaurants?

Thanks.

bring wine!!

With all due respect to the poster immediately above, no, you don't need to bring wine to Costa Rica. Most of the wine will be from Chile and Argentina. European wines are available too, but cost more. The Mas x Menos and Auto Mercado supermarkets have decent selections, as does a good restaurant. If you're staying out in the sticks, no, you won't find good wine, but you can stock up in San Jose.

Unless your tastes are so specific, it doesn't seem worth it to me to lug glass bottles full of liquid on a trip to Costa Rica. Plus, when you bring wine on your trips, how are getting around the liquid carry-on restrictions when you fly?

The wine is A-Ok in Costa Rica.

Agree with Jeff and Faithie.
At Supermas in Quepos there is an adequate selection - mainly Chilean, Argentinian, and even some California varieties. I am sure that San Jose at Mas por Menos or Automercado there would even be more. One thing however, if you are looking for "high end" wines, or some specific brand, you probably won't find it. But for the average person the wine you can get in CR at both supermarkets and in restaurants is OK.

Pura vida,
raquel

i admit im a wine snob and outside of a few restaurants wine shops the wine here is NOT great.
BUT, if youre happy with an OK bottle of Argentininan or Chilean at about double the price i paid when i was in Argentina then DONT bring wine, hahaha

Thanks for the info. Looks like I will pack a few bottles of some special wine to celebrate our friends birthday and then make due the rest of the time. If the wine is not good, we can also drink mojitos!

To the poster that asked about traveling with liquids, we travel a lot and pack the wine in shipping case in our checked luggage.

I live in Northern California near Napa so I understand your concern. I brought some rare Napa and Sonoma wine for my Tico friends.

I saw plenty of decent wines from Chile in many parts of Costa Rica.

Not knowing much about wine myself, we asked for a decent costa rican wine in at the intercontinental in San Jose. Our waiter explained that costa rican really doesnt have good climate to produce right kind of grapes. He suggested wine from Chile- the reds were wonderful! We saw people drinking mostly red wine.

We mostly drink good Chilean, Argentinean and Spanish wines we find in the grocery stores, but we always stock on really good wines at the duty free store right next to the baggage claim area while we're waiting for our luggage.

We found the wine selections to be pretty limited in Costa Rica...even at our Marriott Resort, Los Suenos.