About Us
We are Oconomowoc’s first locally owned and operated Wine Bar, Bistro, Caterer and Wine Market. Our goal is to be the area’s premiere provider of exceptional wines and the food that accompanies it. With this goal in mind, our selections are continually being refined in the hopes that each visit to Wine Maniacs is as unique and memorable as the last.
As you can probably tell from our name, we’re crazy about grapes, a passion that was born right here in Oconomowoc. Wine Maniacs exists today because a group of friends decided they wanted to drink better wines than were available in the areas, “Box Store” establishments.
Actually we wanted better than better, we wanted truly great wines at our disposal. The kind of wine you talk about the next day…Wine you remember years later. Of course, being the frugal Maniacs we are, we certainly didn’t want to pay retail prices for all this fun. This partnership of friends continued to grow, eventually morphing into an actual business. The rest, as they say, is history.
Jeff Cox
Head Wine Guy
Jeff Cox, also known as the Head Wine Guy, has been associated with the wine industry for about 30 years.
He began Wine Maniacs in 2002 with a group of friends as a wine club because of the typical frustration in trying to buy great wines in liquor stores. You know the deal, the whole liquor store roulette thing, sometimes you get lucky, most times not so much.
Ironically (story way too long) he wound up owning a liquor store (Flannery’s II) in 2004 and created a wine buying experience with a very unique approach to drinking and buying wine. Jeff says “it’s impossible to know what you want if you cannot access and experience the possible, and be able to try it before you buy it.” The Head Wine Guy feels every wine experience should be fun and positive regardless of your appreciation of a specific wine. It is all about tasting and learning under the best possible circumstances. “People tend to take the wine experience far too seriously. After all the first wine was just grape juice someone left out too long”. HWG