The 9 Best Alcohol Delivery Services and Apps to Use Right Now

If you've been celebrating happy hour each night at home (on Zoom, or not) during the coronavirus outbreak, you're not alone. In the week ending March 21, sales of alcoholic beverages in the U.S. rose 55% and online alcohol sales were up 243%, according to the market research firm Nielsen.

Though many states have deemed liquor stores an essential service, if you’re practicing social-distancing or self-quarantining, you may not feel comfortable leaving your house to stock up on wine or a bottle of bourbon. And unless you're with a professional bartender, you may also be missing your favorite craft cocktails. Thankfully, there are several different ways to get liquor, wine, beer, and mixers delivered to your door right now. Since liquor delivery laws differ widely state-by-state, you’ll have to check locally to see what is allowed near where you live. In fact, many state laws have been relaxed recently to allow restaurants to deliver alcohol with food orders to help support the hospitality industry during the coronavirus crisis. For example, the New York State Liquor Authority now allows alcohol to be delivered or purchased for takeout as long as you also order food with it, while New Hampshire issued an emergency order permitting beer and wine delivery or takeout temporarily. Depending on where you live, this means getting a bottle of wine could be as easy as calling up your favorite local restaurant and having them add a bottle of red to your order.

If you don't live somewhere that allows you to add alcohol to your food delivery order, you can still get drinks delivered to your house by using alcohol delivery services like DoorDash and UberEats. You can also use dedicated alcohol delivery apps like Drizly and MiniBar and you can add beer, wine, spirits, and mixers to a digital shopping cart and a driver will pick up the items from a local store and drop them off at your home within a designated delivery time.

If you don't need same-day delivery, there are also several alcohol delivery services that use regular shipping methods. (Keep in mind, due to COVID-19, there may be significant shipping delays from some of these companies due to staffing and logistics challenges.) While many delivery services are offering "contactless" options right now, you must be 21 years or older and show a valid government-issued photo ID to the courier verifying your age in order to receive alcohol (find more tips here for safely ordering delivery during the coronavirus outbreak).

Here are some of the best apps and services for ordering alcohol online. Before you start shopping, it doesn't hurt to give your local liquor store or wine shop a call to see if they are open and offering any delivery services at the moment. This way these small businesses can limit the fees they have to pay to the third-party services.