The holiday season is upon us, the time of year for family, friends, food — and wine. Yes, it’s true, I associate the holidays with alcohol. It never used to be this way (probably because I didn’t drink), but for the past five years, I’ve spent late November stocking our wine rack.
There are several reasons for this:
- From mid-November to mid-January, the local supermarkets have huge wine sales.
- Every winter, Consumer Reports lists holiday wine bargains. In the December 2010 issue, for example, they suggest 22 “best buys” between $4 and $15 per bottle. (Most are in the $7 to $10 range.)
- Our circle of friends seems to have more dinner parties during the winter than at other times of the year. When we gather, we drink wine.
For a long time, I used the shotgun method of buying wine. I went to the store and bought bottles at random, usually based on whether I liked the label. (No joke!) Nowadays, however, I’m more methodical. I’m reluctant to buy a wine I haven’t tried before; I mostly buy wines I know I like. And I try to get them for as little as possible.
Drink what you like
My top tip for saving money on wine is to buy what you like. When you buy a bottle blindly, there’s a chance you won’t enjoy it. Buying bad wine is like pouring money down the drain. But if you stick with old favorites, wine can be an excellent value.
How can you tell what you like? You have to experiment. Wine recommendations should be treated like movie reviews: They can give you a general idea of what you’re going to get, but your actual reaction will be intensely personal. To know for sure, you have to taste a wine.
When you find something you really like, write it down. For me, this only happens about once a year. When I taste a wine that knocks my socks off, I immediately send myself an e-mail so I won’t forget. After doing this for the past few years, I’ve developed a short list (of four wines) that I’d actually like to have on hand.
There’s no need to keep elaborate notes (unless you want to). I’m an unsophisticated wine drinker. Oaky? Fruity? Full of tannins? Heck if I know. Some people are serious about wine, and that’s fine. For me, though, wine is fun. Eating a good meal while sharing a bottle of wine is a bonding experience. Wine brings people together. And it does that just as well at $8 a bottle as at $80 a bottle.
Finding wine bargains
As much as I love it, wine can be expensive. It pains me to spend $25 on a bottle of something to drink. So I don’t — not if I can help it. Instead, I keep my eye out for wine bargains. Here are five ways I save money on wine:
- Wait for a sale. Yes, wine goes on sale, especially at supermarkets. Between now and the end of the year, Safeway has tons of wine marked down for the holidays, including “30% off wines priced $20 or more”. (This is true in the Portland area, anyhow.)
- Buy in bulk. Many grocery stores offer discounts if you buy several bottles at once. Safeway, for example, gives shoppers 10% off if they buy at least six bottles. Combining this with the 30% discount I mentioned above, you can buy a $20 wine for $12.60 — or a $40 wine for $25.21. (I’m using Safeway as an example because that’s our local supermarket and I know their policies.)
- Order by the case. When you find a wine you like, stock up. Ask your local wine store or supermarket if you can order a case of the stuff — and ask if that’ll earn you a discount. My friend Paul, for example, recently found a tasty pinot noir. At $24 per bottle, it wasn’t something he could afford, though. When the local Fred Meyer put the wine on sale for $10 a bottle, he bought a case. By doing so, he got an extra dollar off the sale price, saving him a total of $15 per bottle!
- Shop at a warehouse club. Most Costco stores have a fine selection of wines at reasonable prices. I’m sure other warehouse stores do, too.
- Check discount stores. I’ve had several GRS readers tell me that they buy their wine at ding-and-dent stores, such as Grocery Outlet or Big Lots. (Here’s an article that explains how Grocery Outlet can sell good wines for cheap.)
I’m sure there are other ways to buy wine for less, too. Consumer Reports, for example, is a fan of buying wine online. (Their wine shopping tips include advice for buying via the web.) And I’ve always wondered if it might be possible to get a good deal by buying directly from the winemaker. If you have tips for saving on wine, please let me know.
Putting theory into practice
So, how do I put these tips into practice? That’s easy to answer since I’ve been doing so for the past couple of weeks.
First, I do 90% (or more) of our alcohol shopping at the end of the year, when the best bargains can be had (at least here in Portland). We stock up during the holidays, and then don’t worry about alcohol for the rest of the year.
When I start my holiday wine shopping, I check to see if I’ve noted any favorite wines over the past twelve months. This year, for example, I had two: the Graffigna Centenario malbec and the Domaine de Ménard sauvignon blanc. I don’t know where I drank these, but I liked them enough to make a note to myself. So, I headed to a local wine shop and ordered a case of each. (Along with cases of two past favorites.) For less than $8 a bottle, I now have wines I know I like — enough to last a year or more.
Once each year, I place a big wine order, which lowers my costs.
Next, I stopped at Safeway to buy some pricier wine. (We usually take this to parties; I don’t mind giving expensive wine as a hostess gift, but I can’t bring myself to drink it at home. Is that weird?) Using the sale I mentioned above, I bought six bottles regularly priced $20 or more. I paid a total of $96 for wines that would normally have cost $150.
Finally, after Thanksgiving, I’ll carry the latest issue of Consumer Reports with me on a trip to Costco. If I find any of their recommended wines, I’ll buy two or three bottles of each.
This brief burst of wine shopping will keep us stocked for at least a year, and will save us money to boot!
It’s more difficult for me to give advice about beer and booze. I don’t drink beer, and I’m under the impression that each state has different rules and regulations for the sale of distilled spirits.
Here in Oregon, for instance, liquor stores are under the oversight of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which tightly regulates how and what they can sell, and at what price. Because prices are controlled by the state, shoppers can visit the OLCC website to download a price list and to see current specials.
My guess is that in most places, it pays to be patient. If you have favorites, wait until they go on sale. When they do, stock up. For instance, I’m a fan of Scotch whisky, and like to have my favorites (Ardbeg, Caol Ila, Lagavulin) on hand. Rather than pay full price for these, I wait until they’re marked down, then buy two or three bottles. Recently, for example, I found Caol Ila discounted from $54 to $50 a bottle. I bought two bottles to tuck away for the future.
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I somewhat disagree about that article concerning wine experts… the article fails to note what they define as an expert in the study.
When I bartended summers at a luxury 5 star coastal resort, one of my managers was a sommelier/Master of Wine. They literally can tell you from a blind taste test what region of the world the wine was grown, in what type of soil, etc and can pretty accurately ballpark the year. See the test FAQ: http://www.mastersofwine.org/en/examination/index.cfm
While wine people can occasionally be snooty, I really found talking with a certified expert to be very very interesting.
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Don’t drink beer? For a guy in Wisconsin with German blood this just pissed me off.
. Although I do have to say that beer isn’t beer so to speak. If you were a real (not bud/miller/coors crap) beer drinker you’d get that. Perhaps you’ll know what I mean the next time you hear someone say, “I don’t drink wine.” It’s like saying I don’t eat.
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How did you skip boxed wine?! If you’re saving, you might as well. There is nothing wrong with boxes.
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It is my exeperience, actually, that warehouse clubs are not much cheaper for wines than a place like BevMo or Friar Tucks, and what ever tier 1 bottle shop you might have locally.
Buying a case at a tier 1 bottle shop will almost always net you a savings over buying individual bottles. For people who live on the west coast, or near a vineyard, the cheapest option is usually buying direct from the vineyard.
Also, on closures, the safest closure (i.e. the closure with the lowest failure rate) is the screw cap. And you will find that a lot of really good, but affordable wines, have switched to the screw cap. For instance, Hogue makes a fantastic Reisling and several other pretty good whites, and they use only screw caps, also known as Stelvin Closures.
Most affordable New Zealand and Australian wines are also going to the Stelvin Closure.
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Oh, and as for boxes, not all boxes are made the same, but Black Box and Bota Box are generally pretty high quality wines.
The US is the only major wine consuming nation that hasn’t embraced the box wholesale – In France and Itally you see them everywhere.
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@Stan #34… I find it hard to believe that alcohol is twice as detrimental as Meth. This anyway isn’t the proper forum to criticize people who enjoy a drink, and how to save on it.
Also…
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/05/people-of-class-drink-alcohol/
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Make your own. The initial expense for equipment is a little high apx. $350.00. after a couple batches you will be spending about 4 – 5 $ a bottle.
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My husband & I buy wines from various wineries and wine clubs to have some “special” bottles in our cellar (we are big wine drinkers, & live in California) but our everyday bargains are generally not American. It pays to experiment with wines from outside the U.S. since you find so many good deals on nice table wine that way.
Cost Plus World Market and Trader Joes are good for this kind of experimentation and if you don’t like the wine, use it for cooking.
It’ll keep for weeks in the fridge (to cook with.)
I’ve been happy with almost any Argentinian Malbec or Spanish Tempranillo or Garnacha. For whites, try a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand (on sale; they’re not always as inexpensive) or a South American Torrontes, or even a South African Chenin Blanc if you are feeling daring.
As other folks have said, taste, taste, taste and find out what you like, and be open to try new varietals. And ignore point systems! They really don’t mean much about what YOU will like. Oh, and I agree that it pays to find a local wine shop & get help. Don’t assume that their prices will be higher; that is often not the case. Don’t be shy about letting the folks in the shop know what kind of thing you like.
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Another tip I’ve used to good success – once you find the wines you like the most (Cabernet, Merlot, Malbec, Chardonnay, etc.), check out the ratings from review magazines that many supermarkets helpfully post. Usually, the highest-rated wines will carry the highest price-tags. BUT, the same varietal from a different label, of the same year and region will be just, or nearly as good. So much of a wine’s flavor is due to the weather of that season, that the vintner’s skill is almost negligible in a good year.
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Great article and excellent comments. What I have done is setup an email address (e.g. ILoveThisWine@Gmail.com) and I send a quick email with specifics of the wine I really enjoy.
With the advent of smartphones, it only takes me 30 seconds to write an email to this address with vintner, vintage, tasting notes, and maybe even a quick picture of the bottle (makes it much easier to find at BevMo!). Now I have a centralized location for all the wines I enjoy, how much they cost, etc.
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@ Dave– I don’t know about the DIY option. Winemaking is an art, there are a lot of pros putting out an inferior product already, I fear I might go blind if I attempt this on my own (methanol is never a good thing). For under $5 I can get a really nice bottle at Trader Joe’s (if picked right), minus the equipment, the hassle, and the health risks. Whether it’s economies of scale, or thousands of years of tradition, or university degrees in Oenology, other people can do it faster, cheaper and better than I ever could.
Sounds like a nice hobby, but not sure it qualifies as a great bargain for most mortals.
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These are all great pointers for finding good wine at great prices.
Another useful idea is to find a wine e-retailer (like me). We don’t have the overhead costs of the brick and mortar stores, but we have the necessary licenses to operate just like any other retailer. Often we can sell at prices lower than the grocery stores, and certainly lower than the wine stores.
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For those in the Monroe, NY area, Star Liquors in the Stop and Shop plaza, the old Grand Union plaza, holds wine tastings every weekend.
They will also hold sales one a month or every two months where everything is 10 to 15% off.
The staff is knowledgeable and can make very good recommendations, the store’s prices are pretty good, and the selection is HUGE.
Worth the trip if in the area. And no, I do not work for them – just love the store.
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There’s some great insight here, though I do take issue with the suggestion that folks find a wine they like, and stick to it. To me, that’s sort of like saying “I like cheeseburgers, so I won’t eat anything else”. Well, there’s a big, beautiful world of wine out there, and exploring it should be part of the fun.
If you want to expose yourself to the incredible range of enjoyable wine out there, take advantage of the many new local wine shops springing up around the country. They’re generally very well informed, offer classes, free tastings and other wine-related events, and they are generally chock full of interesting juice at just about any price. Oh, and if you encounter any snobbery, you’re in the wrong place. Wine should be on every table, and it should be a part of lunch & dinner – maybe even breakfast!
If you want to check out free tastings, take a class or just find out more about your local wine scene, check out http://www.localwineevents.com/
Trinch!
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If you like Lagavulen, you might like Finlagen at Trader Joe’s. Nice heavy smoke flavor and only $17.99 a bottle.
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Another tip here in Oregon, if you are buying a case of a wine, is to order it through your local grocery – Thriftway, Freddies, etc. Most will normally sell you a solid case (not mixed) for their cost plus 10%. This is even cheaper than the New Seasons or Zupans 20% discount on 12 bottles or more and will beat most any wine store’s case discount.
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A lot has been said here about buying inexpensive wines in local stores, and that’ll get a casual wine drinker all they might like, but those of us who are way-too-into wine take a different approach.
1) We share our sources and our finds. Through online communities and networks of nearby friends, we discuss what tastes good, who’s having a sale, and band together to buy multiple bottles at the case discount. When a particular $70 bottle was spotted on sale for $21, i bought 2 cases after others assured me they wanted a share. We learn which bottles are good, before we buy them, we taste in groups to get a broader range of exposure than we could individually afford, and we know what others have paid for the wine.
2) We buy online when local laws allow it. This ensures that our sources are competing nationally, not just in our area. We use sites like wine-searcher, vinquire, and winezap to compare prices, and we wait for sales.
3) We sign up for mailing lists from large wine resellers, like hart-davis-hart, chicago wine company, and Benchmark wine group. When they get a new consignment, we’ll watch for good prices on our favorites (see #1).
4) Know the cult wines, avoid them and seek their alternatives. Some wines are expensive solely because of their cult following; know the other winemakers of the same varietal of wine, and know which are well regarded despite their obscurity. That’s going to take research on your part, but you’ll be rewarded with inexpensive fine wines and a reputation amongst your friends as being “in the know.”
So, you think this is just for fancy wine? You could be right, except that I’m getting my “fancy” wine at the same price you’re getting your table wine. Quit drinking Barefoot and Yellowtail, with a little research you can do so much better for not much more money.
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” I don’t mind giving expensive wine as a hostess gift, but I can’t bring myself to drink it at home. Is that weird?”
No. I feel the same way about a number of products, most falling into the ‘want but don’t need’ category. Wine, cheeses, fancy olive oil, fancy soaps, and flowers are all things where as a gift should be the best you can afford, but around the house…do you need $30 olive oil? No. Nobody does. But it’s nice to get.
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Right now, our Whole Foods (VA) is offering 20% off a case of wine – a pretty good deal, if you stick to their “Value” wines (look down low, look up high!)
We have also found a few “safe” cheap wines that we like – Montepulciano D’Abbruzzo, Vinho Verde, Gruet… etc. While we love Oregon Pinot Noir, we’d probably only buy it for a special occasion.
And, if worse comes to worst and you hate a cheap wine, you can always cook with it… unless it’s blush. Anyone have any ideas?
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Another option (at least where we live) is to join a wine guild or buying club. This is basically just a wine co-op. For an annual fee, members pay a certain amount above wholesale (in our case, 10%). For the types of wines we get regularly (approx $10/bottle), we usually save $10-$15 a bottle, quickly making up for the annual fee. This isn’t a great deal if you are an occasional wine drinker, but if you drink a lot of wine (like we do), you can save tons of money. Also, you’re generally drinking better wine, wine that would normally retail for more that one might otherwise spend for an “everyday” wine. We joined a year ago and have been really delighted with both the quality of the wine and the savings.
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