Buyer beware.

Also, strongly agree with the vacuum pump. It will keep wine for a few days but not for three weeks (for example at a vacation home).
Next best advise is to store wine in a refrigerator when opened to retard growth of things that make open wine taste bad.

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?

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Sounds like a nice hobby, but not sure it qualifies as a great bargain for most mortals.

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.

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.

Also…
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/05/people-of-class-drink-alcohol/

The US is the only major wine consuming nation that hasn’t embraced the box wholesale – In France and Itally you see them everywhere.

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.

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.

I have a few favorites too that I drink often, but I also like to try new ones. Sometimes they aren’t that good, but I’ve found a few gems like that.

Best tip for finding good wines. Throw a wine tasting party, invite everyone to bring a bottle of one of their favorites (if you want to be even more frugal set a $15/bottle limit), have some snacks ready and have a good time. Depending on the size of the party, everyone will have a glass or half a glass of each and just make notes on what you like. Once you know atleast characteristics you like its easy to get good recommendations at a decent package store.

Same tip goes for beer. There is a lot of excellent craft beer out there. Again knowing which styles you like, and more importantly which you don’t goes a long way to getting your money’s worth.

Ha ha, I remember spending time in New Haven– what a pain it was to buy booze!

Something I do at Costco is look for the tags showing review points from publications (wine enthusiast, wine spectator, whatever they are called). Anything with about 90 points for $10 or less will likely be a great bargain, or at least a pretty good thing to try if you like. That saves you the trouble of going through magazine subscriptions, wine tastings, websites, etc, unless you like to spend time doing that.