Los Angeles Times · December 10, 2003
Wine's secret club
By Corie Brown
In a feature on Los Angeles' wine locker subculture, the Times singled out The Wine Box as the original, the standard-bearer, and the place collectors still talk about with reverence — a purpose-built West Hills cellar where Friday night tastings became a beloved tradition long before "wine community" was a marketing phrase.
“In the old days, there was only one locker room that really counted: the Wine Box. Odd as it may seem, among wine geeks it's still spoken of with reverence.”
— Los Angeles Times · On The Wine Box's standing among Los Angeles collectors.
“Opened in 1976 in the basement of a West Hills strip mall, the Wine Box has always been operated by wine lovers.”
— Los Angeles Times · On the facility's founding and ethos.
“If you have a locker here, you are more than welcome to open a bottle to share. You absolutely pick up gossip. And you are hearing it from peers, rather than from a retailer trying to sell you something.”
— Los Angeles Times · On the community that has gathered at the cellar for decades.