Silene's in Waltham

Does anyone from the Boston area know what happend to the Winecellar of Silene in Waltham?

Some years ago they were bought by Brookline Liquor Mart. Winecellar of Silene closed in 2009, apparently a combination of the economic downturn and their lease running out.

-Paul W.

Paul,

Thanks. I didn't notice the empty building until a few weeks ago. The store was MUCH better when it was about a mile away (20 years ago). I avoided the new location (as you can tell).

I'm pretty sure that the original owner, Jim Hangstefer, died last year. At any rate, I was also under the impression that they had some connection to Warehouse Wine and Spirits in Framingham, MA, which seems to have at least bought a good amount of Silene's merchandise. Even the rare wine cabinet itself at Warehouse looks like the same piece of furniture that Silene used to have.

Anyway, I was not aware that Silene was connected to BLM, which seems to have a very different (but quite good in its own right) selection of wines than Silene had in its latter years.

I haven't been to BLM much in the last ten years but back in the day one major reason for BLM's existence was simply to set the max. price for wines imported by Classic. Their selection in some areas (Burgundy and Rhone, for example) was highly skewed towards Classic items. Of course this is different today.

Classic Wines (importer and wholesaler) and Brookline Liquor Mart went their separate ways about 10 years ago.

Winecellar of Silene went downhill once Jim Hangstefer sold it to a business consortium. Back in the mid-1980s, when I first discovered the store, it was at the leading edge, for example, they had an extensive Rhone wine selection before the Rhone became cool, and they imported a wide selection of almacenista Sherries from Lustau.

-Paul W.

I'm pretty sure that the original owner, Jim Hangstefer, died last year. At any rate, I was also under the impression that they had some connection to Warehouse Wine and Spirits in Framingham, MA, which seems to have at least bought a good amount of Silene's merchandise. Even the rare wine cabinet itself at Warehouse looks like the same piece of furniture that Silene used to have.

Anyway, I was not aware that Silene was connected to BLM, which seems to have a very different (but quite good in its own right) selection of wines than Silene had in its latter years.

I think WW&S purchased it from them when they went out of business but I can doublecheck.

Every time I see this thread, I read it as "Silence in Waltham" and I think, "hmmm, that sounds like a good title for a Pavement song".