Hi-Time Wine Cellars

About the Business

Specialties

Hi-Time is a 20,000 square-foot-plus adult playground of wine, spirits, beers, cigars, gourmet chocolates, foods, cheeses and related accessories.. Our 3,000 square-foot underground, climate-controlled wine cellar houses a great selection of wines (still and sparkling) from all over the world while our aisles and cases hold spirits both rare and familiar. Beer has its own home in a refrigerated "beer cave" where the brews are organized by country; cigars, too, have their own dwelling in our spacious walk-in humidor. We also have a full-sized wine bar with featured tastings on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and a self-serve "honor system" section for sampling some of our newsletter wines and everyday values. We also work with area restaurants to host various tastings (wine and spirits) and have special events a number of times during the year. We are a family-owned and -operated store in business since 1957 in Costa Mesa, CA..

History

Established in 1957.

Hi-Time Wine Cellars is a family-owned retail store located in Costa Mesa, California. Founded by Fritz Hanson and his brother-in-law Jim McVay, Hi-Time opened its cellar doors in 1957 at its original location on 17th and Irvine in Costa Mesa, California. Brothers Chuck and then Harold Hanson soon joined the family business, Chuck as wine buyer and Harold as General Manager, a position he held for over 40 years. In 1984, the Hanson brothers moved to their present location in Costa Mesa where they built one of the largest underground temperature-controlled wine cellars in the U.S. This 3,000 square feet underground temperature-controlled cellar now includes a selection of 10,000+ wines from many different wineries and vintages. This selection represents the world's finest growing regions from such diverse areas as California, Oregon, Washington, France, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, Australia and Portugal.